ghanaopendata/ghanaian-research-english huggingface dataset:
The anomalous low temperature resistivity and critical scattering of conduction electrons around the Néel point of α-Mn films containing dilute concentration of Ni

Electrical resistivity measurements on thermally evaporated Mn100-xNix films (with x = 0.01, 0.02 and 0.05 at.% Ni) have been performed over the temperature range from 300 to 1.4 K using the van der Pauw four probe technique. The Néel point (TN) of the films determined using the model of Graig and Goldburg reveals a shift to upper values as the concentration of Ni is increased. Analysis of the resistivity data near the Néel points of these alloys gave critical exponents which are in moderate agreement with existing theories. The low temperature resistivity of the 0.02 and 0.05 at.% Ni in Mn specimens obeys a T2 law indicating a spin fluctuation scattering mechanism in these alloys. © 2001 Acta Materialia Inc.

Source: UG
Anomaly Detection in Health Insurance Claims Using Bayesian Quantile Regression

Research has shown that current health expenditure in most countries, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, is inadequate and unsustainable. Yet, fraud, abuse, and waste in health insurance claims by service providers and subscribers threaten the delivery of quality healthcare. It is therefore imperative to analyze health insurance claim data to identify potentially suspicious claims. Typically, anomaly detection can be posited as a classification problem that requires the use of statistical methods such as mixture models and machine learning approaches to classify data points as either normal or anomalous. Additionally, health insurance claim data are mostly associated with problems of sparsity, heteroscedasticity, multicollinearity, and the presence of missing values. The analyses of such data are best addressed by adopting more robust statistical techniques. In this paper, we utilized the Bayesian quantile regression model to establish the relations between claim outcome of interest and subject-level features and further classify claims as either normal or anomalous. An estimated model component is assumed to inherently capture the behaviors of the response variable. A Bayesian mixture model, assuming a normal mixture of two components, is used to label claims as either normal or anomalous. +e model was applied to health insurance data captured on 115 people suffering from various cardiovascular diseases across different states in the USA. Results show that 25 out of 115 claims (21.7%) were potentially suspicious. +e overall accuracy of the fitted model was assessed to be 92%. +rough the methodological approach and empirical application, we demonstrated that the Bayesian quantile regression is a viable model for anomaly detection.

Source: UG
Another step forward for ghana

On 7 January 2009, President John Kufuor of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) handed over power to John Evans Atta Mills of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), marking Ghana's second peaceful transition of power from incumbent party to opposition and providing the country with yet another opportunity to deepen its democratic processes and institutions. Meaningful reforms must aim at building institutions and structures that will reduce the incentives for state capture and partisan abuse. In particular, these should include reform of the excessively powerful executive; development of an oil-sector regulatory and governance framework that provides for maximum transparency, accountability, and equity in the use of the new oil-generated revenues; and tax reforms to expand the revenue base and improve compliance.

Source: UG
The antecedents and consequence of financial well-being: a survey of parliamentarians in Ghana

Purpose: This paper examines the effect of financial self-efficacy and financial behaviour on financial well-being and ascertains whether financial well-being affects an individual’s level of happiness in life. The authors also show the mediating role of financial behaviour in the relationship between self-efficacy and financial well-being. Design/methodology/approach – The survey method of research was adopted, using questionnaires as the principal means of data collection. The hypotheses of the study were tested on a rich data set from a sample of 210 parliamentarians in Ghana used the structural equation modelling technique. Findings: The results show that individuals with high level of financial self-efficacy practice responsible financial behaviour and find financial behaviour to be a good predictor of financial well-being. The authors are also find financial behaviour to mediate between financial self-efficacy and financial well-being and conclude that well-being impacts happiness positively. Practical implications: findings of this study demonstrate that the financial well-being of an individual has important implications on the quality of life and an important way of improving well-being is to promote responsible financial behaviour. Originality/value: This study employs the subjective measure of financial well-being in its analysis and also examines an outcome of financial well-being.

Source: UG
Antecedents and Consequences of Customer Engagement on Facebook: An Attachment Theory Perspective

Purpose Marketing researchers have usually studied consumers’ attachment to brands from an emotional bonding perspective. However, the purpose of this study is to show that attachment to objects is not only limited to bonding. Thus, the authors conceptualised the attachment theory from two perspectives: bonding-based and identity-based attachment. In addition, the study further seeks to identify the elements of each component and examine how these elements drive customer engagement on a brand’s Facebook page while assessing some consumer-related outcomes of customer engagement on Facebook. Design/methodology/approach Using an online survey, the authors examined antecedents of customer engagement on Facebook and the outcomes of engagement behaviours among 649 respondents. Structural equation modelling was used in analysing the data. Findings The results of the study show that consumers’ attachment to a brand drives them to engage the brand on the brand’s Facebook page. The results also show that the consumer engagement of brands on Facebook results in positive user-generated contents and consumer involvement. Practical implications Managerially, the attachment theory provides value for marketers in terms of evaluating customer–brand relationships and how such a relationship can yield positive results. Originality/value This study expands how the attachment theory has been conceptualised and applied in the marketing literature. The study shows that consumer attachment to brands is identity-based in addition to being bonding-based.

Source: UG
Antecedents and outcomes of telecom reputation in Ghana

Although reputation management has gained significant research attentions, the success of particular reputation management strategies in one context or industry does not guarantee their applicability in another place due to differences in culture and other context-dependent characteristics. Hence, this study investigated the antecedents and outcomes of telecom reputation in Ghana's telecommunication industry. Survey data from 534 adult mobile phone users were analysed using factor analysis and multiple regressions. Research findings revealed that the antecedents of telecom reputation in the Ghanaian telecommunication industry are: corporate social responsibility (CSR), customer orientation, perceived employer attractiveness, and perceived service quality. The mean ranking further revealed that CSR is the highest contributor while customer orientation is the least in the formation of positive telecom reputation. Moreover, findings showed that customer satisfaction is a major outcome of telecom reputation and its antecedents. The study adds to the literature by developing a model of antecedents and outcomes of telecom reputation in a developing economy, with significant practical implications for telecom reputation management.

Source: UG
Antecedents of brand equity on halal tourism destination

Purpose – This study aims to examine the antecedents of halal brand equity on destination brand equity (DBE) within the tourism sector. Although much has been done on halal tourism, the issue of halal and brand equity has received little attention in a non-Islamic state context. Design/methodology/approach – Using the brand equity theory, 312 Muslim tourists were conveniently drawn from the Larabanga tourism site with the use of structural equation modelling technique to analyse the data. Findings – The study revealed that halal brand awareness and halal value have positive and significant impact on DBE. Also, halal perceived brand quality and halal image had a negative but significant impact on DBE. Research limitations/implications – This research is on a country-specific halal brand equity tourism destination, which means that the findings cannot be generalized to other geographical areas. Practical implications – The study provides an insight into halal tourism and destination equity, which is important for marketers, the ministry of tourism and local tourism officials to support halal tourism in a non-Islamic country. Originality/value – This paper fills a gap by presenting the first comprehensive overview of halal brand equity research that enhances ongoing discussions in the hospitality and tourism field in a non-Islamic context and proposes priorities for future research.

Source: UG
Antenatal Care And Breastfeeding Practices In Sub-Saharan Africa: An Analysis Of Demographic And Health Surveys.

Background The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends immediate breastfeeding (within the frst hour after birth) and exclusive breastfeeding (for the frst six months of life), particularly in low-resource settings such as sub-Saharan Africa. In 2016, WHO updated its antenatal care (ANC) guidelines, recommending at least eight (8+) ANC contacts during pregnancy to improve maternal and child health outcomes. This study investigates i) trends in breastfeeding practices across sub-Saharan Africa following the rollout of the revised WHO 2016 ANC policy and ii) the relationship between ANC uptake and exclusive or early breastfeeding. Methods We performed a secondary analysis of Demographic and Health Survey data from 19 countries, from 2018- 2023. Key variables included exclusive breastfeeding, early initiation of breastfeeding (within one hour of birth), and the number of ANC contacts (categorized into 0-3, 4-7, and 8+visits) among mothers with a live birth in the six months preceding the survey. Results Exclusive breastfeeding rates ranged from 19% in Gabon to 81% in Rwanda (median=53%), while early initiation of breastfeeding ranged from 32% in Senegal to 85% in Rwanda (median=60%). The percentage of women with 8+ANC contacts ranged from 0.3% in Rwanda to 39% in Ghana (median=4%). Women with 8+ANC contacts did not show increased odds of early initiation (aOR: 0.94; 95% CI: 0.84, 1.05) or exclusive breastfeeding (aOR: 0.85; 95% CI: 0.76, 0.94) compared to women with 4-7 contacts. Discussion These fndings reveal low rates of 8+ANC contacts against a backdrop of suboptimal breastfeeding practices across sub-Saharan Africa. Furthermore, the results suggest limited additional benefts of 8+ANC contacts over 4-7 contacts in promoting immediate and exclusive breastfeeding, as recommended by the WHO 2016 ANC policy. Urgent eforts are needed to promote ANC uptake and improve the quality of ANC contacts through behavior change interventions and complementary health service delivery. Sub-national, national, and global stakeholders should prioritize these interventions.

Source: UG
Antenatal Care During Covid 19 Era In Sub – Saharan Africa

Introduction: Corona virus pandemic has brought several challenges to countries and the world at large. After its insurgence in Wuhan, China, it has since spread to almost all regions of the world. COVID 19 has had an impact on some essential healthcare services in sub–Saharan Africa (SSA). These essential healthcare services include antenatal care service, which is critical in addressing maternal health related challenges in many countries in SSA. Objective: To assess antenatal care service during COVID 19 pandemic in SSA. Methods: A bibliography search was done using Google scholar, PubMed, BMC, Science direct and Scopus to obtain relevant literature and studies on the main subject of the review. A comprehensive review was carried and 33 articles met the inclusion criteria. Results: It was found that there was high level of knowledge about COVID 19 symptoms and preventive measures among pregnant women, but there were also misconceptions that were documented about the disease. Pregnant women were reported to have poorly practiced the preventive measures although they knew these measures. Three major challenges were identified in ANC service during the era of COVID 19: delay in decision making, delay in reaching the health facility and delay in receiving ANC service. Conclusion: ANC service delivery during the pandemic faced important challenges with dire consequences. It is recommended that telemedicine be introduced into mainstream health service delivery while enhancing house- to-house ANC and support groups formation to support the COVID 19 campaign to ensure that while efforts are being made to address COVID 19 in SSA, it will not affect women and children’s health in SSA.

Source: UG
Antenatal multiple micronutrient supplementation: call to action for change in recommendation

We appreciate the comments by Devakumar et al .1 and agree that there are still some unanswered questions regarding the long‐term impact of multiple micronutrient supplementation (MMS) during pregnancy. However, in their assessment, Devakumar and colleagues ignore the significant benefits shown in the individual patient data (IPD) meta‐analysis, which strongly influenced our task force's conclusions. Rather, their comments focus only on the birth size data from the Cochrane reviews.2, 3 In the IPD meta‐analysis, which included data from nearly 113,000 pregnancies, the authors found that, in addition to reducing the risk of low birthweight, MMS significantly reduces the risk of preterm birth (RR = 0.93 (0.87–0.98), random effects).2 The Cochrane review also states that MMS “probably led to a slight reduction in preterm births” on the basis of data from 91,425 participants with moderate quality evidence (RR = 0.95 (0.90–1.01)

Source: UG
Anterior encephalocoele-our experience in Harare, Zimbabwe after the introduction of CAT scanning.

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

Source: UG
Anthelmintic Agents from African Medicinal Plants: Review and Prospects

Soil-transmitted helminthiasis affects more than 1.5 billion people globally and largely remains a sanitary problem in Africa. These infections place a huge economic burden on poor countries and affect livestock production, causing substantial economic losses and poor animal health. The emergence of anthelmintic resistance, especially in livestock, and the potential for its widespread in humans create a need for the development of alternative therapies. Medicinal plants play a significant role in the management of parasitic diseases in humans and livestock, especially in Africa. This report reviews anthelmintic studies that have been conducted on medicinal plants growing in Africa and published within the past two decades. A search was made in various electronic databases, and only full articles in English were included in the review. Reports show that aqueous and hydroalcoholic extracts and polar fractions obtained from these crude extracts form the predominant (80%) form of the extracts studied. Medicinal plants, extracts, and compounds with different chemical groups have been studied for their anthelmintic potential. Polyphenols and terpenoids are the most reported groups. More than 64% of the studies employed in vitro assays against parasitic and nonparasitic nematode models. Egg hatch inhibition, larval migration inhibition, and paralysis are the common parameters assessed in vitro. About 72% of in vivo models involved small ruminants, 15% rodents, and 5% chicken. Egg and worm burden are the main factors assessed in vivo. There were no reports on interventions in humans cited within the period under consideration. Also, few reports have investigated the potential of combining plant extracts with common anthelmintic drugs. This review reveals the huge potential of African medicinal plants as sources of anthelmintic agents and the dire need for in-depth clinical studies of extracts, fractions, and compounds from African plants as anthelmintic agents in livestock, companion animals, and humans.

Source: UG
Anthelmintic Effect of Moringa oleifera Lam. in Wildcaught Achatina achatina Linnaeus, 1758 from the Sefwi Wiawso District, Ghana

Parasitic infection in edible snail species such as Achatina achatina has the potential of reducing growth and requires investigation. This study assessed the anthelmintic effect of Moringa oleifera in A. achatina. Using dissecting and microscopic techniques, the proportion of parasitic infection in A. achatina group fed with M. oleifera was significantly lower than that of the control group (χ²(1) = 14.97; P = 0.0001). The mean parasite intensity recorded for the kidney of both treated (2.17) and control (3.33) groups of snails were significantly different (bootstrap t = 2.31; P = 0.041). Similar observation was made in the lung of treated (1.43) and control (3.14) snail groups (bootstrap t = 3.54; P = 0.005). However, no significant mean parasite intensity in the spermoviduct of treated (1.80) and control (1.96) snail groups was observed (bootstrap t = 0.475; P = 0.627). The results generally highlight anthelmintic value of M. oleifera in the control of parasites in A. achatina. Fresh foliage of M. oleifera may serve as useful addition to the feed of reared edible snails.

Source: UG
The anthropogenic consequences of energy consumption in E7 economies: Juxtaposing roles of renewable, coal, nuclear, oil and gas energy: Evidence from panel quantile method

The emerging industrialized seven (E7) economies are not excluded from the global warming issues which is a major problem for most economies. The E7 member countries have partaken in policies to mitigate against global warming in terms of decoupling CO2 emission from economic growth trajectory in the highlighted economies. It is on this premise that the present study is motivated to consider the connection among economic growth, pollutant emissions, coal rent while accounting for the role of other co-variates such as CO2 damage and energy from a nuclear energy source, oil gas energy between 1990 and 2016 on an annual frequency. This study adopts the use of panel ordinary least squares alongside panel quantile regression to explore the coal rent-energy and environment nexus. The empirical result shows a positive and significant effect of both real GDP and coal rent on CO2 emissions. More precisely, a 1% increase in GDP growth increases pollution emission by 0.400% while for coal rent, an increase in coal consumption dampens environmental quality by 0.088% as reported by the panel regression which is resonated by the quantile regression estimations at different tails of the data. Nevertheless, we observe that 0.95 percentile GDP growth strongly contributes to environmental pollution while at the median tail i.e. 0.5 percentile renewable energy consumption dampens the adverse effect of environmental degra dation. Additionally, renewable energy, on the other hand, was found a negative and significant impact on CO2 emissions in E7 countries as a 1% increase in renewable energy consumption improves envi ronmental quality by 0.588% Moreover, the estimated results indicate that regulation of coal con sumption through the rent in addition to the cost of carbon damage will further increase the CO2 emissions in E7 countries. This study implies that putting stringent regulations on coal consumption as it concerns the increasing cost of carbon damage will not be of help to environmental sustainability within the E7 economies. The adoption of renewable energy consumption, nuclear energy, oil energy will reduce CO2 emissions in E7 countries. Thus, suggesting a paradigm shift for low-carbon energy sources which are more environmentally friendly

Source: UG
Anthropogenic dark earths and africa: A political agronomy of research disjunctures

Anthropogenic dark earths (ADE) and biochar are current foci of extraordinary levels of technological optimism, agricultural research and political debate. ADE comprise both black soils associated with long enduring settlement sites and their depositions, and slightly lighter coloured soils that have also been rendered more enduringly fertile than the soils on which they are formed through deposition and cultivation practices. These anthropogenically enriched soils can sustain permanent farming; their fertility is thought to be due in part to their high biochar content. Biochar refers to the carbon-rich products that result when biomass is burned under oxygen-deprived conditions and then buried in the ground (Lehmann and Joseph 2009).

Source: UG
Anthropogenic nutrients and phytoplankton diversity in Kenya’s coastal waters: An ecological quality assessment of sea turtle foraging sites

We assessed ecological quality status (EQS) of coastal waters following claims of increasing sea turtle fibro papillomatosis (FP) infections in Kenya, a disease hypothesized to be associated with ‘poor’ ecological health. We established widespread phosphate (P) and silicate (Si) limitation, dissolved ammonium contamination and an increase in potential harmful algal blooming species. Variations in the EQS was established in the sites depending on the indicators used and seasons. Generally, more sites located near hotels, tidal creeks, and estuarine areas showed ‘poor’, and ‘bad’ EQS during rainy period compared to dry season. Additionally, 90.1 % of the sites in ‘poor’ and ‘bad’ EQS based on dissolved inorganic nitrogen. Low dissolved oxygen, elevated temperature, salinity and ammonium, ‘poor’ EQS based on DIN, and potential bio-toxin-producing phytoplankton species character ized the FP prevalent areas, specifically during the dry season suggesting environmental stress pointing to the hypothesized connection between ecological and sea turtle health.

Source: UG