Browsing by Author "Amuzu, D.S.Y."
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Item Emploi Des Morphogrammes en Francais Langue Entrangere. Le Cas des Apprenants D'Achimota Shs, de Presec-Legon et D'Áccra Girls SHS(University of Ghana, 2013-03) Andreas, A.; Amuzu, D.S.Y.The purpose of this study has been to provide information on the correct use of morphograms by learners of French in some selected schools in the Accra Metropolis. The problem for investigation is to state to what extent lack of knowledge of the correct use of morphograms has impeded the written production of learners of French and the impact on their use of French in communication as a whole. The study was conducted in three schools namely: Achimota SHS, PRESEC- Legon and Accra Girls SHS with total number of 75students (38 boys and 37 girls) and 14 teachers. Data was collected, mainly, through written productions, thus, dictation and composition administered to learners coupled with interview and questionnaire administered to teachers. The data collected was analyzed and the major findings of the study were that learners, mostly, had difficulty in writing French morphogram based words. Thus, they either omitted or confused derivatives and flexions, or use them wrongly thereby compromising their written production and communication in French as a whole. As a result, their overall competency in the use of the French language was highly impeded. The causes of these difficulties in the correct use of morphograms was diagnosed to be closely related to the difficult nature of the French language, linguistic transfer coupled with the lack of effective and appropriate teaching techniques on the part of French teachers and the absence of orthographic works in our teaching programmes. Having diagnosed and found out the causes of students inability to correctly use morphograms, the study did not only recommend, among others that orthographic works be incorporated in the teaching syllabus but it also prescribed some teaching techniques of morphograms that if adopted could help rectify the poor use of morphograms. These include using the inductive approach in teaching agreement “accord” of all kinds in French, in the case derivational words, the teacher is expected to let students see all the various forms of the word in their pragmatic context. Thus, letting students see the word in question in its nominal form, its adjectival form, its verbal form and its other forms if possible. This would help students identify and understand the word in its entirety and hence use the correct form as and when necessary.Item Emploi du Pronom Personnel 'en'. Quelques Difficultes Constatees Aupres des Apprenants de Nungua Senior High School, Accra(University of Ghana, 2013-07) Ocloo, J.K.; Amuzu, D.S.Y.; Yeboua, K.D.This study is centered on the difficulties students of Nungua Senior High School, Accra, encounter in the use of the personal pronoun «en». The analysis of the data collected through questionnaires, interviews and test items with respect to students performance is confined within the context of its partitive and quantitative use as well as the variety of functions it performs within sentences. In the light of the data analysed, the study ident ified that most students studying French as foreign language in Nungua Senior High School are unable to use correctly the personal pronoun « en » due to a number of constraints presented by the pronoun. Bearing in mind that the morpheme en is used not only as a personal pronoun but also as a preposition, it has been noted that the students find it difficult to identify these various morphosyntactic functions of « en » when it is used with respect to specific context and situation. The difficulty the students face in the use of the personal pronoun « en » is also attributed to the inappropriate teaching and learning methods/ techniques adopted by teachers of French in the teaching process. The study recommends activity methods through which the students are exposed to the use of the personal pronoun « en » as parts of speech in a given context or situation as recommended by the communicative approach instead of exposing the students to the rules governing the use of the personal pronoun « en » as grammatical category.Item Genomic analysis of SARS-CoV-2 reveals local viral evolution in Ghana(2021) Ngoi, J.M.; Quashie, P.K.; Morang’a, C.M.; Bonney, J.H.K.; Amuzu, D.S.Y.; Kumordjie, S.; Asante, I.A.; Bonney, E.Y.; Eshun, M.; Boatemaa, L.; Magnusen, V.; Kotey, E.N.; Ndam, N.T.; Tei-Maya, F.; Arjarquah, A.K.; Obodai, E.; Otchere, I.D.; Bediako, Y.; Mutungi, J.K.; Amenga-Etego, L.N.; Odoom, J.K.; Anang, A.K.; Kyei, G.B.; Adu, B.; Ampofo, W.K.; Awandare, G.A.The confirmed case fatality rate for the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in Ghana has dropped from a peak of 2% in March to be consistently below 1% since May 2020. Globally, case fatality rates have been linked to the strains/clades of circulating severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) within a specific country. Here we present 46 whole genomes of SARS-CoV-2 circulating in Ghana, from two separate sequencing batches: 15 isolates from the early epidemic (March 12–April 1 2020) and 31 from later time-points ( 25–27 May 2020). Sequencing was carried out on an Illumina MiSeq system following an amplicon-based enrichment for SARS-CoV-2 cDNA. After genome assembly and quality control processes, phylogenetic analysis showed that the first batch of 15 genomes clustered into five clades: 19A, 19B, 20A, 20B, and 20C, whereas the second batch of 31 genomes clustered to only three clades 19B, 20A, and 20B. The imported cases (6/46) mapped to circulating viruses in their countries of origin, namely, India, Hungary, Norway, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America. All genomes mapped to the original Wuhan strain with high similarity (99.5–99.8%). All imported strains mapped to the European superclade A, whereas 5/9 locally infected indi viduals harbored the B4 clade, from the East Asian superclade B. Ghana appears to have 19B and 20B as the two largest circulating clades based on our sequence analyses. In line with global reports, the D614G linked viruses seem to be predominating. Comparison of Ghanaian SARS-CoV-2 genomes with global genomes indicates that Ghanaian strains have not diverged significantly from circulating strains commonly imported into Africa. The low level of diversity in our genomes may indicate lower levels of transmission, even for D614G viruses, which is consistent with the relatively low levels of infection reported in Ghana.Item High-throughput genotyping assays for identification of glycophorin B deletion variants in population studies(2021) Amuzu, D.S.Y.; Rockett, K.A.; Leffler, E.M.; Ansah, F.; Amoako, N.; Morang’a, C.M.; Hubbart, C.; Rowlands, K.; Jeffreys, A.E.; Amenga-Etego, L.N.; Kwiatkowski, D.P.; Awandare, G.A.Glycophorins are the most abundant sialoglycoproteins on the surface of human erythro cyte membranes. Genetic variation in glycophorin region of human chromosome 4 (con taining GYPA, GYPB, and GYPE genes) is of interest because the gene products serve as receptors for pathogens of major public health interest, including Plasmodium sp., Babesia sp., Influenza virus, Vibrio cholerae El Tor Hemolysin, and Escherichia coli. A large structural rearrangement and hybrid glycophorin variant, known as Dantu, which was identified in East African populations, has been linked with a 40% reduction in risk for severe malaria. Apart from Dantu, other large structural variants exist, with the most common being deletion of the whole GYPB gene and its surrounding region, resulting in multiple different deletion forms. In West Africa particularly, these deletions are estimated to account for between 5 and 15% of the variation in different populations, mostly attributed to the forms known as DEL1 and DEL2. Due to the lack of specific variant assays, little is known of the distribution of these variants. Here, we report a modification of a previous GYPB DEL1 assay and the development of a novel GYPB DEL2 assay as high-throughput PCR-RFLP assays, as well as the identification of the crossover/breakpoint for GYPB DEL2. Using 393 samples from three study sites in Ghana as well as samples from HapMap and 1000 G projects for val idation, we show that our assays are sensitive and reliable for genotyping GYPB DEL1 and DEL2. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of such high-throughput genotyping assays by PCR-RFLP for identifying specific GYPB deletion types in populations. These assays will enable better identification of GYPB deletions for large genetic association studies and functional experiments to understand the role of this gene cluster region in susceptibility to malaria and other diseases.