Financial Empowerment and Entrepreneurial Venture Creation among NGOs’ Beneficiaries in Kwara State, Nigeria: An Empirical Investigation

The NGOs place much emphasis on the provision of diverse relevant training, counseling, mentoring, and financial empowerment in cash and equipment grants, loans, and subsidies that made little or no impact on the lives of beneficiaries and the economy. Hence, this study examined the impact of financial empowerment and entrepreneurial venture creation among NGO beneficiaries in Kwara State, Nigeria. A survey was carried out employing the simple random sampling technique to select 358 respondents from a total of 5,354 sampling frames of NGOs’ beneficiaries in Kwara State. Data analysis was performed using descriptive and inferential statistics. The results indicated that financial empowerment contributes significantly to entrepreneurial venture creation among the NGOs’ beneficiaries. It was further revealed that cash loans and subsidies offered by NGOs have a positive impact on entrepreneurial venture creation, while grants have an inverse impact on entrepreneurial venture creation. The study, therefore, suggests among other things that the management of NGOs should scrutinize business plans properly before giving loans, grants, and subsidies to the beneficiaries so that only viable and innovative ideas will be funded

Strategic entrepreneurship and performance of Nigerian banks: A quantitative approach

Objective: Strategic entrepreneurship provides value that allows companies to compete favourably in the market compared to their competitors, especially in the banking sector, and thus influence their performance. Therefore, this study examined the impact of strategic entrepreneurship on the performance of Nigerian banks. Research Design & Methods: A quantitative approach was adopted for the study, which used a post facto study design. The sample size consists of 10 banks listed before 2009 that were only excluded in 2018 with related data. Secondary data collected from annual reports and financial statements of all sample banks over ten years (2010-2019) were analysed. Panel data analysis was used to measure the relationship between independent and dependent variables at p< 0.05. Findings: The study demonstrates that strategic dimensions of entrepreneurship (strategic renewal, sustainable innovation, and domain renewal) play a key role in joint and significant organizational performance. It has also been confirmed that strategic renewal independently affects business organizational performance, while domain definition has a positive but minor relevance. However, permanent regeneration has the opposite effect on organizational performance. Implications & Recommendations: This finding means that many Nigerian banks have failed to put into practice the knowledge and financial commitment to take advantage of opportunities, which is an important means of strengthening the sector amid the pandemic syndrome and highly turbulent environment. It is therefore imperative that the management of Nigerian banks be financially engaged in formulating innovative strategies and activities. Contribution & Value Added: The study has established that strategic entrepreneurship components jointly and independently influence the performance of Nigerian banks. It was also discovered that strategic renewal, sustainable innovation, and domain renewal are strong predictors of banks’ performance

UNDERSTANDING THE GENDER PREFERENCE ON THE MOTIVATION OF INFORMAL ENTREPRENEURS: THE SOUTHWEST, NIGERIA SCENARIO

The gain of entrepreneurial practice has been the alleviation of poverty along with the reduction of unemployment in every economy. Various studies have embarked on the practice of entrepreneurship intent amidst other needs but the scarcity in the line of motivation has been a dredge in the entrepreneurial literature. To this end, this study responds to the need to venture into more data on the gender preference on the informal entrepreneur participation using the electronics market in a developing nation for the study. The study employed the use of the gatekeeper to employ the quantitative technique, using T-test analysis to riddle the involved patterns of discussion in the selected electronics market, southwest Nigeria. The two-sample showed that 435 male participants were found to be socially motivated (M=3.8587 SD=0.63775) compared to the 109 female participants in the selected informal market (3.3965, SD=0.76449). From the study result, it was also posited that the involvement of informal entrepreneurship in the electronics market was not a gender-based effect but a social drive as needed which needed to be infused for sustainable development in the nation. The study clearly shows that there are lapses in gender-based comparison in informal entrepreneurship and thus a need to fill the ga

A Mini Review of Trends towards Automated and Non-Invasive Techniques for Early Detection of Lung Cancer: From Radiomics through Proteogenomics to Breathomics

Carcinoma of the Lung is one of the most common cancers in the world and the leading cause of tumor-related deaths. Less than 15% of patients survive 5 years post diagnosis due to its relatively poor prognosis. This has been ascribed to lack of effective diagnostic methods for early detection. Different medical imaging techniques such as chest radiography, Computed Tomography (CT) and Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) are used in routine clinical practice for tumor detection. These techniques are medically unsatisfactory and inconvenient for patients due to poor diagnostic accuracy. Endobronchial biopsies are the gold standard for diagnosis but have the inherent risk of full or partial invasive procedures. Thus, diagnostic technology that uses data mining algorithms with medical image analysis, generally known as radiomics emerged. Radiomics extracts complex information from conventional radiographic images and quantitatively correlates image features with diagnostic and therapeutic outcomes. In spite of the benefits, radiomics is prone to high false positives and there is no established standard for acquisition of parameters. Further efforts towards outcome improvement led to the proteomic and genomic (proteogenomic) approach to lung cancer detection. Although proteogenomic has a diagnostic edge over traditional techniques, variations in bio-specimen and heterogeneity of lung cancer still possess a major challenge. Recent findings have established that changes normally occur in the gene or protein due to tumor growth in the lungs and this often leads to peroxidation of cell membrane that releases Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) through the breath of Lung Cancer patients. The comprehensive analysis of breath VOCs, which is tagged Breathomics in the literature,unveils opportunities for noninvasive biomarker discovery towards early detection. Breathomics has therefore become the current pace-setter in medical diagnostics research because of its non-invasiveness and cost effectiveness. This paper presents a mini survey of trends in early lung cancer detection from radiomics, through proteogenomic to breathomics

ASSESSMENT OF PESTICIDES AND POLYCYCLIC AROMATIC HYDROCARBONS IN BEEF JERKY MEAT FROM NIGERIA AND THEIR DIETARY CONCENTRATION TO HUMAN

The study reports the concentrations, daily intake levels and possible potential health risks of 33 pesticides and 16 polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in beef jerky meat samples collected from sellers in Ado-Ekiti, Nigeria. The PAHs concentration (µg/kg) ranged from 0.007 (indeno(1,2,3-cd)pyrene) to 0.516 (acenapthylene), while pesticides (µg/kg) ranged from 0.010(2,4,6-trichlorophenol) to 0.272 (oxamyl). The estimated daily intakes of the pesticides were within the acceptable daily intakes (EDI˂˂˂ADI). The hazard indices were significantly less than 1 (HI ˂˂ 1) with estimated range of 1.08 × 10-7 (pyriproxyfen) to 1.81 × 10-4 (aldrin). Non carcinogenic equivalent (mg/kg/day) intakes of PAHs from beef jerky consumption ranged from 0.000027 (pyrene) to 0.00421 (anthracene), while the carcinogenic equivalent concentration ranged from 0.000024 (chrysene) to 0.265 benzo(a)pyrene. The risk associated with beef jerky meat showed no potential non-carcinogenic and carcinogenic risk while mutagenic and carcinogenic risk revealed low potential health risk as compared to the guideline value (1.0 × 10-6) for potential cancer risk

DESIGN OF MULTIPLE DEPENDENT STATE SAMPLING PLAN USING ZECH DISTRIBUTION WITH APPLICATION TO REAL LIFE DATA

In this work, a multiple dependent state sampling plan, which is an inspection procedure that determines whether an attribute is conforming or non-conforming to a specific requirement, in which the decision criterion for each lot dictates whether to accept the lot; reject the lot; or conditionally accept or reject the lot based on the disposition of future related lots, is introduced. This plan has some advantages over other acceptance sampling plans, like increased efficiency, improved ability to discriminate between acceptable and non – acceptable lots or batches, flexibility in designing the sampling process, and improved cost-effectiveness. To reject a lot, the plan made use of the properties of the sampled current and preceding lots. The study aims to reduce the average sampling number by using a non-linear optimization problem that is subjected to some constraints. With regards to a life test that is truncated in time, the product’s median life was used for the proposed sampling plan assuming that the lifetime of the product follows Zech distribution. The usage of median life was necessitated because Zech distribution is an asymmetric distribution with longer tail to the right. Two points on the operating characteristic curve were used for the proposed sampling plan and the following parameters were found; number of preceding lots which is required for deciding if the current lot should be accepted or rejected, the size of the sample, rejection number, and acceptance number. For different shape parameters, we constructed tables for various combinations of consumers’ and producers’ risks. A real example was provided which showed that a multiple dependent state sampling plan is a good sampling plan for fitting the datasets. Comparing the proposed plan with a single sampling plan, the results reveal that the proposed plan is more effective at securing the consumer and the producer with less inspection. The approach introduced in this study provides an ample opportunity for the manufacturers to reduce the cost and time of inspection by having the sample size reduced without compromising the decision-making accuracy. By implementing the findings of this study, the consumers are confident that their hard-earned money is not used to purchase sub-standard goods

A Clinicopathological Review of Colonic Polyps in a Tertiary Hospital in North Central Nigeria

Background: Colorectal polyps, especially adenomas, are known as precursors of colorectal carcinomas. This study was aimed at determining the prevalence and histopathologic characteristics of colonic polyps among Nigerians that underwent colonoscopy at the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital, Ilorin, Nigeria. The authors also determined the polyp detection rate and adenoma detection rate. Materials and Methods: This was a hospital-based cross-sectional study of all colonoscopy examinations performed at the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital, Ilorin from March 2013 to September 2017. The endoscopy register was reviewed, and patients’ biodata, indications for colonoscopy and colonoscopic findings were recorded on a proforma. The histopathologic reports of the polyps were also retrieved and their diagnosis confirmed. Results: A total of 289 patients had colonoscopy carried out on them. The age of the patients ranged from 14 to 90 years with a mean ±SD of 57.0 ± 15.3 years and a median age of 58 years. There were 178 (61.6%) males and 111 (38.4%) females giving a M:F ratio of 1.6:1. The indications for colonoscopy were rectalbleeding 124 (42.9%); suspected colorectal cancer 67 (23.2%); abdominal pain 22 (7.6%); chronic diarrhea 18 (6.2%); surveillance colonoscopy 12 (4.2%); constipation 11 (3.8%); change in bowel habit 9 (3.1%); occult bleeding 6 (2.1%); others 20 (6.9%). Endoscopic findings were normal findings 89 (30.8%); hemorrhoids 88 (30.4%); colonic polyps 50 (17.3%); diverticulosis 34 (11.8%); rectal cancer 29 (10.0%); colon cancer 24 (8.3%); colitis 19 (6.6%); others 13 (4.5%). The findings were not mutually exclusive. The diagnostic yield was 69.2%. The overall polyp detection rate was 17.3%. Of the 50 patients with polyps, 33 (66.0%) were males (p = 0.481). Theadenoma detection rate was 4.8%. Conclusion: The authors conclude that their observed polyp detection rate is consistent with the estimated rates for Africa. Rectal bleeding and adenomatous polyps were the commonest presentation and histopathologic finding, respectively