Sources of Finance and Financial Performance of Downstream Petroleum Firms in Nigeria

This study examined the various sources of finance employed by the downstream petroleum firms in Nigeria. It also determined the effect of long-term finance on profitability. Furthermore, it ascertained the impact of short-term finance on profitability and found out the relationship between the medium-term finance and profitability in view of providing information of the significant effect of long-term and short-term finance on financial performance. The study employed secondary source of data. The technique of analysis was fixed-effect model through the panel data collected. The research design is quantitative. The targeted population consisted of 25 downstream petroleum firms in Nigeria from which a sample size of 20 firms was selected using a purposive sampling technique. Data were sourced on variables such as profit after tax; long-term source of finance, short-term source of finance and medium-term source of finance from the audited financial statements of downstream petroleum firms. The data collected from the audited financial statements of the 20 firms covered 5 years between the periods of 2011-2015.The results of the study revealed that sources of finance as a whole significantly affected organizational performance in the downstream petroleum industry in Nigeria as F-statistic = 249.1042 with Prob. value = 0.0000. Also, it was found that the results of the study were in consonance with the theoretical apriori expectations. Moreso, the study revealed that long-term finance significantly affected profitability as the t-value of long-term finance was -5.644289 with its attendant Prob. value = 0.0000. Furthermore, it was found that short-term finance significantly impacted on profitability as the t-value of short-term finance was 9.881206 with its attendant Prob. value = 0.0000. Moreover, the study revealed that there was direct relationship between the medium-term finance and profitability as the slope of coefficient was 0.178386. This indicated that 1% increase in medium-term finance would make the profitability to increase by 17.8%. The study concluded that in as much as sources of finance affected financial performance of downstream petroleum firms in Nigeria, the management and board of directors should pay attention to the utilization of these sources particularly short-term finance so as to avoid mismatch. Keywords: Sources, Finance, performance, downstream, petroleum, and profit-after tax

Community Discovery in Mobile Blog

Abstract: Social network gains popularity due to its ease of use, as an application of Web 2.0. The study of networks is an active area of research due to its capability of modelling many real world complex systems. One such interesting property to investigate in any typical network is the community structure which is the division of networks into groups. Discovering communities in a social network environment is graph partitioning problem, which subdivides the entire graph into smaller partitions. Graph partitioning is believed as NP -hard problem, due to its complexity to split the number of vertices. We introduced the method of mutual accessibility to find communities in social networking environments. Existing work presents community discovery from blog posts. In this research, we discovered community structures from blogs which are posted by mobile devices such as mobile phones, specialized devices like personal digital assistants (PDA). We also applied the method called "mutual accessibility" for discovering communities. We presented the results obtained through our method. It is feasible that our method produced accurate identification of community structure in large complex networks

Mathematical Modelling of the Relationship between Two Different Temperament Classifications: During the Covid-19 Pandemic

In medicine, it is well known that healthy individuals have different physical and mental characteristics. Ancient Indian medicine, Ayurveda and the Persian-Arabic traditional Unani medicine has two distinct approaches for the classification of human subjects according to their temperaments. The individual temperament is an important foundation for personalized medicine, which can help in the prevention and treatment of many diseases including COVID-19. This paper attempts to explore the relationship of the utmost important concepts of these systems called individual temperament named as Prakruti in Ayurveda and Mizaj in Unani practice using mathematical modelling. The results of mathematical modelling can be adopted expediently for the development of algorithms that can be applied in medical informatics. For this, a significant literature review has been carried out. Based on the previous researchers' reviews the essential parameters have been identified for making the relationship and hypothesis were framed. The mathematical modelling was adopted to propose the existence of the relationship between the parameters of such an ancient and rich medicine systems. The hypotheses are validated through the mathematic driven model. Doi: 10.28991/esj-2021-01258 Full Text: PD

Gender Differentials in Criminal Behaviour in Nigeria

The relationship between gender and crime is intense and persistent. Both women and men commit and are victims of crime, but their perspectives, understanding, and interpretation of the crime are likely to be different. While attempts have been made to explain the causes and horrible implications of crime in Nigerian society, not much has been done in terms of research to link gender with commission of crime. Thus, this paper examines the relationship between gender and crime in Nigeria. The paper enunciates the reasons for gender differential in crime and also uses the containment theory and the opportunity theory of female criminality to explain these differences. The Nigerian Prisons Service Statistics on all inmates across all the prisons in Nigeria was considered. Using the available data, the paper contends that women’s crime rates are far lower than men’s crime rates. The paper concludes with suggestions on how to reduce the crime rate of men, by them being closely supervised and discouraged from misbehaviour. Men should also be socialized heavily towards greater empathy

The estate surveyors and valuers and the magic number: A point estimate or a range of value?

Property value is imprecise because of the imperfection of the property market. But, estate surveyors and valuers in Nigeria traditionally have continued to express this value as a single amount. This paper, therefore, attempts to examine the rationale behind this approach and the attendant problems associated with it. Besides, the paper, amongst other things, recommended that estate surveyors and valuers should expand the scope of their services beyond the confines of point estimates so that clients be informed as to the amount of possible deviation and the magnitude of risk in the value estimate through the adoption of statistical techniques. First Published Online: 18 Oct 201

The reality of camel breeding in Basra governorate

Camel is unique animal. In Holy Quran, Allah Almighty remember people about the creation of camel (AL- GHASHIY AH 17 (Then do they not look at the camels – how they are created?). This verse remind us about the different aspects of the camel creation, which have aroused the attention o researchers around the world. The camels have gained reputation as the ship of the desert, since ancient times because they have superior ability to withstand thirst for long periods. Basra is one of the important governorate in Iraq and it is located in the south. Basra has very severe weather and low levels of the rainfall especially at al- Zubair desert resulted in a lack of vegetation and the deterioration in the soil. These environmental factors have a negative impact on the breeding of camels in Basra. This study intended to focus on the reality of camel husbandry and field’s problem the in Basra governorate. Continuous veterinary work teams and follow up for camels and its behaviors and preview the seasonal movement of Camel herders accompanied b their animals were reported. In addition, some common diseases, especially internal and external parasites, were also reported. In conclusion, this study described the camel’s herds in Basra governorate with special focus on the most importan problems that face the breeding of camels in this governorate

Chitosan/lignosulfonate nanospheres as "green" biocide for controlling the microbiologically influenced corrosion of carbon steel

In this work, uniform cross-linked chitosan/lignosulfonate (CS/LS) nanospheres with an average diameter of 150-200 nm have been successfully used as a novel, environmentally friendly biocide for the inhibition of mixed sulfate-reducing bacteria (SRB) culture, thereby controlling microbiologically influenced corrosion (MIC) on carbon steel. It was found that 500 μg·mL-1 of the CS/LS nanospheres can be used efficiently for the inhibition of SRB-induced corrosion up to a maximum of 85% indicated by a two fold increase of charge transfer resistance (Rct) on the carbon steel coupons. The hydrophilic surface of CS/LS can readily bind to the negatively charged bacterial surfaces and thereby leads to the inactivation or damage of bacterial cells. In addition, the film formation ability of chitosan on the coupon surface may have formed a protective layer to prevent the biofilm formation by hindering the initial bacterial attachment, thus leading to the reduction of corrosion.Funding: This research was funded by Qatar National Research Fund QNRF, Qatar Foundation through the NPRP grant # NPRP8-286-2-118. The publication of this article was funded by the Qatar National Library