Corporate Social Responsibility, Profit After Tax and Return on Asset of Selected Multinational Companies: A Granger Causality Approach

This study investigated the causal relationship among corporate social responsibility (CSR), profit after tax and return on assets of selected quoted multinational companies in Nigeria. The data gathered from the financial statements of the selected quoted multinational companies were analysed using granger causality technique. The result revealed that there was no direction causality between profit after tax and corporate social responsibility as well as the return on assets and corporate social responsibility of the selected multinational companies with estimated probability values ranging from 0.065 to 0.999 ˃ 0.05. Based on the findings, the study concluded that profit after tax and return on assets of the selected multinational companies do not granger cause corporate social responsibility or vice visa. This study established that, despite the huge investment and profit made by the selected multinational companies in Nigeria, there was no significant contribution towards the corporate social responsibility of the nation or hosting communities. Therefore, this study recommended that multinational companies should strived to harness the strength of corporate social responsibility by increasing the amount committed to yield the expected result of performance; multinational companies should investe in the infrastructural development and productivity of their operating environments to boost and enhance their performances. Keywords: corporate social responsibility, profit after tax, return on asset, multinational, financial statement, granger causality

Assessment of Quality of Asphalt Concrete used in Road Construction in South West Nigeria

Assessment of asphalt concrete used for pavement construction in southwest Nigeria was carried out to determine the causes of untimely failure of newly constructed/rehabilitated asphalt roads. Samples of asphalt concrete and bitumen were collected from three asphalt plants selected for the study. Samples from each plant were subjected to bitumen extraction and sieve analysis, hot mix Marshall Stability and flow tests, penetration and viscosity tests. Results obtained were compared to the 2007 Federal Ministry of Works and Housing Standard Specifications for Roads and Bridges. The results revealed that none of the samples met all the criteria stated in the specifications, suggesting that the nature of asphalt concrete is a possible cause of premature failure of road pavements in southwest Nigeria. It is recommended that further research be conducted on other constituents of asphalt concrete as well as other structures of the flexible pavement.Keywords: Asphalt concrete, aggregate, bitumen, pavement, road, sieve analysis

Evaluating the Strength Characteristics of Clay- Gravel Mixtures

Shear strength is one of the most important soil properties in almost all geotechnical engineering problems. Therefore, this study was aimed at investigating the effect of gravel on the shear strength of clayey soil. Two clayey soil samples were obtained from a dug pit from different locations in Osogbo, Osun State and the gravels were collected locally. Three different gradations of gravel (2-6mm, 6-12mm, and 12-20 mm) were mixed in a dry state in percentages of 5, 10, 15, 20, 30, 40 and 50% with the collected clay soil respectively. Initially, some physical properties of clayey soil and the gravel, which include specific gravity, particle size analysis, liquid limit and plastic limit, were determined in accordance with BS 1377-3:2018. Consequently, the California Bearing Ratio (CBR) and Consolidated - Undrained (CU) triaxial compression tests at three different confining pressures of 50, 100 and 150 kN/m2, with a loading rate of 0.5 mm/min were carried out on the clay-gravel mixtures in accordance with BS 1377 (1990). The results from the CBR test indicated that the CBR value of the clay-gravel mixtures was higher than that of pure clay. The result of shear strength showed that the cohesion and effective angle of internal friction increases as the concentration of gravel increases from 0 to 50%. As the gravel size was increased from 6-12mm, effective cohesion reduces and angle of internal friction increases.  It concluded that locally available gravel can be used to improve the strength properties of clayey soil for engineering construction

Determine both the conformation and orientation of a specific residue in α-synuclein(61–95) even in monolayer by ¹³C isotopic label and p-polarized multiple-angle incidence resolution spectrometry (pMAIRS)

Protein’s magic function stems from its structure and various analytical techniques have been developed for it. Among proteins, membrane proteins are encoded 20–30% of genomes, whereas cause challenges for many analytical techniques. For example, lots of membrane proteins cannot form single crystal structure required by X-ray crystallography. As for NMR, the measurements were hindered by the low tumbling rates of membrane (i.e., phospholipid bilayers) where membrane proteins exist. In addition, membrane proteins usually lay parallel to the surface of phospholipid bilayers or form transmembrane structure. No matter parallel or perpendicular to phospholipid bilayers surface, membrane proteins form monolayer structure which is also difficult for X-ray and NMR to provide high-resolution results. Because NMR and X-ray crystallography are the two major analytical techniques to address protein’s structure, membrane proteins only contribute 2.4% to the solved protein databank. Surface FT-IR techniques can evaluate the conformation and orientation of membrane proteins by amide I band. Specifically for α-helical peptides/proteins, the orientation of the axis is critical to decide whether proteins form transmembrane structure. Notice that the traditional FT-IR can only provide “low-resolution” results. Here, ¹³C isotope was introduced into the nonamyloid component (NAC), which spans residues 61–95 of α-synuclein (α-syn). Then, p-polarized multiple-angle incidence resolution spectrometry (pMAIRS) was used to determine the orientation of a specific residue of α-helical NAC in monolayer. In general, pMAIRS is a novel technique to work complementary with X-ray and NMR to address membrane peptides/proteins structure with high resolution even in monolayer

SUSTAINABLE ENERGY ANALYSIS OF NIGERIAN ROAD TRANSPORTATION SECTOR: EFFECTS OF INFLUENCED FUEL DEMAND PATTERNS

Petrol and diesel utilisations in the Nigerian road transportation sector have been assessed, using exergy efficiency and improvement potential as parameters. The mean petrol engine exergy efficiency was 13.05%, while that of diesel engines was 10.79%. The average improvement potential of petrol engines was 2.07×1011 MJ, which was 75.6% of average input exergy. Diesel engines had an average improvement potential of 5.15×1010 MJ, which was 69.2% of average input exergy. Practical constancy of the exergy efficiencies of the engines left input exergy values as the sole determining factors of improvement potentials of the systems. Petrol fuel was found to be utilised, away from sustainable path, more than diesel fuel. This observation was found attributable to subsidisation of petrol downstream sector and simultaneous deregulation of the diesel downstream sector as well as the preponderance of petrol engines in the road transportation sector. In conclusion, it was recommended that a mechanism be put in place to check the unsustainable petrol fuel utilisation in the transport sector

HELMET USE AS A SAFETY TOOL AMONG MOTORCYCLE RIDERS IN IBADAN, OYO STATE, NIGERIA

This work studies helmets use as a safety tool among motorcycle riders in Ibadan, Oyo state, Nigeria. The instrument of data collection was a structured interviewer administered questionnaire on 400 motorcycle riders at Mokola and Sango areas, Ibadan. 330 responses were obtained to give a return rate of 82.5%. The analysis of the results showed that the frequency of helmet use in the study areas is 77.6% and that of non-user is 22.4%. 80% of the respondents felt that helmet use should be mandatory while only 20% felt that it should be at the discretion of riders. 150 (45.5%) respondents have ever been involved in motorcycle accidents out of which 94 (62.7%) were involved in head injury accidents. Up to 86 (91.5%) of these were involved in head injury accident before the introduction of legislation for compulsory crash helmet wear by motorcyclists in Nigeria while only 8(8.5%) were involved in the accident after the legislation of the law. This shows a decrease in head injury accidents after implementation of crash helmet law. Hence, there is need to strengthen existing legal enforcement of helmet use and ensure the availability of quality helmet to non-user both the commercial and private motorcyclists

Click chemistry surface functionalization for resonant micro-cavity sensors

Micro-cavity resonant sensors have outer surfaces that are functionalized using click chemistry, e.g., involving a cycloaddition reaction of an alkyne functional group and an azide functional group. A first polymer linking element binds to an outer surface of the micro-cavity and has an azide functional group, which bonds to an alkyne functional group of a second polymer linking element as a result of a cycloaddition reaction. A functionalization element such as an antibody, antigen or protein for sensing a target molecule is bound to the second linking element

THE EFFECT OF DISSOLVED PLASTIC POLYMER MODIFICATION ON RUTTING AND FATIGUE RESISTANCE PROPERTIES OF WARM BITUMEN BLEND

Recently, large amounts of waste polymers are being generated in Nigeria. One of the waste polymers is plastic bottles. Hot Mix Asphalt (HMA) are produced at high temperatures with high energy consumption and environmental hazard. The purpose of using Warm Mix Asphalt (WMA) is to reduce the production and laying temperature and emission of greenhouse gases. Therefore, this research investigated the effect of Dissolved Plastic Bottle (DPB) on the rheological, rutting and fatigue resistance properties of warm bitumen blend thereby reducing the environmental hazard associated with the Waste Plastic Bottles (WPB) disposal and consequently improving pavement service life. WPB was obtained from different waste generation points in Adeleke University, Ede, Nigeria. The obtained WPB was shredded and converted to dissolved form using pyrolysis machine @ 4500C. 500g of 60/70 penetration grade bitumen was heated in an oven with 3% (15g) sasobit until it becomes fluidal. The bitumen was modified with 0 - 17% by weight of the bitumen at 2% interval. Mixing was continued for 1hour to produce homogenous bituminous mixtures. Rheological tests were then conducted on the prepared samples using the Brookfield programmable rheometer. The results indicated that addition of DPB improves the rheological properties of absolute viscosity, phase angle, complex shear modulus, rutting and fatigue resistance of modified binder at both 135°C and 165°C. Therefore, DPB can be used to improve bitumen rheological properties and subsequently resist rutting and fatigue on traffic roads. This can best be achieved upon 7% and 5% modification levels at 135°C and 165°C respectively

Peer education: The effects on knowledge of pregnancy related malaria and preventive practices in women of reproductive age in Edo State, Nigeria

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>There is limited uptake of measures to prevent malaria by pregnant women in Nigeria which is often related to the lack of knowledge on Malaria in Pregnancy (MIP) and its effects on mother and foetus. This study, explored peer to peer education as a tool in raising knowledge of MIP among women of child bearing age.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>1105 women of child bearing age were interviewed in their households using a structured questionnaire about their knowledge of malaria in general, MIP and use of preventive measures. Thereafter, a peer education campaign was launched to raise the level of knowledge in the community. The interviews were repeated after the campaign and the responses between the pre- and post-intervention were compared.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>In the pre-assessment women on average answered 64.8% of the question on malaria and its possibility to prevent malaria correctly. The peer education campaign had a significant impact in raising the level of knowledge among the women; after the campaign the respondents answered on average 73.8% of the questions correctly. Stratified analysis on pre and post assessment scores for malaria in general (68.8 & 72.9%) and MIP (61.7 & 76.3%) showed also significant increase. Uptake of bed nets was reported to be low: 11.6%</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Peer education led to a significant increase in knowledge of malaria and its prevention but we could not asses its influence on the use of preventive measures.</p