Evaluation of Mental Health First Aid within a workplace context.

Background: Evidence suggests that Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) benefits organisations and employees. However, there has been no systematic investigation of the impact of MHFA on direct recipients and the organisations that adopt MHFA. Aims of thesis: The thesis aims to [1] evaluate the effectiveness of MHFA on help-seeking behaviour amongst employees and direct recipients, [2] explore participants’ experience and the impact of MHFA on workplace culture and relationships, [3] understand the active ingredients and mechanisms of action in MHFA that improves help-seeking behaviour for mental health difficulties. Methods Design: An embedded mixed methods design comprising a two-arm clustered Randomised Controlled Trial (RCT) comparing MHFA and usual practice, a qualitative evaluation, and theoretical mapping of MHFA onto the Behavioural Change Wheel (BCW). Sample: The participants were mental health first-aiders and other employees who have received MHFA directly or indirectly, working in randomly allocated UK clusters. Measures: Standard measures of participants’ help-seeking behaviour, helpseeking intentions, mental health and well-being, self-efficacy levels, and use of health and social services were used to assess the impact of MHFA. Procedure: Employees within these organisations were assessed via online completion of measures at baseline and 6 months post-intervention. A purposive selection of participants was interviewed. In addition, a consensus approach was taken to retrospectively map the MHFA intervention to the associated elements of the BCW. Results & Discussions: The study found that MHFA does not encourage formal help-seeking behaviour and identifies contributing factors to a preference for informal help-seeking avenues outside the workplace through qualitative interviews. Also, the thesis identified key components of health behaviour change, such as problem-solving, action planning, and social support as active ingredients in MHFA. However, there were inconsistencies in the practical 2 application of the MHFA interventions. The study suggests that more research is needed to determine the effectiveness of MHFA interventions on direct recipients and to explore the factors that contribute to mental health help-seeking. Utilising the COM-B model and TDF in future studies can help identify the changes required to facilitate actual help-seeking behaviour in a bid to improve MHFA intervention

Challenges and prospects for cataloguing and classification in academic libraries in Kwara State, Nigeria: a case study

Abstract The study aimed to investigate the challenges and prospects of cataloguing and classification in academic libraries in Kwara State that focus on the Kwara State University Library. The study adopted the descriptive survey design. The study population consists of 50 practicing librarians who attended the Nigerian Library Association Annual Workshop, 2020 held at the State Library Ilorin, Kwara State, Nigeria. A questionnaire entitled “Cataloguing challenges and prospects and a classification questionnaire containing closed elements was used to collect data for the study. The results revealed insufficient staffing, lack of modern tools, difficulties in cataloguing and classification backlogs, insufficient motivation, etc., as there are some challenges facing the technical departments of the studied academic library. The study also reveals, as an indication of a brighter future or good prospects for the technical divisions in the library studied, the increased advocacy for library automation, training opportunities available outside the country, introduction of an information management system, rapid transition from the manual method to the computerized method, etc. Based on the results, some recommendations were made

Monetary Policy and Share Pricing Business in Nigeria

The anatomy of Nigerian financial system is composed of the money and capital markets. Monetary policy is a framework used by the apex bank to regulate the flow of loanable funds in the economy, though the pricing of equity used by private investors to raise capital from the economy is carried out at the capital market end of the system. As earlier empirical studies have shown the relationship between monetary policy and stock market, this study provide a precise insight in the mechanism of interaction that co-exist between monetary policy and share pricing in Nigeria. The study identified money supply and interest rate (credit creation) as the main channels through which monetary policy influence sharing pricing in an open economy like Nigeria.Monetary Policy, Share Pricing, Monetary instruments, Money supply, Equity/capital market, money market, financial system, IPO pricing, Nigeria

Development Finance Institutions in Nigeria: Structure, Roles and Assessment

The efficient channelling of funds and allocation of financial resources are roles expected to be undertaken in the financial system to facilitate productive growth in the real sector of the economy. There have been overlapping roles in the Nigerian financial system and this has resulted to inefficient intermediation and under-development of vibrant sectors of the economy. Thus, necessitated the emergence of development financial institutions to render services to the large un-catered economics agents (especially in the rural areas) by the universal banks. The institutions are expected to offer specialized and micro financial services, offer relative cheap and accessible financing options, provide long-term finance for infrastructure development, industrial growth, agriculture, small and medium enterprises (SME) development and provide financial products for certain sections of the people. However, this paper evaluates the roles and structure of the development financial institutions in Nigeria and also assesses their performance over time.Development Finance Institutions, Financial Institutions, Financial Intermediation, Real Sectors, Financial Services, Financial Products, Small and Medium Scale Enterprises, Nigeria

Analysis of inflation and its determinants in Nigeria

The study critically analyzed the dynamic and simultaneous inter-relationship between inflation and its determinants in Nigeria between 1970 and 2007. The time series variables properties were examined using the Augmented Dickey Fuller (ADF) unit root test and the result reveals that inflation rate, growth rate of real output and money supply, and real share of Fiscal deficit are stationary at levels, while other incorporated variables in the empirical analysis- real share of Import, Exchange rate and Interest rate-are stationary at first difference. The long-run and short-run mechanism of interaction between inflation and its determinants were examined usig the Augmented Engle-Granger (AEG) cointegration test and Error Correction Mechanism (ECM) model respectively.Inflation, determinants, unit root, cointegration, error correction model, Nigeria economy

Does Macroeconomic Indicators exert shock on the Nigerian Capital Market?

This study examines the long-run and short-run effect of macroeconomic variables on the Nigerian capital market between 1984 and 2007. The properties of the time series variables are examined using the Augmented Dickey-Fuller (ADF) test and most of the variables have a unit root at level. The Augmented Engle-Granger Cointegration test revealed that macroeconomic variables exert significant long-run effect on stock market performance in Nigeria. Also, the employed Error Correction Model (ECM) showed that macroeconomic variables exert significant short-term shock on stock prices as a result of the stochastic error term mechanisms. However, the empirical analysis showed that the NSE all share index is more responsive to changes in exchange rate, inflation rate, money supply and real output. While, all the incorporated variables which serve as proxies for external shock and other macroeconomic indicators have simultaneous significant impact on the Nigerian capital market both in the short and long-run.Economic Shock; Macroeconomic Variables; Capital Market; Unit root and Cointegration.

Rate of autolytic changes in different unfixed tissues at different time interval

Aim and Background: Fixation hardens tissues and stabilizes the protein skeleton of the cell by giving the cell some structural support to resist deformation or crushing which may occur in the tissue processing sequence. Since fixation is essential for optimum tissue preparation for sectioning, it is worthwhile to study the autolytic changes in tissues which may affect this stage of specimen handling. Method: A healthy six-month old Wister rat was anaesthetized with chloroform, killed and dissected to aseptically harvest the brain, lung and liver. These organs were cut into 10 sections, each of 2×2×3mm, transferred into sterile universal containers from where sections were removed and fixed in 10% formal saline at a two hour intervals from 0 hours to 18 hours. Haematoxylin and Eosin and Gram’s Iodine stain were used to stain all the sections obtained from tissue blocks, Periodic acid Schiff’s (PAS) for the section of liver tissue, Verhoff elastic fibre stain for lungs section and Bielschowsky’s stain for brain tissue section. Results: Putrefaction in the brain was noticeable within 8 hours, in the liver it started at the 14th hour while putrefaction was absent in the lungs. Conclusion: Optimal staining reaction in brain and liver tissues would be unrewarding if the tissue is not fixed within 4 hours while the lung biopsy must be fixed within 6 hours. Keywords: Putrefaction; Autolysis; Fixation; Tissu

Economic incentives as a tool for reducing deforestation in Egba Division of Ogun State, Nigeria

The study was carried out to assess economic incentives as a tool for reducing deforestation in Egba Division of Ogun State. Data collected from 120 respondents were analysed using descriptive statistics and logistic regression model while Likert scale was used to rate the mean score of anthropogenic factors promoting deforestation and economic incentives used for reducing deforestation. The result showed that majority (68.3%) of the respondents were male with (32.7%) female. On age, 41-50 years (63.3%) recorded the highest. Educationally, (51.7%) had primary education, (31.7%) no formal education, (15.8%) with secondary education while (0.8%) had tertiary education. On income, major income recorded a mean of ₦29, 066 while minor income recorded a mean of ₦13, 600. The anthropogenic factors identified were setting forest ablaze, expanded agricultural activities, low literacy level, rising timber industry, rising population and poverty. The economic incentives identified include provision of subsidies for forest crops, improved taxation system on exploited forest logs, acquisition of well monitored license permit by hunters, alternative employment opportunities, provision of credit and selective ban on exportation of round logs. Logit regression results identified socioeconomic factors on incentives, with only education as the statistically significant variable at (p<0.05). Conclusively, Economic incentives can be an effective tool for reducing deforestation if properly monitored and implemented. Thus, deforestation activities cannot be totally eradicated but adequate implementation of forest policy in terms of effective policing of the forest can reduce it to the barest minimum.Keywords: Economic incentive, Tool, Deforestation, Egba Divisio

Value Creation and Appropriation of Firms: Concepts, Theories and Methodology

The issue of corporate performance had been vigorously addressed in the literature using traditional accounting metrics. However, contemporary studies now focus on corporate sustainability in terms of value creation and how constituents of a firm are compensated for their efforts at generating the value. The current research challenge is therefore on how to appropriately define and measure firm value, bearing in mind several stakeholders that have diverse and often conflicting interests in a firm. This paper fills this gap by using stakeholder perspective to explain the concept of value creation and by providing theoretical framework and methodology for measuring the value created and appropriated by a firm. It is established that value creation can be measured using (1) the difference between output value and inputs value, (2) the sum of the economic rewards given to stakeholders and 3) the true cash flows generated by a firm. The paper concludes that since the traditional accounting metrics have some limitations and since investors do not value accounting earnings but cash that is truly generated from a firm’ operations, a quantity that denotes value to diverse stakeholders of a firm should be used to measure firm value. Keywords: economic value, value distribution, value retention, cash flow, stakeholde