Financial Determinants of Liquidity Positions of Listed Manufacturing Firms on the Nigerian Stock Exchange

The study evaluated the influence of financial determinants on cash holdings of selected quoted manufacturing firms in Nigeria. Specifically, the effect of these determinants (return on assets, financial leverage, dividend payment, cash flow volatility and market to book ratios) on cash holdings was examined. Influence of other determinants used in extant literature designated control variables in this instance was also investigated. Ex-post-facto research approach via quantitative panel methodology was employed to ascertain the effect of the predictors on corporate cash holdings. Data were collated from the audited annual reports of forty-one (41) firms for the thirteen year period: 2006-2018. Diagnostic tests confirmed the consistency and suitability of the Fixed Effects (FE) panel regression models. In other words, data were analyzed by means of Prais-Winsten Regression Correlated Panels Corrected Standard Errors (PCSEs). Findings indicate the existence of a significant positive influence of cash flow volatility, net working capital, market to book ratio on corporate cash holdings, but a significant negative effect of dividend payment and return on assets on cash and cash equivalents. These results imply that stockpiling cash and liquid assets substitutes decreases the value of the firm through market capitalization as they move in opposite direction. Further, highly levered firms may be operating sub-optimally given that the lingering local recession has made borrowing too expensive if not impossible. The study surmised that cash holdings of Nigerian manufacturing firms is significantly influenced by cash flow dynamics and availability of both liquid asset substitutes, market value of the firm and profitability. The study recommends that these firms maintain adequate cash budget and cash flow planning to ensure smooth running of operations, sufficient liquid and near liquid resources to cover maturing loans / debentures, and opt for an optimal liquidity – profitability trade-off at least in the short run given that it boosts the magnitude of both liquidity and profitability. Keywords: Financial Determinants, Cash Holding, Firm Size. DOI: 10.7176/EJBM/12-14-06 Publication date:May 31st 202

Sensitivity of Cash Positions to Leverage and Firm Size of Selected Listed Manufacturing Firms in Nigeria

The study examined the empirical relationship between firm size, financial leverage and level of cash and cash equivalents of selected quoted manufacturing firms in the Nigerian Stock Exchange. Ex-post-facto research approach via panel least squares was employed to assess the nature and extent of association between these variables. Data were collated from the audited annual reports of thirty-seven (37) manufacturing firms for the thirteen year period: 2006-2018. Diagnostic tests were carried out on the collated data using Levin-Lin-Chu panel unit-root test which confirmed their stationarity and Westerlund Panel Cointegration Tests that depicted the variables were not cointegrated in the long run. Hypothetical statements tested using panel least squares revealed that while financial leverage (Lev) exerted insignificant negative influence on the firm’s level of cash and cash equivalents, natural logarithm of total assets exerted insignificant but positive influence on cash holdings. These imply that firms keeping insufficient liquid assets may be forced to borrow from external sources at exorbitant costs or become illiquid. The effects of the control variables are, however, statistically relevant. Keywords: financial leverage, cash holding, firm size DOI: 10.7176/RJFA/11-6-08 Publication date:March 31st 202

Password-Based Authentication and The Experiences of End Users

Passwords are used majorly for end-user authentication in information and communication technology (ICT) systems due to its perceived ease of use. The use for end-user authentication extends through mobile, computers and network-based products and services. But with the attendant issues relating to password hacks, leakages, and theft largely due to weak, reuse and poor password habits of end-users, the call for passwordless authentication as alternative intensifies. All the same, there are missing knowledge of whether these password-based experiences are associated with societal economic status, educational qualification of citizens, their age and gender, technological advancements, and depth of penetration. In line with the above, understanding the experience of end-users in developing economy to ascertain their password-based experience has become of interest to the researchers. This paper aims at measuring the experience of staff and students in University communities within southeastern Nigeria on password-based authentication systems. These communities have population whose age brackets are majorly within the ages of 16 and 60 years; have people with requisite educational qualifications ranging from Diploma to Doctorate degrees and constitutes good number of ICT tools consumers. The survey had 291 respondents, and collected data about age, educational qualifications, and gender from these respondents. It also collected information about their password experience in social media network, online shopping, electronic health care services, and internet banking. Our analysis using SPSS and report by means of descriptive statistics, frequency distribution, and Chi-Square tests showed that account compromise in the geographical area is not common with the respondents reporting good experience with passwords usage.Comment: 31 pages, 15 tables, 2 figure

Validation of coronavirus-2019 phobia scale using preschool practitioners in urban and rural communities in Nigeria Implication for educational sociologists

Coronavirus-2019 (COVID-19) emerged in December 2019, causing significant changes in people’s social lives and other human activities. The outbreak halted educational activities throughout the world. The Nigerian experience was unique in that most people were skeptical about the pandemic’s existence. This practice contributed to the Nigerian people’s fear of the COVID-19 outbreak. However, in Nigeria, there has never been a validated or established Covid-19 phobia scale, necessitating this study. This study was a pure validation study on COVID-19 phobia scale (C19PS). The study area was south-east states and a sample of 386 preschool practitioners in urban and rural communities of South East States, Nigeria participated in the study. The eligibility criteria include being a preschool teacher and demonstrating signs of COVID-19 phobia. The validation of the C19PS was done by subjecting the data gathered to principal axis factoring analysis with varimax rotation. The model fit for the data was tested using root mean square error of approximation and comparative fit index. It was found that the Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin value of .845 for the measure of the adequacy of the sample size. There was also a significant Bartlett’s test of sphericity (P<.05). This implies that the correlation matrix for the C19PS is not an identity matrix. It was revealed that C19PS had good overall reliability (a=.896) and model fit (Root mean square error of approximation=.042, comparative fit index=.943) in a sample of Nigerian preschool practitioners. As a result, C19PS was recommended as a trustworthy tool for identifying persons who suffer from COVID-19 phobia.https://www.journals.elsevier.com/medicineam2023Science, Mathematics and Technology Educatio

Password-based authentication and the experiences of end users

Passwords are used majorly for end-user authentication in information and communication technology (ICT) systems due to its perceived ease of use. The use for end-user authentication extends through mobile, computers and network-based products and services. But with the attendant issues relating to password hacks, leakages, and theft largely due to weak, reuse and poor password habits of end-users, the call for passwordless authentication as alternative intensifies. All the same, there are missing knowledge of whether these password-based experiences are associated with societal economic status, educational qualification of citizens, their age and gender, technological advancements, and depth of penetration. In line with the above, understanding the experience of end-users in developing economy to ascertain their password-based experience has become of interest to the researchers. This paper aims at measuring the experience of staff and students in University communities within southeastern Nigeria on password-based authentication systems. These communities have population whose age brackets are majorly within the ages of 16 and 60 years; have people with requisite educational qualifications ranging from Diploma to Doctorate degrees and constitutes good number of ICT tools consumers. The survey had 291 respondents, and collected data about age, educational qualifications, and gender from these respondents. It also collected information about their password experience in social media network, online shopping, electronic health care services, and internet banking. Our analysis using SPSS and report by means of descriptive statistics, frequency distribution, and Chi-Square tests showed that account compromise in the geographical area is not common with the respondents reporting good experience with passwords usage. Furthermore, this experience is not in any way related to their age (under 60), and educational qualification. Our experiment did not measure the entropy of end-users' passwords, their password hygiene culture and so cannot relate this experience with the strengths of their passwords nor that of their password hygiene culture. The outcome and recommendations of this research will help inform policy and research direction towards password hygiene culture, management, and the potentials or otherwise of passwordless authentication systems in developing economies

K-means clustering of electricity consumers using time-domain features from smart meter data

Abstract Smart meter stores electricity consumption data of every consumer in the smart grid system. A better understanding of consumption behaviors and an effective consumer classification based on the similarity of these behaviors can be helpful for flexible demand management and effective energy control. In this paper, we propose an implementation of unsupervised classification for categorizing consumers based on the similarity of their typical electricity consumption behaviors. The main goal is to group similar observations together in order to easily look at the dataset. Hence, we go through pattern identification in households’ consumption with the K-means clustering algorithm. K-means clusters consumption behaviors based on extracted temporal features into k groups. The result from the algorithm helps power suppliers to understand power consumers’ better and helps them make better informed decision based on the information available to them. The dataset used in this paper is a real data from the London Data Store energy consumption readings for a sample of 5567 London Households that took part in the UK Power Networks Led Low Carbon London project between November 2011 and February 2014 available at: https://data.london.gov.uk/dataset/smartmeter-energy-use-data-in-london-households

Predictors of puerperal menstruation.

BackgroundPuerperal period is an important and thought-provoking period for puerperal mothers. Surprisingly, reports have indicated that there is increasing number of women resuming menstruation within six weeks of childbirth (puerperal menstruation). To the best of knowledge, there is no prior study on predictors of puerperal menstruation.ObjectiveTo determine frequency and predictors of puerperal menstruation.MethodsThis was a single tertiary health institution cross-sectional study at ESUT Teaching Hospital, Parklane, Enugu, Nigeria that included data from May 2015 to December 2018. Women were interviewed at the end of the first six weeks of their childbirth. Women with HIV positive or had uterine rupture or peripartum hysterectomy were excluded. Bivariate analysis was performed by the chi-squared test and conditional logistic regression analysis was used to determine variables associated with puerperal menstruation. Statistical significance was accepted when P- value is ResultsA total of 371 women met the inclusion criteria. The return of menses within 6 weeks was present in 118(31.8%) women versus 253 (68.2%) women without puerperal menstruation, given a ratio of 1:3. Of the 371 women, 249 (67.1%) were on exclusive breastfeeding. The significant associated risk factors were age (p = 0.009), parity (p0.05, for all).ConclusionOne in 3 women resumes menstruation within 6 weeks of childbirth. The major predictor was early initiation of family planning, and exclusive breastfeeding with manual removal of placenta a major protective factor. These interesting issues require further investigation to better understand the mechanism of puerperal menstruation