Regulatory Issues in Electronic Money: A Legal-Economics Analysis.

In this paper we examine regulatory issues relating to electronic money. The discussion proceeds along three main lines. Firstly, the focus of attention on the potential risks to the financial system is typically on the systemic risk arising from the payments system. Since issuers of electronic money automatically become part of the payments system, we consider if the arguments relating to systemic risk originating in the payments system apply in the case of electronic money. Secondly, we examine the sharp divergence in regulatory approaches between the US and the EU, and suggest that a useful way of reconciling this divergence is to note the existence of a tradeoff between the efficiency of the financial system and the amount of risk assumed by the public sector. This means that there is not necessarily a 'correct' answer to the question of the desirability of regulation. Thirdly, technological advances and financial innovations have made it easier for firms to engage in regulatory arbitrage. Competitive pressures may have encouraged financial centres to engage in competitive deregulation, resulting in a less than socially optimal level of regulation overall. It is therefore important that national authorities coordinate and harmonise their regulatory policies.REGULATION ; ELECTRONIC MONEY ; FINANCIAL SYSTEMS

Social Effects of Organisational Restructuring on Employee Workplace Attitudes in Selected Manufacturing Industries in Nigeria

This study examined the influence of the social impact of organisational restructuring on employee workplace attitudes. A sample of 725 employees drawn through stratified random sampling technique from four (4) manufacturing organisations which had been involved in an intensive restructuring process participated in the study. Questionnaire was the major instrument employed for data collection. Data were analysed using both descriptive and inferential statistics. The main hypothesis of the study was tested and result of finding showed a non-significant association between social effects of organisational restructuring and employee work-related attitudes. Furthermore, it was discovered that the general constellation of employee work -related attitudes, both the intrinsic and extrinsic aspects about the greater parts of their work-values and roles suffered satisfaction and commitment in post restructuring context. The significance of the findings of this study was discussed and their implications in the Nigerian manufacturing environment highlighted.Keywords: Organisational Restructuring, Workplace Attitude, Adaptation and Performance

Women and the Leadership Paradigm: Bridging the Workplace Gender-Gap in Nigeria

Women in top leadership positions have not attained the desired representation in business and government establishments within the Nigerian socio-economic environment. Thus, this study examined the leadership attributes of men and women in higher occupational echelons and the inhibitory dynamics preventing female employees from achieving equal upward career mobility like their male counterparts in work-organisations. The participants in this study were 400 top-ranking executives of government establishments and private business organisations contacted through a purposive sampling technique. However, 362 respondents fully participated in the study. Questionnaire was the major instrument used for data collection. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics. Findings specifically revealed an assumed differential in the leadership attributes of both sexes, but this variance was no impediment to women’s leadership effectiveness on their task performance. Despite this, women still faced higher odds of frictions and greater sex-typed expectations which decelerated their career mobility unlike their male counterparts. The study also found that there had been improvement but not equal representation, since the society decided the norms for advancement to higher leadership status. It concluded that for sustainable progress, both men and women should be accorded same opportunity in preferment to leadership positions in order to contribute to decision making and policy implementation in the work plac

Influence of familial characteristics on the psychosocial development of adolescents in Lagos State, Nigeria

The study examined the influence of familial characteristics on the psychosocial development of adolescent in selected secondary schools within Somolu Local Government area of Lagos State. In carrying out the study six null hypotheses were tested. The sample for the study comprises two hundred (200) adolescents randomly selected from four public senior secondary schools in Somolu Local Government Area of Lagos State. A self-designed instrument with extraction from the modified Erickson Psychosocial Stage Inventory and Student Problem Inventory (SPI) were used for the study. The overall instrument for this study consisted of 30 items with 0.80 reliability score. The data collected were analysed with Pearson Product Moment Correlation and One-way Anova statistics at 0.05 levels of significance. For the six hypotheses postulated, the following statistical results: r-cals=0.64, 0.25 and F-cals of 0.35, 0.181, 0.827, and 11.84 were respectively obtained. The study revealed that: There is significant influence of family type on self-esteem of adolescents. There is significant influence of family type on anxiety of adolescents. There is no significant influence of parental socio-economic status of adolescent on self-esteem of adolescents. There is no significant influence of parental socio-economic status on moral values of adolescents. There is no significant influence of parenting style on self-esteem of adolescents and there is significant influence of each parenting style on anxiety in adolescents. In the light of the study, it was recommended among others that good parenting style should be adopted by every parent; such as authoritative type of parenting. There should be familial capacity building, creating awareness for parents on the issue of adolescent psychosocial well-being which is a crucial factor for societal stability. Such programme could be organized by school counsellors through the auspices of the Parent-Teacher’s Association. There is need for personal social, group and individual counselling in schools where students will be guided.Keywords: Adolescents, family characteristics, self-esteem and anxiet

Critical Analysis of Decision Making Experience with a Machine Learning Approach in Playing Ayo Game

The major goal in defining and examining game scenarios is to find good strategies as solutions to the game. A plausible solution is a recommendation to the players on how to play the game, which is represented as strategies guided by the various choices available to the players. These choices invariably compel the players (decision makers) to execute an action following some conscious tactics. In this paper, we proposed a refinement-based heuristic as a machine learning technique for human-like decision making in playing Ayo game. The result showed that our machine learning technique is more adaptable and more responsive in making decision than human intelligence. The technique has the advantage that a search is astutely conducted in a shallow horizon game tree. Our simulation was tested against Awale shareware and an appealing result was obtained

Effects of Two Counselling Techniques on Mental Model in Values Clarification and Success Orientation of School Adolescents

The study examined the path of mental model as a function of adolescent's behavioural processes regarding value clarification and success orientation .An attempt was made to see if counselling/psycho-social interventions on irrational beliefs and negative automatic thoughts as variables measuring individual's mental models in operation, could positively boost the emotional and behavioural stability. The sample comprised 180 (90 females and 90 males) SSII students randomly selected from nine secondary schools in three Local Educational Districts (LED) in Lagos state. The schools were divided into three groups representing the three treatment strategies respectively and each group comprises (1) coeducational, (1) male, and (1) female schools .Two research hypotheses were postulated and the data generated were analyzed using step-wise multiple regression statistical model. The results revealed that: - There is a significant dependence of the adolescents' perceptions of self efficacy beliefs, success expectancy and life satisfaction on pattern of automatic thoughts and degree of irrational beliefs. - There is also significant improvement in the dependent variables assessments scores across experimental conditions. Showing the positive effects of the intervention. Based on the findings, it could be said that; detecting the metal models sustaining behavioral acts will help better in behaviour modification, in reducing risky behaviours or emotional problems associated with adolescents and young adults. Recommendations were made on the basis of the findings. Keywords: Mental Models, Value Clarification, Success Orientation, Automatic thought International Journal of Educational Research Vol. 3 (1) 2007 pp. 21-3

WATER RESOURCES USE, ABUSE AND REGULATIONS IN NIGERIA

The evolvement processes of water laws in Nigeria, as well as their efficiency in the sustenance of surface water resources, were studied. A cursory look was also taken into the mode of access to water resources by households in Nigeria. This was done vis-à-vis the governmental effort at providing potable water for its teeming population as well as the Land Use Act of 1978, which vests absolute control and ownership of all water resources, ground and surface, in the land owner. About 47 million Nigerians still rely, exclusively, on surface water sources to meet their domestic needs. Yet, pollution discharge into the surface water by individuals and industries go on unmitigated, unregulated, and unpunished due to weaknesses in the existing laws. The involvement of the scientific community in the regular calibration and monitoring of surface water quality as a tool for managing the surface and groundwater resources, among other things, would be an advantageous tool for curbing the pollution menace

Reaeration Coefficient Modeling: A Case Study of River Atuwara in Nigeria

A study of the self purification capacity of River Atuwara was done with the aim of developing a reaeration coefficient model, k2, for the river. The k2 model was evaluated and validated by comparing its performance with the Streeter-Phelps and Agunwamba models. Atuwara model was developed using non-linear regression while its performance was checked by the use of statistical and graphical parameters. The model gave the best dissolved oxygen predictive capacity in comparison with other models when used with the modified Streeter-Phelps equation in spite of the limitations imposed on it by the sinusoidal shape of the dissolved oxygen recovery curve caused by frequent interruptions in the recovery processes of the river system. It is also of note that due to its importance to human and aquatic life sustenance, the natural recovery processes of River Atuwara from frequent pollution loads could only be enhanced through an effective monitoring and regulation of effluent discharges into it by the Ogun State Environmental Protection Agency

Study of Auto Purification Capacity of River Atuwara in Nigeria

The aim of this paper was to study and predict the self-purification capacity of River Atuwara. This was done primarily by measuring the Dissolved Oxygen (DO) downstream of a pre-selected pollution discharge point on River Atuwara and then predicting the same using the modified Streeter-Phelps equations. Other data gathered from each of the 17 sampling stations on River Atuwara and used in the analysis included Biochemical Oxygen Demand, (BOD), pH, stream velocity, stream depth and distance. Predicted DO deficit trend lines were first fitted by retaining the original re-aeration coefficient component, k2, of the modified Streeter-Phelps equation (USGS equation) and subsequently by substituting it with Atuwara reaeration coefficient model. It was found that the latter displayed better predictive capacity. Results also demonstrated that the auto-purification capacity of the river which is already limited by the relatively low DO saturation level is further threatened by the wastes being discharged into it at varying intervals. Some of the wastes which are non-biodegradable and acidic were also found to be interrupting the auto-purification processes of the river. Water from River Atuwara requires treatment before it can be considered safe for consumption by its current users

Effect of Dietary Biscuit Waste on Performance and Carcass Characteristics of Broilers

A study was conducted for 8 weeks to investigate the effect of dietary biscuit waste (BW) replacing maize (M) on performance and carcass characteristic of broilers. A total of 175 day old marshal broiler chicks were used for this study. They were completely randomized and divided into five treatments. Each treatment had five replicates of seven birds per replicate. Five experimental diets were formulated as follows; A: (100%M : 0%BW), B: (75% M: 25%BW), C: (50%M: 50%BW), D: (25%M: 75%BW), E: (0%M: 100%BW) at both starter and finisher phases. Performance indices measured were feed intake, weight gain and feed conversion ratio.  The feed intake (F.I.) was affected with increasing level of biscuit waste. There were significant differences (p<0.05) across the treatments with treatment A having the highest value of 2.92kg for F.I  and treatment E having the least value of 2.51kg while treatments B, C and D followed the same trend having the following values of 2.73kg, 2.70kg and 2.61kg respectively. Average weight gain showed that there were no significant differences (p>0.05) across the treatments, the values obtained were 1.13kg, 1.09kg, 1.10kg, 1.12kg and 1.10kg for treatments A, B, C, D and E respectively. Feed conversion ratio showed significant differences (p?0.05) as birds in treatments C, D and E recorded lower values of 2.47%, 2.37% and 2.33% respectively while birds on treatment A had highest value of 2.60%. The carcass weights expressed as percentages of live weights (LW) did not show any significant differences (p>0.05). The result for breast weights showed significant differences (p?0.05) as birds on treatments four (25% M: 75% (BW) and five (0%M: 100% BW) had lower values of 10.05% (LW) and 11.20% (LW) respectively. Surprisingly, birds on treatment two (75% M 25% BW) had the highest breast meat value of 16.75%. The percentage organ weights showed no significant differences (p>0.05) between liver, heart and spleen but the gizzard weights were significantly different among the treatments with the control having the highest value of 2.88% (LW). It was concluded that biscuit waste could be used as feed for broilers up to 50% replacement levels for maize at the starter and finisher phases without compromising performance and carcass value of broilers. Keywords: Biscuit waste (BW), Maize (M), Broiler Performance and Carcass Characteristics