Extension and Revision of Monetary Policy Transmission Mechanisms and Domestic Real Investment in Nigeria: A Time Series Study Between 1981-2015 by Lucky Anyike Lucky & Uzah Cheta Kingsley

The study by Lucky Anyike and Uzah Cheta Kingsley examines the impact of monetary policy on domestic real investment in Nigeria, using Gross Fixed Capital Formation to Gross Domestic Product ratio as a proxy for domestic real investment. The study uses various independent variables, including the maximum lending rate, credit to private sector as a percentage of GDP, naira to US dollar exchange rate, savings rate, monetary policy rate, prime lending rate, and Treasury bill rate. The authors conclude that monetary policy has a significant effect on the domestic real investment rate. The extension of this paper examines the impact of both monetary and fiscal policy on domestic real investment in Nigeria, while also considering the influence of political biases and the fact that a significant portion of fiscal policy spending may be allocated to current expenditures rather than capital expenditures. While mainstream economic theory suggests that fiscal policy should have a positive effect on real investment rate, this theory may be challenged in Nigeria due to the specific context and allocation of fiscal resources. We also examine the effect of monetary policy on domestic real investment rate in Nigeria by incorporating additional variables in our analysis.&nbsp

ANALYSIS OF CONSTRAINTS WITH ACCESS TO SECURE PROPERTY RIGHTS REGISTRATION IN AKURE, NIGERIA

A reasonable proportion of economic achievement is derivable from an active land market system that is supported with improved and formalized land right registration. However, there are still constraints with access to secure property rights registration in many states of Nigeria in contrast with the experience in developed economies. This situation inhibits a healthy real estate property market development. The paper elicited data from 150 professionals in the built environment within Akure, the capital of Ondo state, using a structured questionnaire. Factor analysis by principal components was adopted in the data analysis to classify identified twenty-one variables that constitute constraints to property rights registration in the study area. The results show that six components accounted for 77.23% of the total variance explained and a total of six factors were extracted which converged in 10 iterations.  Time taken in achieving land title registration, the bureaucratic procedure involved, inappropriate document to work with, poor knowledge of ICT among officials and poor internet connectivity are among inhibiting factors.  There is need to introduce modern Land Information System (LIS) and Geographic Information System (GIS) into property right registration process to make data more secure, enhance huge data storage, easy access and retrieval

Corneal curvature in young high myopic undergraduates in southern Nigeria

Background: Corneal curvature is important for contact lens fitting and management, ocular aberration analysis, corneal refractive surgery as well as diagnoses and management of corneal pathological conditions such as keratoconus and it is also an important biometric factor affecting refractive errors, myopia inclusive.Methods: This was an observational cross-sectional study conducted at the Optometry Teaching Clinic, Department of Optometry, University of Benin, Benin City, Edo State, Nigeria. Two hundred and twenty myopic eyes of 113 (54 males, 59 females) undergraduates students, between 16 and 25 years with myopia of -5.00 to -20.50 participated in this study. Non-cycloplegic refraction was done by retinoscopic measurement and spherical equivalent refraction (SER) of the eyes was calculated. The corneal curvature was determined with a Bausch and Lomb one position Keratometer (Bausch and Lomb Corp., USA).Results: The mean age, spherical equivalent, corneal curvature and corneal power were 20.44±2.24 years, ̶7.12±3.14DS, 7.72±0.26mm and 43.77±1.48D respectively. Most of the students had a myopia of -5.75 to -10.50DS (46.8%) and a corneal curvature of 7.61-7.90mm (46.82%). There was a difference between the corneal curvature of males and females (P=0.0001). A relationship was also found with gender and corneal curvature (P=0.001).Conclusions: This study found that high myopic females had shorter corneal curvature, with greater corneal powers than their males counterparts (P0.01)

Assessment of Entrepreneurship Education Knowledge Acquisition, Change of Attitude to Entrepreneurship and Skills Acquisition in Entrepreneurship Among University Undergraduates in South-Western Nigeria

This study was designed to evaluate the entrepreneurship education knowledge change of attitude to entrepreneurship and skills acquisition in entrepreneurship among university undergraduates in South-west Nigeria. The study adopted descriptive survey research design. Three states were randomly selected from Southwest, Nigeria from which one public and one private university each were randomly selected. The instruments used were Entrepreneurship Education Students Achievement Test and Undergraduate’s entrepreneurial and Management Competence Questionnaire which yielded reliability coefficient of 0.81 and 0.72 respectively. Paired and independent t-test was used to analyse the data collected at 0.05 level of significance. The pre and post test scores on undergraduates entrepreneurship education knowledge (tc1819) = 337.26 change of attitude to Entrepreneurship (tc1819 )= 240.80 and skills acquisition in Entrepreneurship (tc1819)= 123.05 indicated the positive impact of entrepreneurship education significant differences were also observed between the public and private undergraduates’ Entrepreneurship education knowledge (tc1819) = 5.46, change of attitude to Entrepreneurship (tc1819) = 4.96 and skills acquisition in Entrepreneurship (tc1819) = 4.20. Based on the findings of this study the following recommendations were made among which are: University lecturers should demonstrate a strong dedication to the teaching of entrepreneurship education general studies Government, non-governmental organizations and philanthropists should assist in providing sufficient resources for the teaching and learning of entrepreneurship education general studies course, the Vice Chancellors in Public Universities to intensify more efforts on effective implementation of entrepreneurship education general studies course.&nbsp

SENSITIVITY OF MACROECONOMIC VARIABLES TO EXCHANGE RATE SHOCK IN NIGERIA AND SOUTH AFRICA: A STRUCTURAL VECTOR AUTO REGRESSION APPROACH

This study investigates the sensitivity of macroeconomic variables to exchange rate shocks in Nigeria and South Africa between 1982 and 2018. Specifically, the study investigated the response of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), Gross Domestic Product growth rate (GDPGR), Import rate (IMPORTR), Export rate (EXPORTR) and Inflation rate (INFR) to exchange rate shock in these Countries. The data used for analysis is secondary by nature and was obtained from the World Development Bank Indicators. The estimation technique employed was structural Vector autoregression (SVAR), impulse response function (IRF), and variance decomposition function (VDF). The Structural Var result revealed that exchange rate shock had negative effect on FDI in the countries but insignificant. The result on GDPGR revealed that the effect is only positive in South Africa but insignificant in both economies. For IMPORTR and EXPORTR, the effect is positive in all the zones but significant only in Nigeria. For INFR, the effect is significantly positive in South Africa at 5% significant level but insignificantly negative in Nigeria. Impulse response result revealed that in Nigeria and South Africa, all the variables were negatively sensitive to exchange rate shock but temporal except INFR that was positive and permanent in South Africa. However, the variance decomposition function for the zones revealed that apart from own shock, exchange rate shock had relatively high contributions to variations in IMPORTR, EXPORTR, and INFR in Nigeria. Also, in South Africa, exchange rate shock contributed the largest variations in EXPORTR and INFR. Based on the findings, this study concludes that the macroeconomic variables of the countries are sensitive to exchange rate shock more in the short run but undecided in the long run. Moreover, the permanent response of INFR to exchange rate shock in South Africa calls for serious attention by the regulatory authorities in this economy. Therefore, this study recommends that conscientious effort be made by policy makers in ensuring exchange rate management in the zones for better performance of the macroeconomic variables. JEL: F31, F41, N1, N10, N17 Article visualizations

Optimetric analysis of 1x4 array of circular microwave patch antennas for mammographic applications using adaptive gradient descent algorithm

Interest in the use of microwave equipment for breast imagery is on the increase owing to its safety, ease of use and friendlier cost. However, some of the pertinent blights of the design and optimization of microwave antenna include intensive consumption of computing resources, high price of software acquisition and very large optimization time. This paper therefore attempts to address these concerns by devising a rapid means of designing and optimizing the performance of a 1×4 array of circular microwave patch antenna for breast imagery applications by deploying the adaptive gradient descent algorithm (AGDA) for a circumspectly designed artificial neural network. In order to cross validate the findings of this work, the results obtained using the adaptive gradient descent algorithm was compared with those obtained with the deployment of the much reported Levenberg-Marquardt algorithm for the same dataset over same frequency range and training constraints. Analysis of the performance of the AGDA neural network shows that the approach is a viable and accurate technique for rapid design and analysis of arrays of circular microwave patch antenna for breast imaging

Optimetric analysis of 1x4 array of circular microwave patch antennas for mammographic applications using adaptive gradient descent algorithm

Interest in the use of microwave equipment for breast imagery is on the increase owing to its safety, ease of use and friendlier cost. However, some of the pertinent blights of the design and optimization of microwave antenna include intensive consumption of computing resources, high price of software acquisition and very large optimization time. This paper therefore attempts to address these concerns by devising a rapid means of designing and optimizing the performance of a 1×4 array of circular microwave patch antenna for breast imagery applications by deploying the adaptive gradient descent algorithm (AGDA) for a circumspectly designed artificial neural network. In order to cross validate the findings of this work, the results obtained using the adaptive gradient descent algorithm was compared with those obtained with the deployment of the much reported Levenberg-Marquardt algorithm for the same dataset over same frequency range and training constraints. Analysis of the performance of the AGDA neural network shows that the approach is a viable and accurate technique for rapid design and analysis of arrays of circular microwave patch antenna for breast imaging

Impact of age-related neuroglial cell responses on hippocampal deterioration

Aging is one of the greatest risk factors for the development of sporadic age-related neurodegenerative diseases and neuroinflammation is a common feature of this disease phenotype. In the immunoprivileged brain, neuroglial cells, which mediate neuroinflammatory responses, are influenced by the physiological factors in the microenvironment of the central nervous system (CNS). These physiological factors include but are not limited to cell-to-cell communication involving cell adhesion molecules, neuronal electrical activity and neurotransmitter and neuromodulator action. However, despite this dynamic control of neuroglial activity, in the healthy aged brain there is an alteration in the underlying neuroinflammatory response notably seen in the hippocampus, typified by astrocyte/microglia activation and increased pro-inflammatory cytokine production and signaling. These changes may occur without any overt concurrent pathology, however, they typically correlate with deteriorations in hippocamapal or cognitive function. In this review we examine two important phenomenons, firstly the relationship between age-related brain deterioration (focusing on hippocampal function) and underlying neuroglial response(s), and secondly how the latter affects molecular and cellular processes within the hippocampus that makes it vulnerable to age-related cognitive decline

Anatomy and Specific Gravity of Wood Samples from Six Nigerian Tree Species in Relation to their Diagnostic X-ray Shielding Capabilities

The basic principle of protection against nuclear radiation is to keep radiation exposure as  much as possible below the maximum permissible dose equivalent (MPD). In order to redress the dependence on costly shielding materials such as lead, steel, glass and gypsum, cheaper and readily available  materials  such as wood have been brought under focus as potential resources for shielding hazardous radiations. Making use of the relative transmission of 60 kVp X-rays by the wood of six Nigerian tree species as reference data, this study examined the wood anatomy of the tree  species (i.e Syzygium guinense (Willd.) DC., Tectona grandis L., Afzelia pachyloba Harms., A.  africana Pers., Gmelina arborea Roxb. and Daniellia oliveri (Rolfe) Hutch. & Dalziel with a view to providing information on the wood anatomical basis for their X-ray shielding capabilities. T. grandis and G. arborea were  the two most fibrous of  the six species studied, with their fibre-to-non-fibrous tissue ratios (F/NF) being 1.24 and 1.01 respectively. Incidentally, these two species transmitted  the least amounts of radiation at an average wood thickness of 5 cm.   Tyloses were observed in the wood of all but G. arborea and D. oliveri, and the % of vessels with tylose ranged  from 20.64 to 50.36.  At  0.05 level of probability, the reference data on relative X-ray transmission showed significant positive correlation  with % axial parenchyma content (r = 0.754), but significant negative correlations with % fibre content (-0.734), %  of vessels with tylose (-0.864), vessel diameter (-0.757), vessel lumen width (-0.753) and F/NF (-0.742). The diagnostic X-ray attenuation capability of the  wood samples examined can therefore be anatomically explained by these six  parameters, and their evaluation in prospective wood samples for shielding hazardous radiations can be useful. Key words: Gmelina arborea, hardwood, hazardous radiation, Tectona grandis, tylose,  wood anatomy, X-ray