A study of the effect of diversity in the board and the audit committee composition on earnings management for low and high leveraged banks in Nigeria

The study examines the effect of board diversity and audit committee on earnings management of listed Deposit Money Banks in Nigeria, for low and high leveraged Banks. Earnings Management is measured using Chang, Shen and Fang (2008) model. All the 15 banks listed in Nigerian Stock Exchange as at 2015 were used for the analysis. Data were obtained from the financial statements covering the period 2008-2015. Multiple regression technique was employed, while the tool of analysis is Stata 13. The findings revealed that, all the variables have significant effect on earnings management of banks except for women directors and board size under the low leveraged banks, while board ownership was also found to have weak impact on earnings management under the high leveraged banks. Meanwhile, the findings also revealed that the explanatory variables under the low explained earnings management better than high leveraged.peer-reviewe

Early containment of fast network worm malware

This paper presents a countermeasure mechanism for the propagation of fast network worm malware. The mechanism uses a cross layer architecture with a detection technique at the network layer to identify worm infection and a data-link containment solution to block an identified infected host. A software prototype of the mechanism has been used to demonstrate its effective. An empirical analysis of network worm propagation has been conducted to test the mechanism. The results show that the developed mechanism is effective in containing self-propagating malware with almost no false positives

An assessment of the contemporary threat posed by network worm malware

The cost of a zero-day network worm outbreak has been estimated to be up to US$2.6 billion. Additionally zeroday network worm outbreaks have been observed that spread at a significant pace across the global Internet, with an observed infection level of more than 90 percent of vulnerable hosts within 10 minutes. The threat posed by such fast-spreading malware is therefore significant, particularly given the fact that network operator / administrator intervention is not likely to take effect within the typical epidemiological timescale of such infections. This paper presents a classification of wormable vulnerabilities, demonstrating a method to determine if a vulnerability is wormable, and presents a survey into the cause of the reduction of worm outbreaks in recent years, as well as their viability in the future. It then goes on to explore recent wormable vulnerabilities, and points out the issues with operating system security in relation to techniques used by zero-day worms

COX-2 inhibitors from stem bark of Bauhinia rufescens Lam. (Fabaceae)

Chemical investigation of the stem bark of Bauhinia rufescens resulted in the isolation of a new cyanoglucoside and menisdaurin from methanol extract and oxepin from petroleum ether extract. The isolated compounds were tested for their anti-inflammatory potentials based on the cyclooxygenase-2 enzyme (COX-2) model. Cyanoglucoside exhibited the highest activity among the compounds with an inhibition activity of 49.34 % at 100 μM (IC50 0.46 μM) compared to the positive control, indomethacin (79.20 %, IC50 0.24 μM)

Systematic literature review on SQL injection attack

SQL injection attack is a common threat to web applications that utilizes poor input validation to implement attack on a target database. It is becoming a very serious problem in web applications as successful execution leads to loss of integrity and confidentiality and this makes it a very sensitive issue of software security. The study presents a Systematic Literature Review (SLR) on SQL Injection Attacks (SQLIA) following Kitchenham's procedure of performing systematic literature review. This study gives a review on SQL injection attack, detection and prevention techniques. In the end, an evaluation of the techniques is carried out to check the effectiveness of each technique based on how many method of attack it can detect and prevent. It is imperative to note that a good number of the evaluated techniques were able to detect and prevent all types of SQLIA based on the selected criteria. To determine the best technique resources such as memory and processing time need to be considered in the evaluation

Energy Consumption and Economic Growth in Nigeria: A Causality Analysis

The paper is set out to re-examine the causal relationship between energy consumption and economic growth using Nigeria’s data from 1980 to 2011 in a multivariate frameworkby including labour and capital in the causality analysis. Applying Granger causality test, impulse response and variance decomposition analysis; the results of the causality test reported absence of causality and that of variance decomposition found that capital and labourare more important in affecting output growth compared to energy consumption. Keywords: Capital, Causality, Economic growth, Energy consumption, Labou

The molecular composition and geochemical applications of asphaltenes

PhD ThesisAsphaltenes are the heaviest components of petroleum and bitumen consisting of a complex mixture of heteroaromatic substances that have been associated with various deposition problems in both upstream and downstream sectors of the petroleum industry. This thesis describes characterisation of asphaltenes from a variety of sources and geographical areas using FTIR, NMR, as well as selective chemical degradation methods in combination with GC/MS & GC/IRMS with the aim of understanding how their compositions vary with source and geochemical history. Asphaltenes were observed to co-precipitate with substances such as waxes that are components of the maltene fraction. Quantitative removal of the co-precipitated substances requires Soxhlet extraction of the asphaltenes for several hours. The extraction time was found to vary with different asphaltenes. The so-called occlusion or physical entrapment of biomarkers in the cage-like structure of the asphaltenes is more than likely a consequence of the co-precipitation of the waxes. Analysis of mid-infrared spectra of the asphaltenes revealed that petroleum asphaltenes consist predominantly of aliphatic moieties bonded to condensed aromatic structures with relative proportions of aromatic carbon in range of 30 to 40% for non-biodegraded petroleum asphaltenes as revealed by 13C NMR. Biodegraded asphaltenes are less aromatic with relative aromatic carbon being 27% or less although the aromatic moieties tend to have relatively greater degree of condensation than asphaltenes from ono-degraded oils . Although n-alkyl and iso-alkyl groups are the dominant aliphatic moieties, naphthenic groups, mainly in form of homohopanoids and steroids, are significantly present. Oxygen functionalities are mainly in form of hydroxyl, ether, ester, and carboxyl as well as conjugated ketone groups. Ester groups were detected only in coal and black shale asphaltenes. Carboxyl groups were detected in all the asphaltenes irrespective of source and geographical region, although they were particularly prominent in black shale and coal asphaltenes even at a relatively high rank of Ro = 1.5%. Nitrogen functionalities were present as pyridinic and pyrrolic heteroaromatic systems in addition to tertiary aromatic amines. With increasing thermal stress, asphaltenes were observed to evolve towards an equilibrium structure or composition in which aromatic moieties become dominant over aliphatic moieties as a result of increasing condensation and dealkylation. Distribution of alkyl moieties shifts towards increasing proportions of the lower molecular weight homologues with increasing thermal maturity. The thermal stress also results in loss of oxygen functionalities mainly from ester and carboxyl groups. At the molecular level, isomerisation of bound hopanoids and steroids to form an equilibrium composition was observed with increasing maturity. However, while isomerisation of bound hopanoids in asphaltenes appear to be in phase with the corresponding isomerisation of hopanes in the maltene fraction, the isomerisation of bound steroids lags significantly behind the corresponding isomerisation of the steranes in the maltenes. There is good potential in using multivariate pattern recognition tools in oil/oil correlations based on asphaltene bulk composition as measured using FTIR. Notwithstanding some misclassification, the techniques tend to correlate asphaltenes with common source. Similarly, the aliphatic moieties of asphaltenes also reflect the organic matter sources of the asphaltenes. The n-alkyl moieties from asphaltenes with common source not only show similar distributions, but also similar δ13C trends even in asphaltenes from biodegraded oils. Likewise, bound hopanoids also reflect the organic matter source such that asphaltenes with common source show similar hopanoid distributions. The aliphatic moieties therefore have good potential that may be comparable to the conventional hydrocarbon-based biomarkers in oil/oil correlations. In general, the composition of asphaltenes is controlled by the source organic matter and its thermal evolution. The effect of biodegradation is not yet completely understood but, with the exception of steroids, it does not appear to affect the aliphatic composition of the asphaltenes. There is therefore a significant potential in using asphaltenes in discrimination/correlation of oils particularly where the hydrocarbons in the maltene fraction are lost to biodegradation.Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF), Nigeri

Yield and Yield Attributes of Extra-early Maize (Zea Mays L.) as Affected by Rates of Npk Fertilizer Succeeding Chilli Pepper (Capsicum Frutescens) Supplied with Different Rates Sheep Manure

Field experiment was conducted in 2005 and 2006 to study response of extra-early maize variety (95TZEE-Y1) to rates of NPK (0, 40:20:20, 80:40:40 and 120:60:60 kg N:P2O5:K2O ha-1) and residual FYM (0, 5, 10 and 15 t ha-1 applied to chilli pepper the previous season) in the semi-arid zone of Nigeria. Randomized complete block design with three replicates was used. Higher values for soil physical and chemical properties were obtained in plots supplied with manure the previous season with soil from 2006 experiment more fertile than for the first year, hence produced 21% more grain yield. All the applied NPK rates in 2005 and except 40:20:20 ha1 in 2006 had resulted in early maize crop as compared to control. Husked and de-husked cob and 100-grain weights and grain yield/ha were higher at 120:60:60 kg NPK ha-1. Maize grown in plot supplied with 15 t FYM ha1 the previous year matured earlier. Cobs and 100-grain weights and grain yield were highest in plot supplied with 10 t FYM ha1. The 10t FYM ha-1 had 69% and 68% more grain yield than the control in 2005 and 2006, respectively. Highest maize yield was obtained at 120:60:60 kg NPK ha-1 or 10t FYM ha-1. All the parameters measured significantly and positively related to each other when the two years data were combined

Effects of Social Investment Programme (N-Power) on Standard of Living of Business Education Graduates in Kano State

This paper focuses on the effects of Social Investment Programme (NPower) on standard of living of business education graduates in Kano State, Nigeria. Social Investment aims at granting youths the power to perform their duties and create change. It has to do with teaching them about their ability to control their lives and change society to inculcate a sense of value. N-Power is one of the five Social Investment Programmes of the Federal Government of Nigeria under President Muhammadu Buhari led administration. Two research questions guided the study with one corresponding hypothesis tested at 0.05 level of significance. The descriptive survey research design was adopted in the study. The population was made up of 26 and 30 volunteers from Nassarawa and Fagge LGAs respectively, and 28 supervisors. A structured questionnaire titled N-power Questionnaire (NPQ) was developed by the researcher and was structured into 4 rating scale. Percentages, mean, and standard deviation were used to answer the research questions and one null hypothesis. The findings revealed that N-power SIP had significant effects in improving the standard of living of business education graduates in Kano State. Based on the findings, a major recommendation highlighted was that States government should commit funds to social investment programmes since it helps to improve the standard of living of volunteers