EFFECT OF AUDIT QUALITY ON THE MARKET VALUE OF LISTED NON-FINANCIAL COMPANIES IN NIGERIA

This study examined the effect of audit quality on the market value of listed non-financial companies in Nigeria. Audit quality was explained by Audit Firm Size (AFS), Audit Experience (AE), Auditor Industry Specialization (AIS), Audit Fees (AF), Audit Tenure (AT) and Audit Opinion (AOP) while market value by market Price per Share (MPS). Expost facto design was adopted for this study.The requisite data were obtained from the audited financial statements of 47 listed non-financial companies for a period of 12 years (2004-2015) giving rise to 564 company-year observations. Multiple linear regression analysis, particularly, the Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) method was used to analyze the data. The results indicated that audit quality has significant positive effect on market value of non-financial companies listed in Nigeria. More specifically, AFS, AIS, AF, AT and AOP have significant positive effect on market value whereas, AE exerts a significant negative effect on market value. We therefore recommend that regulatory bodies such as Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Financial Reporting Council (FRC), Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), and professional accounting bodies like Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN) and Association of National Accountants of Nigeria (ANAN) should ensure audit quality by enforcing thesanctions and disciplinary measures on auditors/audit firms that tend to mar audit quality as audit quality is seen to have the capability of significantly affecting the market value of companies in Nigeria positively

Impact of Non-life Insurance Penetration on the Economic Growth of Nigeria

This study explores the impact of non-life insurance industry performance on economic growth in Nigeria. Insurance penetration is measured through five diverse proxies such as non-life insurance, savings, expenditures, investment and profits of the insurance industry with their time-series statistics covering the period 1988 and 2012. The ex-post facto research strategy and purposive (judgemental) sampling technique were discovered appropriate for the study as effectively utilised by several intellectuals in the past. Data were analysed using regression. The ordinary least square regression was adopted for the testing of the hypotheses. The outcomes of the study showed that non-life insurance penetration had a substantially positive effect on the economic growth in Nigeria during the period. Profit and investment are found to have a positive effect on the economy but statistically insignificant while Savings and government expenditure have an adverse effect on the economy. The study recommends an improved modification in insurance products, especially in non-life businesses to availing clients the chance of choosing from a diversity of products. The study, therefore, recommends an increase in the awareness of non-life insurance services for its impact to be felt at all levels and to encourage participation. Keywords: Non-life insurance, Economic growth, Insurance penetration, Nigeria DOI: 10.7176/RJFA/11-2-05 Publication date: January 31st 202

Fully 3D Implementation of the End-to-end Deep Image Prior-based PET Image Reconstruction Using Block Iterative Algorithm

Deep image prior (DIP) has recently attracted attention owing to its unsupervised positron emission tomography (PET) image reconstruction, which does not require any prior training dataset. In this paper, we present the first attempt to implement an end-to-end DIP-based fully 3D PET image reconstruction method that incorporates a forward-projection model into a loss function. To implement a practical fully 3D PET image reconstruction, which could not be performed due to a graphics processing unit memory limitation, we modify the DIP optimization to block-iteration and sequentially learn an ordered sequence of block sinograms. Furthermore, the relative difference penalty (RDP) term was added to the loss function to enhance the quantitative PET image accuracy. We evaluated our proposed method using Monte Carlo simulation with [$^{18}$F]FDG PET data of a human brain and a preclinical study on monkey brain [$^{18}$F]FDG PET data. The proposed method was compared with the maximum-likelihood expectation maximization (EM), maximum-a-posterior EM with RDP, and hybrid DIP-based PET reconstruction methods. The simulation results showed that the proposed method improved the PET image quality by reducing statistical noise and preserved a contrast of brain structures and inserted tumor compared with other algorithms. In the preclinical experiment, finer structures and better contrast recovery were obtained by the proposed method. This indicated that the proposed method can produce high-quality images without a prior training dataset. Thus, the proposed method is a key enabling technology for the straightforward and practical implementation of end-to-end DIP-based fully 3D PET image reconstruction.Comment: 9 pages, 10 figure

Editorial

https://doi.org/10.17159/2312-3621/2022/v35n2a

Editorial

https://doi.org/10.17159/2312-3621/2021/v34n1a2

Antioxidative Effect of Coconut (Cocos nucifera L.) Water Extract on TBARS Value in Liver of Rats Fed Fish Oil Diet

Ethanolic extract of the coconut water showed antioxidant activity in the in vitro assay using an emulsified-aqueous system containing linoleic acid and /3-carotene. To evaluate the possible antioxidative effect in vivo, a study with rats fed fish oil diet, was performed. Oral administration of the coconut water extract (CWE, 340mg/mL) did not influence food intake, daily body weight gain nor average liver weight of rats. It was investigated that the increase of liver TBARS value of rats fed fish oil diet was significantly (

PENERAPAN PENDEKATAN RME UNTUK MENINGKATKAN HASIL BELAJAR SISWA DI SMP SUNAN GIRI MALANG

This study aims to determine the effect of the Realistic Mathematics Education (RME) approach to improve the learning outcomes of grade VIIa students at SMP Sunan Giri Malang. The specific purpose of the research conducted was to describe the application steps of the RME Approach to improve learning outcomes in the Material Set using two cycles of Classroom Action Research (PTK). Data collection was carried out using material validation sheets, lesson implementation plans (RPP), Student Worksheets (LKS), student activity observation sheets, teacher activity observation sheets and results from posttests at the end of the cycle. The results showed that the use of the RME approach on set material succeeded in increasing the learning outcomes of grade VIIa students at Sunan Giri Junior High School, with a completeness percentage starting from 50% and increasing in the second cycle to 91.66% with a completeness score criterion of 75, so it is known that the RME approach is able to improve student learning outcomes in class VIIa set material at Sunan Giri Junior High School and is also able to increase student learning activities during learning

Varicella-Zoster Virus IE4 Protein Interacts with SR Proteins and Exports mRNAs through the TAP/NXF1 Pathway

Available data suggest that the Varicella-Zoster virus (VZV) IE4 protein acts as an important regulator on VZV and cellular genes expression and could exert its functions at post-transcriptional level. However, the molecular mechanisms supported by this protein are not yet fully characterized. In the present study, we have attempted to clarify this IE4-mediated gene regulation and identify some cellular partners of IE4. By yeast two-hybrid and immunoprecipitation analysis, we showed that IE4 interacts with three shuttling SR proteins, namely ASF/SF2, 9G8 and SRp20. We positioned the binding domain in the IE4 RbRc region and we showed that these interactions are not bridged by RNA. We demonstrated also that IE4 strongly interacts with the main SR protein kinase, SRPK1, and is phosphorylated in in vitro kinase assay on residue Ser-136 contained in the Rb domain. By Northwestern analysis, we showed that IE4 is able to bind RNA through its arginine-rich region and in immunoprecipitation experiments the presence of RNA stabilizes complexes containing IE4 and the cellular export factors TAP/NXF1 and Aly/REF since the interactions are RNase-sensitive. Finally, we determined that IE4 influences the export of reporter mRNAs and clearly showed, by TAP/NXF1 knockdown, that VZV infection requires the TAP/NXF1 export pathway to express some viral transcripts. We thus highlighted a new example of viral mRNA export factor and proposed a model of IE4-mediated viral mRNAs export

Loss of BMPR2 Leads to High Bone Mass Due to Increased Osteoblast Activity

Imbalances in the ratio of bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) versus activin and TGFβ signaling are increasingly associated with human diseases yet the mechanisms mediating this relationship remain unclear. The type 2 receptors ACVR2A and ACVR2B bind BMPs and activins but the type 2 receptor BMPR2 only binds BMPs, suggesting that type 2 receptor utilization might play a role in mediating the interaction of these pathways. We tested this hypothesis in the mouse skeleton, where bone mass is reciprocally regulated by BMP signaling and activin and TGFβ signaling. We found that deleting Bmpr2 in mouse skeletal progenitor cells (Bmpr2-cKO mice) selectively impaired activin signaling but had no effect on BMP signaling, resulting in an increased bone formation rate and high bone mass. Additionally, activin sequestration had no effect on bone mass in Bmpr2-cKO mice but increased bone mass in wild-type mice. Our findings suggest a novel model whereby BMPR2 availability alleviates receptor-level competition between BMPs and activins and where utilization of ACVR2A and ACVR2B by BMPs comes at the expense of activins. As BMP and activin pathway modulation are of current therapeutic interest, our findings provide important mechanistic insight into the relationship between these pathways in human health