The effect of culture on Corporate Governance Practices in Nigeria

This study focuses on the effect of culture on the application of corporate governance practices in Nigeria. Corporate governance has been receiving serious attention in emerging markets over the past two decades. But relatively little attention has been given to the study on corporate governance in a country study. The current situations in Nigerian public and private sectors such as the corporate scandal resulting from Lever Brothers Nigeria plc, Siemens, Shell, Halliburton, and Cadbury Nigeria plc, have shown that the issue of fraud, corruption, and corporate scandals cannot be overlooked. Most top management, as this study argues, bring in beliefs acquired from their early childhood into their senior management roles and responsibilities. This study adopts a grounded theory and reports on the effect of culture on the implementation of corporate governance in Nigeria. Based on the interview with 32 staffs, this study identifies the effect of culture that shapes corporate governance and they include abuse of power by top management, weak legal framework, poor recruitment and ineffective control. Although having efficient corporate governance is worth pursuing, this depends on the power of top management, the strength of internal control procedures and the legal framework put in place by management

Characterization of articular cartilage using low-field magnetic resonance imaging image

Articular cartilage is a very complex tissue with highly structured composition and functional biomechanical properties. These biomechanical properties were found to be degraded when the cartilage started to degenerate and lead to osteoarthritis (OA) disease. As the researchers are still searching for better treatments of OA, the characterization of the cartilage at its earliest stage could be used to introduce the early intervention of the disease. However, the property assessment of the articular cartilage is yet to be fully investigated. In particular, the grayscale of the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) image on cartilage could be one of the important evaluation in the tissue composition Therefore, the aim of the present study was to investigate the potential application of low-field MRI image in order to examine the condition of the articular cartilage. The articular cartilage specimens (n = 36) obtained from the humeral heads of bovine shoulder joint were scanned with various sequences using 0.18 T Esaote C-scan MRI system. It was found that the grayscale value of the superficial zone was higher than the deep zone of the cartilage. The results of the study demonstrated the feasibility of the low-field MRI images on providing the useful information of the articular cartilage and could enhance the ability to mark the disease at a very early stage

Dual-Function Electron-Conductive, Hole-Blocking Titanium Nitride Contacts for Efficient Silicon Solar Cells

High-performance passivating contact is a prerequisite for high-efficiency crystalline silicon (c-Si) solar cells. In this work, an electron-conductive, hole-blocking contact based on titanium nitride (TiN) deposited by reactive magnetron sputtering is presented. Quasi-metallic TiN combined with an ultrathin SiO2 passivation layer (SiO2/TiN) is demonstrated to be an effective electron-selective contact on c-Si, featuring a low-contact resistivity of 16.4 mΩ.cm2 and a tolerable recombination current parameter of ∼500 fA/cm2. By implementing the dual-function SiO2/TiN contact, which acts simultaneously as a surface passivating layer and metal electrode, an efficiency of 20% is achieved by an n-type c-Si solar cell with a simple structure. This work not only demonstrates a way to develop efficient n-type c-Si solar cells with dual-function metal nitride contacts at a low cost but also expands the pool of available carrier transport materials, from metal oxides to metal nitrides, for photovoltaic devices. N-type silicon wafers exhibit superior electrical properties compared to their p-type counterparts, such as higher minority carrier lifetime and absence of light-induced degradation, resulting in a higher efficiency potential and increased reliability of photovoltaic devices. However, most of the commonly used metals (e.g., Al and Ag) cannot form an ohmic contact on the lightly doped n-type silicon wafers, retarding the development of an n-type analog to the Al-back-surface-field p-type solar cell. Herein, we present a dual-function, electron-conductive contact based on titanium nitride (TiN) for n-type silicon solar cells. By implementing the SiO2/TiN contact, which acts simultaneously as a surface passivating layer and metal electrode, an efficiency of 20% was achieved by an n-type silicon solar cell with a simplified fabrication flow. This work demonstrates the path forward to develop efficient n-type silicon solar cells with dual-function metal nitride contacts at a low cost. Yang and co-workers reported a dual-function, low-cost, high-performance titanium-nitride-based passivating contact for silicon solar cells. By the implementation of electron-conductive titanium nitride contact, which acts simultaneously as a surface passivating layer and metal electrode, a silicon solar cell with an efficiency of 20% is achieved using a simplified fabrication process. This work also expands the pool of available electron transport materials, from metal oxides to metal nitrides, for photovoltaic devices