The impact of treasury single account on the liquidity of banks in Nigeria

The existence of numerous corrupt practices in the Nigerian Public Accounting System has led to the inauguration of Treasury Single Account (TSA). This paper assesses the impact of TSA implementation on the liquidity base of banks in Nigeria. Fifteen (15) listed banks were used as sample size for this study. Data was obtained by the use of annual reports and it was examined using Descriptive statistics and Paired sample t-test. The results obtained confirmed that the implementation of Treasury Single Account impacted negatively on the liquidity base of banks in Nigeria. Also, there is significant difference in the Profit after Tax (PAT) of Banks in Nigeria before and after Treasury Single Account (TSA) Adoption .It was recommended that if the policy is executed it will lead to the prompt payment of all income going into the nation’s purse without the intermediation of multiple banking arrangements.peer-reviewe

Exploring Sustainable E-Learning Platforms for Improved Universities’ Faculty Engagement in the New World of Work

The familiar places where faculty and students engage, collaborate, debate, interact and exchange viewpoints appear to have been improved by introducing digital technology. This study investigates the influence of e-learning opportunities on faculty engagement in Nigerian universities. Five hundred faculty members were surveyed across eight private universities in Nigeria using purposive and convenient sampling techniques. Only 431 copies of the questionnaire, representing 86.2% response rate, were analysed with Smart PLS 3.0. The results show that virtual learning platforms, digital databases, online short courses and webinar learning platforms significantly influenced teaching, research, administrative and community engagements. The study concludes that the faculty of various universities should leverage e-learning platforms to be more engaged. The study recommends the machinery needed by the faculty members of Nigerian universities during the COVID-19 lockdown that challenged the conventional practice. The study empirically contributes to strengthening the current teaching, research, partnership and collaboration trends for improved faculty engagement in the new-normal world of work

The Last Decade in Review: Tracing the Evolution of Safety Assurance Cases through a Comprehensive Bibliometric Analysis

Safety assurance is of paramount importance across various domains, including automotive, aerospace, and nuclear energy, where the reliability and acceptability of mission-critical systems are imperative. This assurance is effectively realized through the utilization of Safety Assurance Cases. The use of safety assurance cases allows for verifying the correctness of the created systems capabilities, preventing system failure. The latter may result in loss of life, severe injuries, large-scale environmental damage, property destruction, and major economic loss. Still, the emergence of complex technologies such as cyber-physical systems (CPSs), characterized by their heterogeneity, autonomy, machine learning capabilities, and the uncertainty of their operational environments poses significant challenges for safety assurance activities. Several papers have tried to propose solutions to tackle these challenges, but to the best of our knowledge, no secondary study investigates the trends, patterns, and relationships characterizing the safety case scientific literature. This makes it difficult to have a holistic view of the safety case landscape and to identify the most promising future research directions. In this paper, we, therefore, rely on state-of-the-art bibliometric tools(e.g., VosViewer) to conduct a bibliometric analysis that allows us to generate valuable insights, identify key authors and venues, and gain a birds eye view of the current state of research in the safety assurance area. By revealing knowledge gaps and highlighting potential avenues for future research, our analysis provides an essential foundation for researchers, corporate safety analysts, and regulators seeking to embrace or enhance safety practices that align with their specific needs and objectives

Influence of Information Sources on Women’s Behavioural Practice towards Breast Cancer in Lagos, Nigeria

The global burden of breast cancer is increasing with an effect on the physical, mental and socio-economic wellbeing of the human population. Existing studies have majorly focused on the prevalent rate and clinical analysis of the disease, to the neglect of the nexus of information sources and breast cancer behaviours. This study examined the influence of information sources on perceived susceptibility, perceived severity and perceived barrier of women towards breast cancer and breast self-examination in Lagos state, Nigeria. A cross-sectional survey was employed in eliciting information from 400 women respondents randomly selected through the multistage sampling technique method. The study revealed that Internet-related channels of communication had a greater influence on susceptibility and severity perceptions of women. On the perceived barrier of women towards breast self-examination, the majority were influenced by interpersonal networks of communication (friends and relatives). Based on the findings, this study concludes that information sources play a pivotal role in the breast cancer beliefs and behavioural practices towards breast self-examination among women in Lagos state, Nigeria. It is therefore recommended that a national communication policy that will incorporate the use of information sources to strategically influence the beliefs and behavioural practices of women towards breast cancer management in Nigeria be developed

Hydrogeophysical investigation of groundwater potential and aquifer vulnerability prediction in basement complex terrain – A case study from Akure, Southwestern Nigeria

This study provides a model for the prediction of groundwater potential and vulnerability of basement aquifers in parts of Akure, Southwestern Nigeria. Hydrogeophysical surveys involving very-low-frequency electromagnetic (VLF-EM) profiling and electrical resistivity (ER) sounding, as well as evaluation of hydraulic gradient using three-point method, were carried out. Ten VLF-EM reconnaissance survey traverses, with lengths ranging from 55 m to 75 m, at 10 m station separation, and 12 vertical electrical sounding (VES) stations were occupied. Two-dimensional map of the filtered real component reveals areas of high conductivity, indicative of linear features that can serve as a reservoir or conduit for fluid flow. Interpretation of the VES results delineates three to four geoelectric units. Two aquifer zones were identified, with resistivity values in the ranges of 20 Ωm to 310 Ωm and 100 Ωm to 3,000 Ω m, respectively. Transverse resistance, longitudinal conductance, coefficient of anisotropy and hydraulic gradient have values ranging from 318.2 Ωm2 to 1,041.8 Ωm2, 0.11 mhos to 0.39 mhos, 1.04 to 1.74 and 0.017 to 0.05, respectively. The results of this study identified two prospective borehole locations and the optimum position to site the proposed septic system, based on the aquifer’s protective capacity and groundwater flow properties

Preparation and characterization of a novel adsorbent from Moringa oleifera leaf

A new and novel adsorbent was obtained byimpregnation ofMoringa oleiferaleaf in H2SO4andNaOH, respectively. Prepared adsorbents were character-ized using elemental analysis, FT-IR, SEM, TGA and EDXanalyses, respectively. The effects of operational parame-ters, such as pH, moisture content, ash content, porosityand iodine number on these adsorbents were investigatedand compared with those of commercial activated carbon(CAC). EDX results of acid activatedM. oleiferaleaf havethe highest percentage of carbon by weight (69.40 %) and(76.11 %) by atom, respectively. Proximate analysisshowed that the fixed carbon content of acid activatedM.oleiferaleaf (69.14±0.01) was the highest of all adsor-bents studied. Conclusively, the present investigationshows that acid activatedM. oleiferaleaf is a good alter-native adsorbent that could be used in lieu of CAC forrecovery of dyes and heavy metal from aqueous solutionsand other separation technique

A Synopsis of Institutional Repositories in Nigerian University System: Advantages and Challenges

The academic communities have undoubtedly been struggling for some years now with difficulties in disseminating and communicating research findings. This is as a result of the ever increasing high cost of journals, which are the traditional medium for research communication and how this as affected libraries budget, most especially in the depressed economy of developing countries. The financial difficulties being experienced by academic publishers have also added to this pain. Many academics have their research work stored in Microsoft (MS) words and other digital formats on their computers, but only very few of them ponder on the long term preservation of these materials for the use of coming generations of scholars. Also most of the unpublished students research theses and dissertations are obscurely stored in libraries and other rooms. This paper gives an overview of Institutional Repositories (IRs) in Nigerian university system. It highlights the advantages of IRs to the universities, the academic staff and the scholars such as opening up research output of universities to a worldwide audience, boosting universities ranking and prestige, increasing the visibility and citation impact of universities scholarships, preserving the universities scholarships and the potential of bridging the education and digital gap between the advanced countries and the developing nations. The paper identifies some of the issues that adversely militate against the development of IRs in the Nigerian university setting as lack of awareness of open access IRs, inadequate information and communication technological infrastructure, inadequate advocacy for open access initiative, copyright issue, low preparedness of academic librarians to acquire and apply digital knowledge, non-existence of institutional repository policy, narrow technological expertise, non- enough funding, problem of inadequate ICT infrastructure and insufficient internet bandwidth and inadequate poor erratic electricity power supply. Lastly the authors proffer suggestions for University Librarians, University managements and policy makers for developing viable IRs in Nigerian universities. The paper is not based on any prescribed methodology but the authors’ reflection constructed on extensive literature review of extant related studies on IRs in Nigeria supported with online assessment of Nigerian Institutional Repository niceties from Open DOAR. (https://v2.sherpa.ac.uk/opendoar

A novel hybrid dimension reduction technique for efficient selection of bio-marker genes and prediction of heart failure status of patients

This study highlighted and provided a conceptual framework of a hybridized dimension reduction by combining Genetic Algorithms (GA) and Boruta Algorithm (BA) with Deep Neural Network (DNN). Among questions left unanswered sufficiently by both computational and biological scientists are: which genes among thousand of genes are statistically relevant to the prediction of patients’ heart rhythm? and how they are associated with heart rhythm? A plethora of models has been proposed to reliably identify core informative genes. The premise of this present work is to address these limitations. Five distinct micro-array data on heart diseases have been taken into consideration to observe the prominent genes. We form three distinct set two-way hybrids between Boruta Algorithm and Neural Network (BANN); Genetic Algorithm and Deep Neural Network (GADNN) and Boruta Algorithm and Deep Neural Network (BADNN), respectively, to extract highly differentially expressed genes to achieve both better estimation and clearer interpretation of the parameters included in these models. The results of the filtering process were observed to be impressive since the technique removed noisy genes. The proposed BA algorithm was observed to select minimum genes in the wrapper process with about 80% of the five datasets than the proposed GA algorithm with 20%. Moreover, the empirical comparative results revealed that BADNN outperformed other proposed algorithms with prediction accuracy of 97%, 87%, and 100% respectively. Finally, this study has successfully demonstrated the utility, versatility, and applicability of hybrid dimension reduction algorithms (HDRA) in the realm of deep neural networks

Agricultural Radio Programmes in Indigenous Languages and Agricultural Productivity in North-Central Nigeria

This study investigated the influence of agricultural radio programmes in indigenous languages on farmers’ productivity and their implications for agricultural productivity in North- Central Nigeria. It specifically explored how farmers’ knowledge of agricultural radio programmes produced in indigenous languages influences their productivity; how farmers’ acceptance of agricultural radio programmes produced in indigenous languages influences productivity; and whether behavioural changes result from agricultural radio programmes aired in indigenous languages affect farmers’ productivity. Data were gathered through a survey of 663 farmers selected through the three states’ multi-stage sampling technique (Benue, Nasarawa, and Plateau). The hypotheses were tested using regression analysis and structural equation modelling. They revealed that the R value was 0.677, suggesting a highly significant relationship between farmers’ knowledge of agricultural radio programmes in indigenous languages and farmers’ productivity. Results also revealed that farmers’ behavioural changes resulting from agricultural radio programmes in indigenous languages greatly influence farmers’ productivity (F value was 558.358 at the 0.000 significant level). The study concludes that farmers’ knowledge, acceptance and behavioural change towards agricultural radio programmes in indigenous languages significantly influence farmers’ productivity in agriculture. Thus, farmers should be encouraged to continue participating in agricultural radio programmes in indigenous languages to be kept abreast of happenings in the field