THE IMPERATIVE OF A REGULATORY FRAMEWORK FOR THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A NATIONAL CRIME DNA DATABASE IN NIGERIA

The evolution of DNA sequencing and analysis has had an extensive impact on criminal justice in many jurisdictions because it provides an opportunity for crime laboratories to develop distinct personal profiles required to identify crime suspects. This is connected with Locard’s principle of exchange that perpetrators of crime usually leave traces at the crime scene and take traces from the crime scene along with them. DNA evidence has led to the arrest of previously unidentifiable perpetrators of the crime and the exoneration of wrongfully convicted persons.  The functionality of DNA technology in criminal justice depends on the existence of a comprehensive DNA database. However, obtaining DNA samples from suspects has been challenged as a bio-invasion of the suspect’s right to privacy and cause of citizen stigmatization. DNA analysis is also susceptible to unscrupulous manipulations in forensic science laboratories. To avert potential legal challenges, countries with comprehensive DNA databases have evolved extensive regulatory frameworks to oversee the collection and retention of DNA samples of suspects. The collection of DNA samples in Nigeria for crime solving is still at a very elementary stage and a national DNA database does not exist. This paper aims to undertake a comparative legal analysis of relevant case laws as well as legislations in jurisdictions such as the United Kingdom, United States of America and South Africa to advance the argument that it has become imperative to put in place a regulatory framework that will control the collection and storage of DNA samples as well as dictate the conduct of forensic laboratory scientists. A national DNA database is vital to combat crime but it must be subject to a regulatory framework

ADOLESCENTS KNOWLEDGE OF SEX EDUCATION AND MORAL SEXUAL BEHAVIOUR IN ADO-EKITI, EKITI STATE, NIGERIA

The study investigated adolescents’ knowledge of sex education and their moral sexual attitude in Ado Ekiti. Specifically, it investigated adolescents knowledge about sex education, identified the risk associated with sexual activity among adolescents, examined the attitude of adolescents toward sex education, determined the importance of sex education and how it can influence the moral sexual behaviour of adolescents’ in Nigeria. The research design adopted for the study was descriptive design of the survey type. The sample consisted of 200 adolescent students. Multistage sampling procedure was used to select sample for the study. The instrument used for the study was a questionnaire designed by the researchers. The face and content validity was ascertained through experts in Psychology, Test, Measurement and Evaluation, while test-retest method was used to ensure the reliability which yielded reliability coefficient of 0.89. The data collected were analyzed using inferential statistics of t-test. All hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance. The result shows that it is important to impact knowledge about sex education on adolescents. From the study, it was evident that knowledge of sex education affects the level of morality among youths. The rapid change in body proportion excites the youths and encourages them to implore pornographic behaviours which invariably affect their moral thinking by engaging in fantasy. Conclusively, sex education should be part of school curriculum in order to educate adolescent. Parents should develop effective communication skill with their children, make friends with them and have positive attitudes toward sex.  Article visualizations

A Stable and Consistent Finite Difference Scheme for a Time-Dependent Schrodinger Wave Equation in a Finitely Low Potential Well

In this paper, we present a stable and consistent criterion to an explicit finite difference scheme for a time-dependent Schrodinger wave equation. This paper is a departure from the well-established time independent Schrodinger Wave Equation (SWE). We do this for a particular case of a finitely low potential wel

COMPARATIVE EVALUATION OF SODOM APPLE EXTRACT AND LEMON JUICE AS VEGETABLE COAGULANTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF HOME MADE CHEESE

An experiment was carried out to compare the quality characteristics of cheese produced using Sodom apple and Lemon juice as plant coagulants. The weight of cheese produced from 1000ml of milk with 100ml of Sodom apple extract was 215.5g while 134.4g of cheese was obtained when Lemon juice was used. The volume of whey obtained using Sodom apple extract was 864.6ml while Lemon juice produced 939.3ml of whey. The average pH of Sodom apple cheese was 6.36 while that of lemon juice cheese produced using Lemon juice was 5.16. Proximate analysis revealed that Sodom apple cheese had crude protein content of 22.00% significantly (p<0.05) lower than Lemon juice cheese of 29.33%. Ether extract content for Sodom apple cheese was 19.00% while that of Lemon juice was 28.67%. The ash content of the cheese was 9.67% while 7.67% for Sodom apple and Lemon juice cheese respectively. The moisture content for Sodom apple cheese was 60.00% while that of Lemon juice was 46.67%. The mineral analysis revealed that cheese produced from Lemon juice was higher in sodium, potassium, phosphorus and selenium compared to cheese produced from Sodom apple. Cheese produced from Sodom apple extract had higher refrigeration weight loss of 2.80%. It can be concluded that cheese produced from Lemon juice was superior in nutrient content: sodium, potassium, phosphorus and selenium and storage stability compared to the cheese obtained from Sodom apple extract. &nbsp

Design of an Intelligent Poultry Feed and Water Dispensing System Using Fuzzy Logic Control Technique

Prohibitive cost of production and laborious human involvement in poultry farms in the tropics could lead to low profit yield and low return on investment. Unfortunately, over-involvement of humans in the feeding system of poultry could lead to disease outbreak, undue fatigue and malnutrition of birds. These flaws in the poor feeding system of birds prompted this research work by developing an intelligent fuzzy logic based system that could mimic the roles of the poultry attendants in delivering water and feed dispensing for birds at specified time intervals. Water and feed level in the trough would be sensed by the designed system and dispense intelligently with respect to the variations in water and feed level as birds consume the feed and water. This system reduces workload of the poultry attendants, increases cost benefits and generates better return on investment in a deep litter poultry farming system Keywords: Microcontroller, Fuzzy Logic, Artificial Intelligence, Poultry Control System, Intelligent Water Dispensing, Deep Litter Syste

Conjugate Gradient Method Approach to Multi-Channel Queuing Theory

In this paper we examine the application of the classical conjugate gradient method to queue theory. The parameters of the symmetric definite positive linear operator of a quadratic cost functional were obtained from the various characteristic features of a multi-channel queue system. The outcome was tested with numerical values and a comparison was made for systems with two, three and four service points. The numerical computations were carried out in a Maple 14 environment. The results obtained validate previous work done with a single-channel syste

Solving Dynamic Traveling Salesman Problem Using Dynamic Gaussian Process Regression

This paper solves the dynamic traveling salesman problem (DTSP) using dynamic Gaussian Process Regression (DGPR) method. The problem of varying correlation tour is alleviated by the nonstationary covariance function interleaved with DGPR to generate a predictive distribution for DTSP tour. This approach is conjoined with Nearest Neighbor (NN) method and the iterated local search to track dynamic optima. Experimental results were obtained on DTSP instances. The comparisons were performed with Genetic Algorithm and Simulated Annealing. The proposed approach demonstrates superiority in finding good traveling salesman problem (TSP) tour and less computational time in nonstationary conditions

Benchmarking RCGAu on the Noiseless BBOB Testbed

RCGAu is a hybrid real-coded genetic algorithm with “uniform random direction” search mechanism. The uniform random direction search mechanism enhances the local search capability of RCGA. In this paper, RCGAu was tested on the BBOB-2013 noiseless testbed using restarts till a maximum number of function evaluations (#FEs) of 105 × D are reached, where D is the dimension of the function search space. RCGAu was able to solve several test functions in the low search dimensions of 2 and 3 to the desired accuracy of 108. Although RCGAu found it difficult in getting a solution with the desired accuracy 108 for high conditioning and multimodal functions within the specified maximum #FEs, it was able to solve most of the test functions with dimensions up to 40 with lower precisions

A biased load manager home energy management system for low-cost residential building low-income occupants

© 2018 Elsevier Ltd This research paper presents the development of a biased load manager home energy management system for low-cost residential building occupants. As a smart grid framework, the proposed load manager coordinates the operation of the inverter system of a low cost residential apartment consisting of rooftop solar photovoltaic panels, converter and battery, and provides a platform for discriminating residential loads into on-grid and off-grid supply classes while maximizing solar irradiance for optimum battery charging and improving consumer comfort from base levels. Modelled in a Matlab simulation environment, the system incorporates a converter system for maximum power point tracking using a hopping algorithm, with a dedicated mechanism for smart dispatch of specified loads to meet the users' comfort based on the priority ranking of the loads. Results obtained indicate a 34% reduction in electricity cost, 26% reduction in carbon emissions and a 4% increase in comfort level for the photovoltaic/battery/utility option compared to the utility only option. The results further show that cost is a major factor affecting the users' comfort and not necessarily dispatch of appliances to meet energy needs. The research can be useful for encouraging the adoption of the photovoltaic/battery/utility option by low/middle income energy users in developing countries

DEVELOPMENT AND EVALUATION OF A SOCIAL NETWORKING SYSTEM FOR STUDENTS INTERACTION

Socialization in the society without doubt aids in boosting the effectiveness of communication. It has indeed strengthened ties between persons. This fact has led to the idea of social network, which has been used to strengthen relationships between members of social systems. It is observed in some higher institutions that dissemination of information between students is usually restricted to the use of mobile communication devices and emails. There may be need to improve the information dissemination strategies in the department which will in turn enhance the flow of communication using additional platforms. This study presents a web-based social networking system for universities, which would support the effectiveness of communication between students within academic department. In developing the system, PHP, HTML and JAVA Script were used to create the web pages dynamically. MySQL database was used as the backend. The web server used was Apache. The system was evaluated using cognitive walkthrough strategy. This system delivers a platform for students to interact, share ideas, transmit important departmental announcements and develop ties and relationships. Activities to boost these include status update, mailing, photo uploads, instant messaging and voice chat. The full deployment of the application in the department would yield desired communication feedback and could even be adapted in different departments of the institution in the nearest future