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

COMPARISON OF AGRICULTURE WITH OIL ENHANCEMENT: SURVIVING STRATEGY FOR ECONOMIC MELTDOWN IN NIGERIA

This paper compares the place of Agriculture and Oil in repositioning Nigerian economy towards a path of steady economic growth with a view to establishing which strategy (agriculture or oil enhancement) that  is appropriate to checkmate the associated pains of ongoing global economic, financial and food crisis in the country. The secondary data used in this study are those relating to the contributions of Agriculture and Oil to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) (Principal variables) while Manufacturing and Service Sectors serve as control variables. These were obtained from Central Bank of Nigeria Annual Reports and Accounts and were analysed using Ordinary Least Square after conducting Augmented Dickey Fuller Unit Roots (ADF), Granger Causality Test as well as Johanson Co-integration Test while Actual Fitted and Residual plot was generated to test the presence of auto or serial correlation in the data. The study reveals that although Oil contributes more to export earnings in Nigeria, it has little contribution to GDP due to its associated vices of communal classes, uneven development, its limited life and crowd out of other sectors of the economy. This is in comparison with Agriculture that has more impact on GDP, generates more employment opportunities, reduces world food crisis and has no identifiable vices. It is recommended that Nigerian economic base should be diversified from oil dependence to agricultural advancement with a view to generating employment opportunities, raising the standard of living and improving economic growth.Â

Electrical Resistivity Imaging of a Coal Deposit at Tai Area of Gombe State, North Eastern Nigeria

A 2-D electrical resistivity imaging of some parts of Tai in Akko Local Government area of Gombe State, northeastern Nigeria was carried out. Tai is located 28 km from Pindiga and lies between latitudes 100 00′00″ and 100 06′00″N and longitudes 100 40′ 00″E and 10045′00″E. This study was prompted by a report that in the course of siting a hand-dug well and hand-pump borehole in Tai, coal seam was intercepted. The aim of this geoelectrical investigation is to image the survey area for possible location and future exploitation of coal seam found in the area. The survey was targeted at determining the lateral extent of the coal seam, resistivity values associated with the coal seam and depth to the coal seam. ABEM Terrameter SAS 1000 was used to acquire the data in this survey. The protocol chosen was the Wenner-Schlumberger array because of its sensitivity to both horizontal and vertical structures. Data processing was done using RES2DINV software. The results show that the resistivity values range from 3Ωm to 2033 Ωm. The top layer has resistivity ranges of about 66 Ωm to 2033 Ωm. Below this, is a layer of low resistivity ranging from 3 Ωm to 57 Ωm probably saturated with water. The layer with resistivity range of about 250 Ωm to 900 Ωm is probably the host of the coal seams. It can be concluded that the occurrence of the coal seam is probably more at the Northwest of the survey area and the coal seam is suspected to have resistivity values ranging from about 250 Ωm to 900 Ωm and depth varying from 3 m to 17.2 m. Keywords: Coal Seam, Lateral Extent, Electrical Resistivity Imagin

Adapted Cloudlet for Mobile Distance Learning: Design, Prototype and Evaluation

The Open and Distance Learning (ODL) currently operated by some institutions in Nigeria has problems of accessibility from remote locations due to bandwidth and latency issues. To address accessibility problem caused by network delays, cloudlet computing is introduced. With cloudlet technology, distant mobile learners are able to connect to the nearby cloudlet and access the learning content. Instead of relying on a distant cloud with latency issues during access, a nearby cloudlet with rich resources could go a long way to address the resource poverty of a mobile device. This paper presents an architectural design and a prototype implementation of an adapted cloudlet for mobile distance learning. The paper proposes a feature in which the learning content in the cloud or cloudlet platform is adapted to a nearby mobile learner depending on the availability of platform with minimum delays in terms of bandwidth and latency

PHYSICOCHEMICAL PROPERTIES OF PRO-VITAMIN A CASSAVA-WHEAT COMPOSITE FLOUR BISCUIT

In this research work, the physicochemical properties of biscuit made from wheat flour and pro-vitamin A cassava flour mixed in different ratios of 100:0, 90:10, 80:20, 70:30 and 60:40 (w/w) was investigated. The addition of pro-vitamin A flour to wheat flour influenced the functional properties such as water absorption, swelling and pasting properties. Peak, trough, breakdown and final viscosities of 100% wheat flour was generally lower than the mixes. However, the setback viscosity of the mixes were lower than that of wheat flour. This was attributed to possible complex formation between the starch components of the flours and the carotenoid. Protein (10.80-15.45%), fat (11.87-21.35%) and carbohydrate (60.08-70.99%) were the major components of the biscuits. The protein and fat contents of the biscuit decreased with increasing proportions of pro-vitamin A cassava flour. But, the carotenoid contents of the biscuits increased. Sensory results showed that biscuit prepared from wheat flour and pro-vitamin A cassava flour in ratio 90 to 10 had similar overall acceptability rating (6.50) and total rating score (31.8) to the control (Overall acceptability rating; 6.50 and total rating score; 32.5). The research has established that acceptable biscuits which could be potentially used to address protein, energy and vitamin A challenges in developing nations of the world

Screening of Antimicrobial Ethanolic Extract of Peristrophe bicalyculata

The ethanolic extract from Peritrophe bicalyculata leaves was evaluated for the presence of phytochemicals and its antimicrobial activity in vitro against selected bacteria and fungi using the antibiotic gentamycin as control. The extract showed the presence of secondary metabolites such as alkaloid, saponin, tannin and steroid. It also inhibited the growth of the tested microorganisms at different concentrations. However stronger in-vitro activity was recorded against Staphylococcus aureus, Klebsiella spp, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Aspergillus niger, Asperigillus clavatus and Rhizopus stolonifer. The antimicrobial activity of the plant extract is an evidence of ethnomedicinal potential of the plant

Comparative Evaluation of Mobile Forensic Tools

The rapid rise in the technology today has brought to limelight mobile devices which are now being used as a tool to commit crime. Therefore, proper steps need to be ensured for Confidentiality, Integrity, Authenticity and legal acquisition of any form of digital evidence from the mobile devices. This study evaluates some mobile forensic tools that were developed mainly for mobile devices memory and SIM cards. An experiment was designed with five android phones with different Operating System. Four tools were used to find out the capability and efficiency of the tools when used on the sampled phones. This would help the forensic investigator to know the type of tools that will be suitable for each phone to be investigated for acquiring digital evidence. The evaluation result showed that AccessData FTK imager and Paraben device seizure performs better than Encase and Mobiledit. The experimental result shows that, Encase could detect the unallocated space on the mobile deice but could retrieve an deleted data

Effect of microwave treatment on cooking time, colour, sensory andnutritional properties of Bambara groundnut (Vigna subterranea)

Bambara groundnut is a leguminous crop that currently experiences a low level of utilisation because it is hard-to-cook and difficulty to dehull. In this study, the effects of different microwaving power of 450, 500, 600 and 750 W and time (0, 30, 60, 120 and 240 s) on cooking time, colour, sensory and nutritional properties of Bambara groundnut using standard methods were investigated. Microwaving generally reduced the cooking time of Bambara groundnut. The cooking time reduced by approximately 28, 46, 52 and 55% when Bambara groundnut was microwaved at 450, 500, 600 and 750 W for 240 s, respectively. Microwaving did not significantly (p>0.05) affect the colour and appearance of the grain. Bambara groundnut had similar lightness values (60.66-63.15), but slightly different a (3.38-5.57) and b values (16.16-19.20) after microwaving. Protein (23.90-26.88%) and carbohydrate (47.85-58.58%) were the major components of raw and microwaved grains. Microwaved grains showed higher digestibility values (approx. 78-85%) compared to the raw Bambara groundnut (approx. 71%). Mean sensory scores revealed that Bambara groundnut microwaved at 600 W for 240 s had comparable acceptability with the control sample. Microwaving can be used to reduce cooking time of Bambara groundnut, improve protein content and digestibility without significantly altering the sensory properties

Inner retinal preservation in rat models of retinal degeneration implanted with subretinal photovoltaic arrays

Photovoltaic arrays (PVA) implanted into the subretinal space of patients with retinitis pigmentosa (RP) are designed to electrically stimulate the remaining inner retinal circuitry in response to incident light, thereby recreating a visual signal when photoreceptor function declines or is lost. Preservation of inner retinal circuitry is critical to the fidelity of this transmitted signal to ganglion cells and beyond to higher visual targets. Post-implantation loss of retinal interneurons or excessive glial scarring could diminish and/or eliminate PVA-evoked signal transmission. As such, assessing the morphology of the inner retina in RP animal models with subretinal PVAs is an important step in defining biocompatibility and predicting success of signal transmission. In this study, we used immunohistochemical methods to qualitatively and quantitatively compare inner retinal morphology after the implantation of a PVA in two RP models: the Royal College of Surgeons (RCS) or transgenic S334ter-line 3 (S334ter-3) rhodopsin mutant rat. Two PVA designs were compared. In the RCS rat, we implanted devices in the subretinal space at 4 weeks of age and histologically examined them at 8 weeks of age and found inner retinal morphology preservation with both PVA devices. In the S334ter-3 rat, we implanted devices at 6-12 weeks of age and again, inner retinal morphology was generally preserved with either PVA design 16-26 weeks post-implantation. Specifically, the length of rod bipolar cells and numbers of cholinergic amacrine cells were maintained along with their characteristic inner plexiform lamination patterns. Throughout the implanted retinas we found nonspecific glial reaction, but none showed additional glial scarring at the implant site. Our results indicate that subretinally implanted PVAs are well-tolerated in rodent RP models and that the inner retinal circuitry is preserved, consistent with our published results showing implant-evoked signal transmission

DEVELOPMENT OF A LOCUST BEAN SEED DEHULLING CUM WASHING MACHINE

A wet locust bean seeds (Parkia biglobosa) dehulling and washing machine was developed to reduce the drudgery attached to traditional dehulling of the seeds which are processed for use as condiments and flavors’ for food in many African countries. The machine consisted of dehulling and washing units, the dehulling mechanism obtains its drive from a 0.38 kW gear motor of 30 - 50 rpm. The dehulling shaft; has rods arranged concentrically to break seed coat and radial fan-like blades used as a stirrer. The dehuller cum washer was evaluated based on the boiling time of the seeds on an electric cooker. The result indicated that the efficiency of the machine increased linearly with an increase in boiling time. The throughput capacity decreased with an increase in boiling time and moisture content decreased with an increase in boiling time from the sixth hour. Dehulling efficiency ranged from 59.7 to 68%, and cleaning efficiency ranged from 83.4 to 87.4 % while the average throughput capacity was 108 kg/hr