A Review of Models for Evaluating Quality in Open Source Software

Open source products/projects targeting the same or similar applications are common nowadays. This makes choosing a tricky task. Quality is one factor that can be considered when choosing among similar open source solutions. In order to measure quality in software, quality models can be used. Open source quality models emerged due to the inability of traditional quality models to measure unique features (such as community) of open source software. The aim of the paper therefore is to examine the characteristic features, unique strengths, and limitations of existing open source quality models. In addition, we compare the models based on some selected attributes

MACBenAbim: A Multi-platform Mobile Application for searching keyterms in Computational Biology and Bioinformatics

Computational biology and bioinformatics are gradually gaining grounds in Africa and other developing nations of the world. However, in these countries, some of the challenges of computational biology and bioinformatics education are inadequate infrastructures, and lack of readily-available complementary and motivational tools to support learning as well as research. This has lowered the morale of many promising undergraduates, postgraduates and researchers from aspiring to undertake future study in these fields. In this paper, we developed and described MACBenAbim (Multi-platform Mobile Application for Computational Biology and Bioinformatics), a flexible user-friendly tool to search for, define and describe the meanings of keyterms in computational biology and bioinformatics, thus expanding the frontiers of knowledge of the users. This tool also has the capability of achieving visualization of results on a mobile multi-platform context

The import of section 396 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA) 2015: case study of Federal Republic of Nigeria V Dr Olubukola Abubakar Saraki

The ACJA 2015 has repealed and replaced the Criminal Procedure Act and the  Criminal Procedure Code in Federal courts. The scope of Section 396 of the ACJA  however needs to be determined and adhered to in a bid to ensure that speed which is  one of the aims of the ACJA is not defeated in criminal trials before the superior courts of record. This paper seeks to examine critically the relevant sections thereof in the  light of the prevailing need.Key words: Criminal Procedure Act, Criminal Procedure Code, Administration of  Justice Act, Superior courts of record, Corruptio

Special rights for the development of Indigenous Peoples (IPS) in Africa: Any need in a democratic society with functional human rights document?

Indigenous Peoples (IPs) have been subjected to a series of humiliation, discrimination and in some cases dis-membership of a state. This is germane, but not peculiar, to the developing states with special reference to Africa. Globalization and efforts to link human, cultural and social rights to the IPs remain blurred and continue to generate academic curiosity. Despite the United Nations General Assembly’s (UNGA) and the International Labour Organisation’s (ILO) positions on the need to accord some special rights to the under-privileged IPs based on their culture, religion and economic/mode of production, they remain a second fiddle in their various states. For them to have access to their resources, issues of prior informed consent, indigenous knowledge and access and benefit sharing dicta need to be observed religiously by states and business corporations in harnessing the resources of the IPs in the form of natural resources that they are in control of because they are found on their lands. The rivalry between the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) through World Intellectual Property Rights (WIPRs) regime is the bane of the IPs’ development.Keywords: Indigenous Peoples (IPs); Indigenous Peoples Rights (IPRs); Special rights; International Labour Organisation (ILO); Nagoya Protocol; Afric

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

High Expectations: Black professional parents' aspirations for their children

Qualitative research on education and aspirations has been produced with the sole focus on the reproduction of class inequalities within a White middle class structure. There has only been a handful of studies of analytic engagement with Black professional middle class parents' expectations and aspirations regarding their children's futures in Britain. This gap creates an opportunity for new research to gain deeper insight into what decisions and choices are made by Black professional middle class parents and bring to light important knowledge of professional middle class educational attainment. The research presented here explored how Black professional middle class parents’ construct strategic approaches towards creating better futures for their children within a predominantly White middle class structure. Drawing on primary data taken from interviews with 25 Black African and Black Caribbean middle class parents’ (half from African or Caribbean heritage) , this thesis analyses parents’ strategic decision making and navigation in an unequal playing field of education. Findings indicate adaptations of Bourdieu’s social, cultural and economic capitals to prepare and engage their children along certain pathways in order to create aspirational opportunities. Using Critical Race Theory (CRT) it is argued that while class is very influential in explaining educational attainment, understanding Black professional middle class parents’ aspirations for their children requires a deeper understanding of race. Evidence from in-depth narratives provided an insight into parents' own biographies that were either originally working or middle class backgrounds in shaping their orientations to, and manner of engagement with, their children's futures. Drawing from the data middle class parents were beginning to be geographically mobile, moving out of inner London areas in search of a better quality of life for their children and a preferred school choice – with a higher quality of education found around the surrounding areas of London and the South East suburbs. Parents’ subjective biographies illustrated diverse parenting practices and values such as those sets of parents using their Christian faith to help build a solid foundation for moral values, self-confidence and respectability. The research offers new insights into the choices made and strategic approaches used to nurture high aspirations for Black professional middle class children’s futures