Evidence of Heavy Metals Distribution in Placenta in Association with Residual Levels in Some Dams’ Organs from Bodija abattoir, Oyo State, Nigeria

Heavy metals have been known to be causing serious detrimental effect on the health of livestock and human populace in general. However, little study had been carried out on the ability of heavy metal to cross placental barrier, which has already been bio-accumulated in the dam. Therefore, this study aimed at showing the evidence of placental barrier crossing by selected heavy metals. The study was carried out in Bodija abattoir, Ibadan, Oyo-state, Nigeria, located on latitude 70020N, longitude 3005E. A cross-sectional study design was adopted and lasted for 6 weeks. Samples were collected from kidney cortices, apical lobe of dam’s liver and a portion of fetal placenta. 12 sample each from liver, kidney and the placenta which were analyzed using Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer (AAS). Results were subjected to descriptive statistics, t-test and correlation using SPSS17.0 package.From this study cadmium (Cd) and lead (Pb) residues were not found in the samples, while chromium (Cr) was found in all the samples (100% prevalence) and the total prevalence for the heavy metals in the study was 33.4%. The mean chromium (Cr) residual values in placenta, kidney and liver were 0.89±0.66mg/kg, 1.32±0.94mg/kg and 1.00±0.87 mg/kg respectively. The correlation between chromium (Cr) in the dam’s kidney and placenta was 0.3, while for the dam’s liver and placenta was 0.6.  In comparison with permissible limit, the residual level in kidney 1.32±0.94, liver 1.00±0.87 and placenta 0.89±0.66, were within the permissible limit. The study revealed that chromium (Cr) residue was a major challenge in the organs sampled. Liver of the dam had the highest level of bioaccumulation and stronger correlation in the distribution to the placenta. It is therefore recommended that attention should be paid on the disposal of chromium (Cr) residues on the grazing floor where the bulk of the residues were from. Keywords: Heavy metals, Liver, Kidney, Placenta and cattle

CRIME RATE PREDICTION USING THE RANDOM FOREST ALGORITHM

  An act that creates crimes punishable by law is characterized as a crime. Rape, fraud, terrorism, kidnapping, burglary, murder, and other crimes are common in Nigeria. Examples are cybercrime, bribery and corruption, robbery, money laundering, among other crimes. Crime is a harmful and widespread social issue that affects individuals all around the world. The rate of crime has risen dramatically in recent years. To cut down on crime, at any rate, law enforcements must take preventative actions. To protect society against crime, modern systems and new technologies are required. Although accurate real-time crime study is on aid in reducing crime rates, they are nonetheless useless. As crime occurrences are dependent on, this is a difficult subject for the scientific community to solve. Therefore, this paper proposes machine learning algorithm to indicate the frequency and pattern of crimes based on the data collected and to show the extent of crime in a particular region. Various visualization approaches and machine learning algorithms are used in this study to anticipate the crime distribution over a large area. In the first stage, raw datasets were processed and visualized according to the requirements. Then, to extract knowledge from these massive datasets, machine learning methods were deployed and uncover hidden patterns in the data, which were then utilized to investigate and report on crime patterns, It is beneficial to crime analysts. Investigate these crime networks using a variety of interactive crime visualizations. As a result, it is helpful in crime prevention

OPTIMAL ROUTE DETERMINATION FOR POSTAL DELIVERY USING ANT COLONY OPTIMIZATION ALGORITHM

There are a lot of optimization challenges in the world, as we all know. The vehicle routing problem is one of the more complex and high-level problems. Vehicle Routing Problem is a real-life problem in the Postal Delivery System logistics and, if not properly attended to, can lead to wastage of resources that could have been directed towards other things. Several studies have been carried out to tackle this problem using different techniques and algorithms. This study used the Ant Colony Optimization Algorithm along with some powerful APIs to find an optimal route for the delivery of posts to customers in a Postal Delivering System. When Ant Colony Optimization Algorithm is used to solve the vehicle routing problem in transportation systems, each Ant's journey is mere “part” of a feasible solution. To put it in another way, numerous ants' pathways might make up a viable solution. Routes are determined for a delivery vehicle, with the objective of minimizing customer waiting time and operation cost. Experimental results indicate that the solution is optimal and more accurat

Strategic issues in jatropha biofuel enterprise development in Nigeria

In Nigeria today, fossil fuels constitute the major source of energy for the economy with consumption costs in excess of N 654 billion for petrol, N 303.2 billion for diesel and N 194 billion for Kerosene. The global debate on Climate Change/CO 2 emissions and domestic concerns on economic, environmental and energy security implications have necessitated alterative energy options and created opportunities for sustainable biofuel enterprise in Nigeria. Jatropha curcas (known as Lapalapa in Yoruba-speaking parts of Nigeria) is an uncultivated non-food wild-species plant with great potential for bioenergy development in the country. The seeds are resistant to a high degree of aridity and contain 27-40% oil that can be processed to produce a high-quality biodiesel fuel, usable in a standard diesel engine. With estimated diesel demands in Nigeria being 3600-4200 thousand metric tonnes by 2020, there is an expansive opportunity for jatropha biofuel enterprise in the country. This study examines the strategic issues (technological, economic, environmental, and socio-cultural) governing its development and proposes policy recommendations for its successful exploitation

A HYBRIDIZED ENCRYPTION SCHEME BASED ON ELLIPTIC CURVE CRYPTOGRAPHY FOR SECURING DATA IN SMART HEALTHCARE

Recent developments in smart healthcare have brought us a great deal of convenience. Connecting common objects to the Internet is made possible by the Internet of Things (IoT). These connected gadgets have sensors and actuators for data collection and transfer. However, if users' private health information is compromised or exposed, it will seriously harm their privacy and may endanger their lives. In order to encrypt data and establish perfectly alright access control for such sensitive information, attribute-based encryption (ABE) has typically been used. Traditional ABE, however, has a high processing overhead. As a result, an effective security system algorithm based on ABE and Fully Homomorphic Encryption (FHE) is developed to protect health-related data. ABE is a workable option for one-to-many communication and perfectly alright access management of encrypting data in a cloud environment. Without needing to decode the encrypted data, cloud servers can use the FHE algorithm to take valid actions on it. Because of its potential to provide excellent security with a tiny key size, elliptic curve cryptography (ECC) algorithm is also used. As a result, when compared to related existing methods in the literature, the suggested hybridized algorithm (ABE-FHE-ECC) has reduced computation and storage overheads. A comprehensive safety evidence clearly shows that the suggested method is protected by the Decisional Bilinear Diffie-Hellman postulate. The experimental results demonstrate that this system is more effective for devices with limited resources than the conventional ABE when the system’s performance is assessed by utilizing standard model

Impact of tax fairness and tax knowledge on tax compliance behavior of listed manufacturing companies in Nigeria

Abstract Tax compliance is a major contemporary debate surrounding corporate taxation in the business world. The tax avoidance issue, which remains an ethical problem for companies, has been a general concern in developed and developing countries alike. The main problem of this study is a non-tax compliance behavior of the corporate organization taxpayers in Nigeria. This study examined the influence of tax fairness on the tax compliance behavior of listed manufacturing companies in Nigeria. The paper adopted a survey research method, and four hundred (400) copies of the questionnaire were administered to the selected manufacturing companies of both consumer and industrial goods sectors. The Laffer Curve Theory underpinned this study and Correlation Analysis, Analysis of Variance (ANOVA), and Multiple Regression Analysis were also employed. The study found that there is a significant level of tax compliance among the listed manufacturing companies in Nigeria. The study also shows that the corporate taxpayer’s perception of fairness of –2.765 (0.006) has a significant impact on corporate taxpayers’ willingness to pay taxes and tax knowledge of 4.601 (0.000) significantly influenced tax compliance. Based on tax knowledge, the study recommends that tax authorities must improve the knowledge of taxpayers and tax collection agents through programs, initiatives, and training on tax awareness

Population structure and evolutionary history of the greater cane rat (Thryonomys swinderianus) from the Guinean Forests of West Africa

Grasscutter (Thryonomys swinderianus) is a large-body old world rodent found in sub-Saharan Africa. The body size and the unique taste of the meat of this major crop pest have made it a target of intense hunting and a potential consideration as a micro-livestock. However, there is insufficient knowledge on the genetic diversity of its populations across African Guinean forests. Herein, we investigated the genetic diversity, population structures and evolutionary history of seven Nigerian wild grasscutter populations together with individuals from Cameroon, Republic of Benin, and Ghana, using five mitochondrial fragments, including D-loop and cytochrome b (CYTB). D-loop haplotype diversity ranged from 0.571 (± 0.149) in Republic of Benin to 0.921 (± 0.013) in Ghana. Within Nigeria, the haplotype diversity ranged from 0.659 (± 0.059) in Cross River to 0.837 (± 0.075) in Ondo subpopulation. The fixation index (FST), haplotype frequency distribution and analysis of molecular variance revealed varying levels of population structures across populations. No significant signature of population contraction was detected in the grasscutter populations. Evolutionary analyses of CYTB suggests that South African population might have diverged from other populations about 6.1 (2.6–10.18, 95% CI) MYA. Taken together, this study reveals the population status and evolutionary history of grasscutter populations in the region

Horizontal infiltration and trace element measurements for Savannah soils in Zaria, Nigeria

Laboratory investigations of horizontal infiltration were carried out on three Zaria soils (Samaru, Tudun Wada and the Kubanni river basin Fadama wet-land soils) in Nigeria, which are principally alfisols. Diffusivity was found to be -77.5 x 10 -2 cm 2 s-1, -8.4 x 10 -2 cm 2 s-1 and -117.0 x 10 -2 cm 2 s-1 respectively for the three soils. Other infiltration characteristics including, sorptivity and water flux through the soils were also measured.. Concentration data for twenty-one elements ( Sb, Ba, Ce, Co, Cr, Cs, Eu, Hf, Fe, La, Lu, Nd, K, Rb, Sc, Na, Ta, Th, U, Yb, Zn) were also determined for the three soils. The study revealed that although the mineralogy of the soils appeared similar based on their mean elemental compositions, the Fadama soils showed high sorptivity, indicative of water-logged conditions which is characteristic of wet-lands. Keywords: Nigerian Soils, Darcy\'s equation, infiltration, ko-standardization, neutron Activation analysis Nigerian Journal of Physics Vol. 18 (1) 2006: pp.13-1

Farm waste utilization among farmers in Irepodun Local Government Area, Kwara State, Nigeria: Implication for extension education service delivery

The study examined the utilization of farm waste among farmers in Irepodun Local Government Area of Kwara State, Nigeria. Structured interview schedule was used to elicit data from 120 farmers in the study area. Results revealed that more than half (58.4%) of the respondents were crop farmers who grow majorly maize and cassava on a subsistence scale. The major farm wastes generated in the area were maize cobs, husk and stalk (62.5%) and cassava stalk and peels (60%). Majority of the farmers got rid of their farm waste through burning while more than half of the respondents do not utilize the waste they generate from their farms. The major constraints militating against farm waste utilization includes inadequate access to extension services, inadequate awareness of benefits of farm waste, inadequate facilities for processing of farm wastes to other products and low knowledge on usage of farm waste. Logistic regression modeling results revealed that farmers who are more likely to utilize their farm waste efficiently are those with higher level of education and more years of experience in farming. It was therefore recommended that extension agencies should embark on enlightenment campaigns and trainings of farmers on various innovative ways of farm wastes utilization in order to facilitate more efficient and environmental friendly farm waste utilization initiatives in the area