Vegetables constitute a major food source with huge nutritional values as well as major source of income. The cultivation of vegetables is dictated by climate and seasonal changes across Nigeria. Edo State lies within the South of Nigeria and enjoys the two popular seasons (rainy and dry) like many other parts of the country. However, the variability in soil distribution and weather conditions across different locations is a determining factor as to the category of not just vegetables to grow but other crops. In this paper, Edo state is used as a flagship project for its diverse potentials and uniqueness in respect of known variability in soil and weather conditions. The State is divided into three geo-referenced agricultural districts. A prototype system is proposed to provide vegetable farmers with real-time information on vegetablefarming requirements. The proposed system is an Internet of things (IoT)-enabled climate variability system with interfaces to popular mobile networks, existing Geographical Information System (GIS) in the State, and remote sensing stations respectively. Each geo-referenced point is a nexus to areas with similar weather variability and soil distribution. Historical data is collected from the existing GIS and a provision is made to constantly enrich the historical data with new information from the geo-referenced points including crops grown, trends in cultivation, queries from farmers, etc. The information generated from the geo-referenced locations are routed via GPS to the central analytics server in the cloud and appropriate algorithms are used to carry out data analysis for real-time prediction and messages to farmers through the Internet and Short Message Services (SMS). With this system, it is submitted that subsistent and mechanized farmers would benefit through the guidance of an analytics system thereby boosting vegetablefarming regardless of the season of the year.

Student advising services are often regarded as the mainstream vehicle for promoting relationships, understanding, and performance in academic institutions especially at the tertiary level. However, it is often fraught with challenges in developing countries in respect of insufficient supporting manpower and attendant high cost of running effective services. In institutions where the services exist, not all students benefit from it as a result of some factors such as: the sub-optimal performance of the advising personnel; negative psychological complex in students arising from unusual egocentrism (especially in those students who are regarded as “low performers” and would prefer not to be openly confronted); handicapped students especially those students with visible handicaps e.g. speech problems, etc. This paper is the first part of a study aimed at creating a balance in the foregoing situations by presenting a design of a faceless automated “AdvisorBot” based on the bot framework. The design reflects a virtual support system model which could be adopted to enhance student support and course advising efficiency. Analysis of the existing system in most tertiary institutions in Nigeria reveals that student support services actually exist though not efficient in the sense that there are seldom specialized units/departments dedicated to this function in majority of the Institutions especially the public institutions where student advising is the work of academic staff in the various departments. The design follows a mix of the agent and object-oriented approaches and produces an implementation-ready specification whose full implementation would effectively support students during their studies. The system facilitates the process of advising by providing quick and easy access to valuable information, and giving important feedback on several issues involved in student advisement, which otherwise would take considerable time.

The effects of some essential meteorological variables such as temperature, relative humidity and mean sea level pressure on the Ultra High Frequency (UHF) radio signals from Edo Broadcasting Service (EBS) transmitting at 743.25 MHz UHF and Very High Frequency (VHF) radio signals from Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) transmitting at 189.25 MHz VHF both in in Benin City, Edo State, South-South region of Nigerialocated within 6°20’17″N and 5°37’32″E was evaluated in this study. The measurements of the radio signal strength from EBS television station and radio signal strength from NTA television station were done using the Digital Community-Access/Cable Television (CATV) analyser, while a self-implemented weather monitoring device was used for the measurement of the weather variables simultaneously at an equidistant position within the City. The measurements were carried out continuously for every six hours (between 12am-1am, 6am-7am, 12pm-1pm and 6pm-7pm local time respectively) all through the year, 2018. From the obtained results, it was observed that the radio signals from both the UHF and VHF television stations were directly proportional to the temperature, inversely proportional to the relative humidity and no defined pattern of proportionality with the mean sea level pressure. Inferentially, the radio signals from the UHF television station were seen to be mostly affected by these weather variables and these effects were more pronounced during the months with high relative humidity compared with the months with lower relative humidity. However, a postulation that would still be subjected to further verification has been proposed from these results. It is believed that these results and proposed postulation would definitely be helpful in guiding and assisting the management of radio communication systems for planning and other purposes.

Computer Science Education (CSE) is a field of study in the 21st century that cannot be ignored by any nation in search of rapid integrated development. When driven by Information and Communications Technology (ICT) tools, the field could become a live wire for national socio-economic development with the capacity to transform and sustain same. This paper follows a qualitative approach in examining the relevance of an ICT-driven CSE in sustainable development and advocates for a proper entrenchment of ICT-based pedagogy in the existing curriculum in tertiary institutions for better learning experience and quality education delivery for development. The various areas in which CSE and ICT are applied for sustainable development are appropriately discussed. Also discussed are the challenges and barriers to the deployment of ICT solutions towards the realization of sustainable development goals (SDG) in higher education and technology development. It concludes by reiterating a paradigm shift towards an integrated education model that explores use of ICT at all academic processes across all the three tiers of education in Nigeria to contribute its quota in the realization of the SDGs.

The essence of nanomedicine products regardless the mode of synthesis is to help prevent, control and possibly eradicate diseases and other health problems that have become an albatross to the entire human race. With the old ways of doing things, no new results could be reasonably anticipated. The production of Nano pharmacological and therapeutic agents could be enhanced with new hybrid streams of technology. This brings to bear the usefulness of information technologies. Informatics has evolved as an interdisciplinary scientific and technological embodiment of techniques, processes and tools that could be harnessed to support not just healthcare delivery but other campaigns that provide solutions to health problems in the society. To this end, biomedical informatics, health informatics, cheminformatics, and nanoinformatics have all become areas of discourse in the last decade owing to their relevance in all subsectors in the healthcare and allied domains. This paper is an attempt at articulating the relevance of nanoinformatics especially as it affects the design of projects around nanomedicine design, synthesis and subsequent clinical applications in the healthcare delivery cycle. This paper employs an exploratory narrative-textual approach with contextual analysis to unveil the factors that predispose to failure projects initiated around nanomedicine and clinical applications. The paper makes some conceptualizations to conclude that nanoinformatics is sine qua non to the success of any modern nanomedicine project.

Meteorological variables are crucial constituents in the estimation of refractivity disseminations and the uncharacteristic radio wave propagation situations of the troposphere as a result of their impact on radio wave communication relations over the atmosphere. In this study the measurement and assessment of air temperature, relative humidity and atmospheric pressure was carried out for a period of one year; 2018, so as to estimate the refractivity gradient over Iyamho-Auchi, Edo State, Nigeria using a self-implemented inexpensive portable meteorological monitoring device. The measurements of the essential climate variables were done at the administrative building of Edo University Iyamho by placing the meteorological monitoring device on a fixed position. The results show that the monthly estimated refractivity gradient values which would be useful in the prediction of the local radio propagation range from -20.00 N-units/km to -190.00 N-units/km with an average value of -60.67 N-units/km for the period under consideration. The findings also show that the months with limited relative humidity have greater refractivity gradient values compared to the ones with higher relative humidity. It was also observed from the results that the measured essential climate variables were having significant impacts on the estimated refractivity gradient during all the months in 2018, and these impacts were more noticeable in the months with higher relative humidity compared with the months that were having limited relative humidity.