Development of an Encrypting System for an Image Viewer based on Hill Cipher Algorithm

Security breaches to personal computing devices, cloud storage accounts, portable media devices are rampant in today’s world. Also, Increased intrusions into corporate servers and employee workstations often times lead to the unwarranted exposure of an individual or corporate secret and a breach to privacy. Information leaked through such intrusions and breaches especially images are often times in the public terrain without a user’s or corporate consent. This breaches are due to a variety of reasons including internal saboteurs, theft, social engineering or a computer security attack. At times other crimes like fraud, blackmail, kidnapping and assassinations may follow. This study presents the development of an Encryption system in an Image Viewer Application. Encrypting Images before storage or transfer to any platform helps limit risk when images are stolen or leaked. The image viewer was designed in C#.NET using the Hill Cipher algorithm for Image Encryption and Decryption. The results for images are shown to be good for two image samples. However, low key image samples produce a better result after Encryption. In general, Encryption of user generated images is a vital security strategy and a good option to have to prevent against a growing number of threats

Comparative analysis of routing techniques in chord overlay network

Overlay networks are not a new field or area of study. This domain of computing will someday drive P2P systems in various application areas such as block-chain, energy trading, video multicasting, and distributed file storage. This study highlights the two widely known methods of routing information employed in one of such overlay networks called chord. In this study, simulations of both routing modes (iterative and recursive) and their variations under no-churn (leaving and joining of nodes) and churn conditions was carried out. The routing parameter (successor list size) was varied for each of the routing techniques in a simulation study. The results obtained show that semi recursive routing gives a better routing performance under churn scenarios

INTELLIGENT PLANT WATERING SYSTEM FOR RURAL FARMERS

This is an ongoing research study work. The objective of this study is to build an intelligent plant watering system for rural farmers. The study considered the availability of water supply in specific regions for five years. Also vital parameters statistics necessary for proper growth of each plant are stored in the system data base over the same period. Our study is primarily being guided by observations made in the rain fall pattern, different weather conditions, and environmental situation across the regions in the Northern and Southern parts of Nigeria. The target farmers are very poor. Therefore, our task is to produce a system that is affordable and reliable to these farmers. The complexity and stability of the system notwithstanding, overall, this study “Intelligent Plant Watering System for Rural Farmers” is being carried out to provide the rural farmers with a cheap, durable, power efficient, affordable, reliable, flexible, efficient and high performance intelligent plant watering system. Although this study is divided into three major groups, however, in this paper we try to present a subgroup that deals with soil moisture and fertility. The system based on its available statistics sets the various limits for the soil moisture, temperature and fertility. These features in the system ensure that water for irrigation is effectively managed and allowed to flow during specified temperature range. Also the soil fertility is properly regulated. This paper discursion focuses on the soil moisture and temperatur

Holistic Pest Management Strategies in Tropical Plant Species

The tropical climate shift is causing herbivores to emerge almost ceaselessly throughout the year in certain regions exhibiting homodynamic cycles and unbalanced biodiversity. Crop management and pest management are being viewed as separate activities, with recent focus on sustainability. Even though there is a great deal of information on crop loss assessment, systems analysis, systems modelling, individual pest sciences, and pest management, the Integrated Pest Management (IPM) concept is not frequently deployed. The IPM system is a multi-tactic approach to pest management in agricultural production that takes into account economic, environmental, ecological, and human health implications. This paper provides an overview of key achievements in the development of management strategies, including the transition from a specific level of pest control that focuses on the suppression of target pests to an eco-friendlier and/or systems approach to pest management that employs a variety of non-chemical options as well as the judicious use of pesticides. The agroecological protection techniques and their integration to sustainably minimise pest risks are also reviewed here and describe technological advances in tropical pest management using host resistance, semiochemicals, natural enemies, selective pesticides, ecological engineering and habitat management which promotes sustainable pest management

Performance Benchmarking of Key-Value Store NoSQL Databases

Increasing requirements for scalability and elasticity of data storage for web applications has made Not Structured Query Language NoSQL databases more invaluable to web developers. One of such NoSQL Database solutions is Redis. A budding alternative to Redis database is the SSDB database, which is also a key-value store but is disk-based. The aim of this research work is to benchmark both databases (Redis and SSDB) using the Yahoo Cloud Serving Benchmark (YCSB). YCSB is a platform that has been used to compare and benchmark similar NoSQL database systems. Both databases were given variable workloads to identify the throughput of all given operations. The results obtained shows that SSDB gives a better throughput for majority of operations to Redis’s performance

Design and Implementation of a Student Attendance System Using Iris Biometric Recognition

Attendance taking is a standard practice in every educational system. The methods used to take class attendance are quite numerous but emphasis keeps shifting towards automating the process. The use of biometrics in taking class attendance is fast gaining ground and the traditional way of taking attendance is fast losing ground especially when the class is very large and time is of great essence. The iris was used as the biometric in this paper. After enrolling all attendees by storing their particulars along with their unique iris template, the designed system automatically took class attendance by capturing the eye image of each attendee, recognizing their iris, and searching for a match in the created database. The designed prototype is also web based. This paper proposes an alternative and accurate method of taking attendance that is both spoofproof and relatively cheap to implement

Humility, Self-Awareness, and Religious Ambivalence: Another Look at Beckett's ‘Humanistic Quietism’

This is the accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Edinburgh University Press at http://www.euppublishing.com/doi/abs/10.3366/jobs.2014.0104. This article provides a commentary on the opaque and often contradictory arguments of ‘Humanistic Quietism’, Samuel Beckett's 1934 review of Thomas MacGreevy's Poems. Using Beckett's complicated relationship to both his own Protestant upbringing and the Catholicism of MacGreevy as a starting point, the article proposes new ways of understanding Beckett's ambivalent comments about MacGreevy's interiority, prayer-like poetry, humility, and quietism. It draws on Beckett's comments on Rilke, André Gide, and Arnold Geulincx, as well as his familiarity with Dante, to unpack the review's dense allusions and make sense of Beckett's aesthetic allegiances. </jats:p

The levels of testosterone, zinc, manganese and selenium in type 2 diabetic patient in South-Eastern Nigeria

Background: This study is aimed at evaluating the levels of some trace elements and testosterone, and to ascertain their possible association in type 2 diabetes mellitus.  Methods: Ninety male type 2 diabetic subjects and forty five apparently healthy non-diabetic male individuals were recruited into this study. The control group was matched for age with the study subjects and they were all within the age range of 30-67 years. Fasting Plasma Glucose (FPG), testosterone, trace elements (zinc, selenium, manganese), Body Mass Index (BMI) were determined.Results: This study showed significant decreases in the levels of trace elements (Zn, Se, and Mn) with a concomitant decrease in the levels of testosterone in type 2 diabetic patients (P <0.001). This findings were further strengthened by the strong positive correlation between testosterone and these trace elements (P <0.05).Conclusion: This suggests that low testosterone level might be as a result of low trace elements considering their role in testosterone production. Therefore, trace elements supplementation is recommended