Development of an Enhanced Cloud Deployment Model for Resilient Internet Disaster Recovery and Management

Effective Internet disaster recovery and management is taking front burner consideration in organizations involved in Information Technology (IT) activities in order to safeguard their data and services on regular basis. When disaster, for instance knocks down the infrastructure of a single service provider, it usually will have ripple effect on the dependants that even a short period of down time can result in significant financial loss. Therefore, organizations may need disaster recovery plan or independent business continuity plan (IBCP) and backup policy that they can afford while at the same time achieving the primary aim of Recovery Point Objective (RPO) and Recovery Time Objective (RTO). This paper presents a hybrid of three Internet disaster recovery models of TAIJI, SECONDSITE and HS-DRT which can help organizations recover more quickly whenever Internet disaster occurred in their platforms. The system was developed using a combination of Structural System Analysis and Design Methodology (SSADM), Dynamic System and Development Methodology (DSDM) and Object Oriented and Design Methodology (OOADM). Java Enterprise (JEE) Technology in conjunction with NetBean1.0. Integrated Development Environment IDE were used at the front end, while MySQL server was used to implement the backend. The result obtained showed that a hybrid of Taji, SecondSite and HS-DRT which combined the features of; replication, duplication, server watch dog, check pointing, encryption, decryption, fragmentation, defragmentation and stateless services indicated an enhanced model for disaster recovery, since the deficiencies of each of those models hybridized were addressed through such features exhibited by the new model, which include; checksumming, compression and decompressio

ENDOTHELIUM-DEPENDENT AND -INDEPENDENT RELAXATIONS IN AORTIC RINGS OBTAINED FROM HYPERTENSIVE HOODED (AGUTI) RATS.

Experimental hypertension studies are few in the hooded (Aguti) rat. The present study was designed to investigate the usefulness of this rat strain for experimental hypertension studies and to test the hypothesis that the hypertension may be associated with a diminution of endothelium dependent and independent relaxations. Hypertension was induced in inbred hooded rats (n=8 each) by administering 8% salt in the diet and /or 100 mg/kg/day Nω-nitro-L-arginine-methyl-ester (L-NAME) in the drinking water for six and/or four weeks respectively. The rats were anaesthetized using a 25% urethane and 1% chloralose mixture given intraperitoneally at a dose of 5mg/kg. Their blood pressure was measured invasively. Thereafter, relaxations of rat aortic preparations to acetylcholine, histamine and sodium nitroprusside (SNP) were assessed using standard organ bath conditions. P<0.05 was taken as statistically significant. The mean arterial pressure (MAP;mm Hg) rose significantly in all test groups (Salt: 148.3±4.6; L-NAME: 181.7±8.3; Salt+L-NAME:154.9±8.7) compared with control (94.2±6.8; P<0.05). The MAP was significantly (P<0.05) higher in the L-NAME group than in all the other groups. The heart rate fell significantly in the salt + L-NAME group compared to control (P<0.05).The IC50 of acetylcholine in aortic rings from L-NAME rats (7.9 x 10-1 ± 6.0 x 10-3) was significantly higher than in rings from control (9.4 x 10-8 ± 2.8 x 10-8), salt (7.8 x 10-7 ± 4.7 x 10-7) and salt + L-NAME (3.3 x 10-7 ± 2.1 x 10-7) rats (P<0.05). The IC50 of histamine and SNP in the rings from the test groups of rats showed no significant difference from control. These results suggest that the hooded rat may be useful for experimental hypertension studies. Also, endothelium dependent and independent relaxations were preserved in the various forms of hypertension studied except in chronic NOS inhibition where the former was attenuated in response to acetylcholine

Improving loan repayment in Ghana: Does financial literacy matter?

Loan defaults continue to be a major challenge that confronts financial institutions in developing countries and this impedes their potential role in sustainable development. Given the enormity of loan defaults, policymakers have devoted much attention to the phenomenon by implementing strategies and policies aimed at improving loan repayment to avert the situation. To complement the effort of policymakers, several empirical studies have also been conducted regarding loan repayment determinants; but what is worrying is that none of these studies emphasises the role of financial literacy, especially in the Ghanaian context. This study therefore examines the potential effect of financial literacy on loan repayment. We rely on primary data and employ the binary probit regression for the analysis. The results reveal a positive and significant relationship between financial literacy and loan repayment. This means that enhancing financial literacy improves loan repayment significantly which will in turn ensure sustainability of the financial institutions. The level of education of borrowers is also revealed to play a key role in loan repayment. Given the findings, the study sheds new lights on how loan repayment can be improved to ensure a vibrant banking sector

Studies on Transdermal Delivery Enhancement of Zidovudine

The purpose of this study was to investigate physicochemical characteristics and in vitro release of zidovudine from monolithic film of Eudragit RL 100 and ethyl cellulose. Films included 2.5% or 5% (w/w) zidovudine of the dry polymer weight were prepared in various ratios of polymers by solvent evaporation method from methanol/acetone solvent mixture. The release studies were carried out by vertical Franz cells (2.2 cm2 area, 20 ml receptor fluid). Ex vivo studies were done on Wistar rat skin within the films F6 (Eudragit RL100) and F7 (Eudragit RL100/Ethylcellulose, 1:1) consisting 5% (w/w) zidovudine in comparison with the same amount of free drug. Either iontophoresis (0.1 and 0.5 mA/cm2 direct currents, Ag/AgCl electrodes) or dimethyl sulfoxide (pretreatment of 1% and 5%, w/w, solutions) were used as enhancers. Films consisting of ethyl cellulose under the ratio of 50% (w/w) gave similar release profiles, and the highest in vitro cumulative released amount was achieved with F6 film which gave the closest results with the free drug. This result could be due to the high swelling capacity and re-crystallization inhibition effect of RL 100 polymer which also influenced the film homogenization. All the films were fitted to Higuchi release kinetics. It was also observed that both 0.5-mA/cm2 current and 5% (w/w) dimethyl sulfoxide applications significantly increased the cumulative permeated amount of zidovudine after 8 h; however, the flux enhancement ratio was higher for 0.5-mA/cm2 current application, especially within F6 film. Thus, it was concluded that Eudragit RL100 film (F6) could be further evaluated for the transdermal application of zidovudine