Institutional Financing and Poverty Alleviation in Nigeria

The study examined the nexus between Institutional Financing and the Poverty rate in Nigeria. The rationale behind the study is to establish the extent to which disbursed credits from the selected financial institutions have helped in alleviating the poverty rate in Nigeria. The institutional credits considered in this study include credits from the Bank of Industry, Bank of Agriculture, Microfinance Bank, African Development Bank, World Bank, and Deposit Money Bank while Poverty Index was used as a measure of the poverty rate.  The study covered the periods 1991 to 2021 and data was sourced from the World Bank Database. We employed Unit Root Test, Johansen Co-Integration Test, Vector Error Correction Model, and Granger Causality Test. In the long run, we found that Microfinance Bank credit and African Development Bank credit significantly contributed to the poverty alleviation agenda of the government in Nigeria. As such, we conclude that institutional credits from Microfinance Bank and African Development Bank have significantly contributed to the fight against the poverty rate in Nigeria. As such, we recommended that Microfinance Bank should maintain its credit disbursement pattern as the report has shown that its credit has helped to assuage the poverty rate in Nigeria. Doing this is necessary as it will help in including the financially excluded citizens of the country in the financial web and also increase their access to financial products

Proximate, Functional and Sensory Properties of Bread from Wheat - Plantain (Musa SPP) Flour Blends

The effect of blanching treatments on the functional properties of plantain flour and sensory characteristics of bread made from wheat (80%) and plantain (20%) flour was investigated

Mitigating Threats in a Corporate Network with a Taintcheck-Enabled Honeypot

Conventional network security tools such as Intrusion Detection Systems (IDS), Intrusion Prevention Systems (IPS), anti-virus, antispyware and anti-malware integrated with firewalls generate a lot of false positives that make computer network system administration cumbersome. This paper proposes a novel mechanism comprising of taintcheck for dynamic analysis of buffer overflow attack using synthetic exploit and hybrid honeypot for scanning, detecting, identifying attackers and signature generation. In this framework, Noah’s attack detection is used as a template. Upon testing, the practicality of the proposed framework was found to be more effective than other conventional network security tools as it effectively and comprehensively mitigates against threats and reported zero-day attacks with fewer false positives

Assessment of wound contraction, re-epithelialization and histological changes in full thickness excision wounds of rats treated with different concentrations of hydrogen peroxide

Purpose: To investigate the impact of treatment with different strengths of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) on healing of excision-type wounds in rats. Methods: Thirty-two (n = 8) adult wistar rats randomly assigned to four groups A - D were used for the study. Full-thickness excision-type wound was surgically made on each rat on day 0. While wounds in group A, the control, were treated with 0.9 % normal saline, wounds in groups B - D received 1, 3, and 5 % H2O2, respectively. Following the surgical wounding and treatment, the epithelialization time, wound contraction, and histological changes of the wounds were assessed. Results: On day 21, animals in group C recorded 100% wound contraction, whereas in groups A, B and D the contraction degrees of 68.75, 79.33 and 79.00 %, respectively, were reported on the same day. Group C animals treated with 3 % of H2O2 had significantly (p < 0.05) higher degree of wound contraction and epithelialization. Histologically, by day 14, wounds of animals in group C presented with a preponderance of fibrocytes over fibroblasts spread across organized connective tissue fibres. Group C treated animals also had significantly (p<0.05) faster epithelialization. No visible side effects were observed in this group following the treatments. However, the wounds of animals in groups A, B and D showed fibroblasts embedded in loose irregular connective tissue fibres with haemorrhagic lesions, alongside pronounced polymorphonuclear cell infiltration. Conclusion: When compared to other concentrations used in the study, the optimum strength of H2O2 for wound dressing is 3 % in terms of rate of wound contraction, epithelialization time, histological changes and physical tissue damage

Integration of Iris Biometrics in Automated Teller Machines for Enhanced User Authentication

The ubiquitous Automatic Teller Machine that revolutionized the way monetary transactions are carried out the world over is currently riddled with several security challenges. Top on the list of these challenges are the thefts and frauds associated with the ever popular Personal Identification Number based automatic teller machines. A lot of suggestions and proposals have been made in recent times, on how to combat the menace of automatic teller machine frauds. Biometrics is one of the most promising tools that have the capacity to put the nefarious activities around automatic teller machines in check. This paper proposes a cheap and economic iris biometric based automatic teller machine, built around a microcontroller, iris scanner and a robust database. The designed and implemented prototype is capable of checkmating automatic teller machine fraud and it is also easy to implement in developing nations

Evaluation of the quality of an image encrytion scheme

Encryption systems have been developed for image viewing applications using the Hill Cipher algorithm. This study aims to evaluate the image encryption quality of the Hill Cipher algorithm. Several traditional metrics are used to evaluate the quality of the encryption scheme. Three of such metrics have been selected for this study. These include, the Colour Histogram, the Maximum Deviation (comparing the original image) and the Entropy Analysis of the encrypted image. Encryption quality results from all three schemes using a variety of images show that a plain Hill Cipher approach gives a good result for all kinds of images but is more suited for colour dense images

Wireless Sensor Network for Rainfall Measurement using a Tipping Bucket Rain Gauge Mechanism

Distributed wireless sensor networks are a new technology that can provide processed real-time field data from sensors that are physically distributed in the field. This study describes a wireless distributed sensor network that gives precision rainfall detection and measurement. Rain fall measurements can be done using a variety of means. One of such means is using a Tipping Bucket Rain Gauge Mechanism. In order to accomplish this, sensor nodes consisting of water level sensors and a wireless transceiver which transmits measured data is attached to the rain gauge. The measured data or signal from the rain gauge is transmitted to a receiver or collector point. The collector point is connected to a computer system (central station). Data retrieved is then displayed by the means of a GUI created customarily for it at the central station. The result of the research work shows a significant accuracy in the rain fall measurement recorded

Study of High Viscous Multiphase Flow Using OLGA Flow Simulator

The continuous depletion of conventional reserves of the world oil and gas has spurred investigation towards the exploration and production from unconventional sources of hydrocarbons such as heavy oil. However, heavy oils are known for their high liquid viscosities making them even more difficult and expensive to produce and transport in pipelines at ambient temperatures. As a consequence of this, a critical understanding of multiphase flow characteristics is vital to aid engineering design it has become imperative to investigate the rheology of high viscosity oils and ways of enhancing its production and transportation. In this study, the characteristics of high viscous oil flows were studied using OLGA flow simulator. A comparison between simulation results from the flow simulator and those of data acquired for high oil-gas viscosity experiments (i.e. for oil viscosity ranging from 0.7-5.0 Pa.s) for two phase flow parameters such liquid holdup and pressure gradient exhibited huge discrepancies and under prediction.    Keywords— High viscosity oil, Liquid holdup, OLGA, Pressure gradien

Study of High Viscous Multiphase Flow Using OLGA Flow Simulator

The continuous depletion of conventional reserves of the world oil and gas has spurred investigation towards the exploration and production from unconventional sources of hydrocarbons such as heavy oil. However, heavy oils are known for their high liquid viscosities making them even more difficult and expensive to produce and transport in pipelines at ambient temperatures. As a consequence of this, a critical understanding of multiphase flow characteristics is vital to aid engineering design it has become imperative to investigate the rheology of high viscosity oils and ways of enhancing its production and transportation. In this study, the characteristics of high viscous oil flows were studied using OLGA flow simulator. A comparison between simulation results from the flow simulator and those of data acquired for high oil-gas viscosity experiments (i.e. for oil viscosity ranging from 0.7-5.0 Pa.s) for two phase flow parameters such liquid holdup and pressure gradient exhibited huge discrepancies and under prediction