Malware Analysis on PDF

Cyber-attacks are growing day by day and attackers are finding new techniques to cause harm to their target by spreading worms and malware. In the world of innovations and new technologies coming out every day, it creates a possibility of attacking a system and exploiting the vulnerabilities present in the system. One of the methods used for the spread of malware is the Portable Document Format (PDF) files. Due to the flexible nature of these files, it is becoming a sweet spot for the attackers to embed the malware easily into the PDF files. In this report, we are going to understand this flexibility provided by the PDF development and why the bad actors find it easy to embed viruses or malware into the PDF files. We will then look at how we can develop methods and techniques using python script to identify the malicious files and stop it from harming the systems in your network

Formulation and Evaluation of Mesalamine Nanosphere Tablet

Nanospheres are the particles having the size range between 10-200 nm in diameter. Nanospheres can be amorphous or crystalline in nature and also they have the ability to protect the drug from enzymatic and chemical degradation. For the preparation of standard calibration curve of Mesalamine with Phosphate buffer pH 6.8 and Absorbance of µg/ml solution was measured between 200-400nm by using Shimadzu 1601 UV/Vis double beam spectrophotometer. Nanosphare containing Mesalamine were prepared using nanoprecipitation method. 200 mg of polymer (Eudragit RS and L) was dissolve in 50 ml water. Drug was dissolve in 20 ml of methanol. Both solution were mixed and add 50 ml of water and stirred for half an hour. Methanol and water was evaporated under reduced pressure using rotary flash evaporator until 10 ml of solution was remaining. Than this suspension was centrifuge at 15000 rpm at 40C for half an hour. The supernatant was discarded and remaining portion was washed with distilled water. The nano-sphares was dried over night at 600C and stored in desiccators. The surface morphology (roundness, smoothness, and formation of aggregates) and particle size was studied by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Zeta potential of the best formulation (F4) was determined by zeta potential probe model DT- 300. Mesalamimne, Dextrose and Lactose were taken in required quantities mixed and granulating agent (Starch past) was added and passed through #40 sieves, then lubricant magnesium stearate and talc was added then compressed into tablets by rotary tablet punching machine. Then film coating is done by 6% w/v solution of Cellulose acetate Phthalate in isopropyl alcohol using 2% tween-80 as plasticizer in coating pan. The weight of tablet was kept constant for all formulations. Nanosphare tablet formulation F-2 Showed maximum drug (97.75%) released and formulation F-4 showed 92.58% drug release. The In-vitro drug released study result showed that formulation F-2 96.58% drug was released after 17 hours which is highest drug release amongst all other tablet formulation. &nbsp

Analysis of Hepatitis C Viral Dynamics Using Latin Hypercube Sampling

We consider a mathematical model comprising of four coupled ordinary differential equations (ODEs) for studying the hepatitis C (HCV) viral dynamics. The model embodies the efficacies of a combination therapy of interferon and ribavirin. A condition for the stability of the uninfected and the infected steady states is presented. A large number of sample points for the model parameters (which were physiologically feasible) were generated using Latin hypercube sampling. Analysis of our simulated values indicated approximately 24% cases as having an uninfected steady state. Statistical tests like the chi-square-test and the Spearman's test were also done on the sample values. The results of these tests indicate a distinctly differently distribution of certain parameter values and not in case of others, vis-a-vis, the stability of the uninfected and the infected steady states

Water for small-scale biogas digesters in sub-Saharan Africa

Acknowledgements This work was part-funded by the UK Natural Environment Research Council funded ESPA project, NE/K010441/1 ‘ALTER – Alternative Carbon Investments in Ecosystems for Poverty Alleviation’. We are also grateful to the AUC for funding part of this work under the Afri-Flame project on ‘Adapta- tion of small-scale biogas digesters for use in rural households in sub-Saharan AfricaPeer reviewedPublisher PD

A package of water management practices for sustainable growth and improved production of vegetable crop in labour and water scarce Sub-Saharan Africa

A package of water management practices including pitcher irrigation method and water conserving techniques of manure application and mulching is experimented for sustainable growth and improved production of cucumber crop in Makanya village in North Eastern Tanzania. The increase in total yield due to package of water management practices is 203 per cent and water use efficiency obtained is 12.06kgm-3. The seasonal water requirement of cucumber crop under package of water management practices ranges from 146.30 to 198.10mm, which is on an average 4.19 times less as compared to control treatment of can irrigation. The irrigation interval in package of water management practices is 4.9 times higher than the can irrigation method. The water and labour uses are reduced by 75.9 and 73 per cent, respectively in package of water management practices. The results showed that the self-regulative nature of pitchers and moisture retention by water conserving techniques is helpful in mitigating water stress in crop root zone. The moisture retention period in soil is increased assisting reduction of labour hours required in irrigation. In local context, the water management practices included in the package are easy to understand, adopt, operate and maintain.Sub-Saharan Africa Pangani basin Rainwater harvesting Water and labour scarcity Package of water management practices Vegetable production

RS and GIS based multi-criteria evaluation for locating water system innovations in Pangani River Basin of Tanzania

In ICID Second African Regional Conference, Held in Johannesburg South Africa, 6-9 November 2007Water System Innovations (WSIs) viz. in situ moisture conservation, rain/runoff Water harvesting, efficient irrigation methods and precision agriculture are successfully introduced in Sub-Saharan Africa as opportunities to improve food production and water availability. Large scale adoption of these techniques demand suitable site selection based on bio-physical and socio-economic parameters. In this study, remote sensing and GIS techniques together with field investigations were used to identify potential sites for adoption of WSIs in Pangani river basin of Tanzania. Based on field surveys and remote sensing data, spatial information like hydronomic zones, bio-physical and socioeconomic parameters was generated and the suitability criteria for each WSI were developed. Analytical Hierarchical Processing and Pairwise Comparison Method were used for parameter weighting. The Model builder and Weighted Overlay Function of ARC GIS were used to develop the Multi-Criteria Evaluation model in GIS. Potential sites for adoption of WSIs were identified and validated in reference to field parameters

THE EFFECTS OF OTAGO EXERCISE PROGRAMME FOR FALL PREVENTION IN ELDERLY PEOPLE

Background: The ‘Otago exercise programme’ (OEP) is a strength and balance retraining programme designed to prevent falls in older people living in the community. The aim of this study was to find the effects of Otago exercise programme for fall prevention in community dwelling elderly people. Method: The sample comprised 30 community dwelling elderly around sinhgad road, pune (out of 30, 4 were dropouts) aged over 60 years both male and female falling under moderate fall risk measured by Tinetti Performance Oriented Mobility Assessment. The intervention consisted mainly strength and balance training. Intervention was done for 1 hr every day, 5 days per week for 6weeks. Outcome measure assessment was done pre, 3rd week and post intervention. Pre and post comparison of following three outcome measures was done. Outcome measures: Tinetti Performance Oriented Mobility Assessment, 10RM and Chair stand test. Result: Paired t-test was done. Results of p value for 10RM (p value = 0.00), Tinetti performance oriented mobility assessment (p value = 0.00) and chair stand test (p value = 0.01) was found to be highly significant. Out of 26 subjects with moderate risk of fall pre intervention, 24 subjects showed low risk of fall during post intervention assessment of Tinetti Performance Oriented Mobility Assessment. Conclusion: The Otago exercise programme is significantly effective increasing strength of lower limb and improving in balance, gait and therefore ultimately preventing fall in community dwelling Indian elder people. Hence, Otago exercise protocol can be used in day to day clinical practice and also as a home exercise program