Estimation of ransomware payments in Bitcoin ecosystem

Ransomware is one of the malicious software that is designed to prevent access to computer system until a sum of money is paid by the victim to the attacker. During the infection, the computer will either be locked, or the data will be encrypted. Ransoms are often demanded in Bitcoin, a largely anonymous Cryptocurrency. All transactions are recorded in the blockchain and verified by peer-to-peer networks. This paper investigation collects ten recent ransomware families, which use bitcoin as a payment for their ransom. In conjunction, we identified, collected and analysed Bitcoin addresses of users combining information from a clustering model and the blockchain. We used a heuristic clustering algorithm to reveal the hidden node's payment of ransomware. Finally, we demonstrated the characteristics of ransomware encryption mechanisms that include a view of the infected process and its execution, and the distinctive demands of ransom

Flexural Strength Characteristics of Beams Reinforced with Fan Palm under Various Exposure Conditions

The relative high cost of man-made imported fibres like, glass, steel and plastics used in cement based composites as reinforcement calls for investigation into the use of locally available natural fibre as a substitute. Fan palm is locally available and has been studied as a suitable alternative to steel reinforcement. The need for durability of the fan palm under varying exposure conditions is the concern of this study. The ultimate flexural strength of beams reinforced with fan palm under diverse exposure conditions was determined to evaluate its possible usage, both on short and long term basis. Fan palm specimens were cut, shaped to desired flexural reinforcements sizes and coated with water repellants (epoxy, sulphur and bitumen) and  blocking agents (hydroxylamine, sodium sulphate magnesium sulphate) for 24 hours. They were then used as reinforcements for concrete beams (75 x 100 x 500 mm) of 1:2:4 mix ratio and cured in alkaline media (0.1N sodium hydroxide solution). Two sets of uncoated fan palm reinforced beams (in alkaline solution and in water) were used as control experiments. Flexural strength test was carried out on the specimen beams at ages 7, 14, 28, 56, 90, 180, 270, and 365 days. The results were subjected to ANOVA analysis using STATA soft ware. The results at 365 days indicated that out of the beams reinforced with water repellant agents, those reinforced with bitumen retained the ultimate flexural stress of 36.98N/mm2. For the beams reinforced with fan palm coated with blocking agents, those reinforced with hydroxylamine recorded the ultimate flexural stress of 25.59N/mm2. The ultimate flexural stress of beams reinforced with uncoated fan palm is 4.69N/mm2 and 18.07N/mm2 in alkaline and water media respectively. It was concluded that coating fan palm reinforcements with bitumen (a water repellant agent) improved the durability of fan palm reinforced concrete beams in alkaline media. Keywords: Fan palm, Flexural strength, Exposure conditions, Water repellant agents, Blocking agents

Tensile Strength Characteristics of Fanpalm under Various Exposure Conditions

Fanpalm is a prospective reinforcing material in structural elements. Fanpalm is locally available and has been studied as a suitable alternative to steel reinforcement which is usually imported and expensive. The need for durability of the fanpalm under varying exposure conditions is the concern of this study. The ultimate tensile strength of fanpalm was determined under various exposure conditions to evaluate its possible usage, both on short term and long term basis. Fanpalm specimens were cut, shaped and coated with various protective agents (sodium sulphate, magnesium sulphate, hydroxylamine, epoxy, and sulphur ) then cured in alkaline media(0.1N sodium hydroxide solution) for 3, 7, 14, 28 and 56 days. A set of uncoated Fanpalm were subjected to the same curing conditions as the coated specimens to serve as the control. Tensile strength tests were carried out to evaluate the ultimate tensile stress at various ages for each of the exposure conditions. The results showed that epoxy coated fanpalm specimens recorded the highest strength at 56 days of 80.83N/mm2 while magnesium sulphate coated specimens had the lowest strength of 66.25N/mm2 during the same period. The uncoated specimens had average strength of 65.00N/mm2 at 56 days in alkaline media. It could be said that the coating improves the tensile strength of fanpalm in alkaline media. It was concluded that fanpalm coated with epoxy could be used as a reinforcing material in concrete structures for short term usage. Further evaluation of the strength of epoxy coated specimens over longer duration (say one year) should be carried out to determine its usage as reinforcements on long term basis. Keywords: Fanpalm, tensile strength, reinforcing material, exposure conditions

COVID-19 Pandemic and Volatility Persistence of the Nigerian Crude Oil Price

Impacts of COVID-19 pandemic on the global economy cannot be overemphasized, especially with Nigeria, which largely depends on crude oil as a major source of her revenue. Thus, investigating COVID-19’s impacts on the volatility persistence of Nigerian crude oil price forms the nucleus of this study. Our modelling framework was based on GARCH, EGARCH and GJR-GARCH with two asymmetric innovation distributions  Daily price data on the Nigerian crude oil sales (in dollars per barrel), ranging from 4th Jan., 2010 to 27th May, 2021, were obtained from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). To capture the impact of the pandemic, the data were divided into two periods, before Covid-19 was proscribed as a pandemic by World Health Organisation (01/04/2010 to 10/03/2020) and during COVID-19 pandemic (11/03/2020 to 27/05/2021). Result shows that the leverage effect were positive and significant in both periods which indicates that positive shocks increases volatility more than negative news of the same sign. Also, EGARCH-SSTD and GJR-GARCH (1,1)-SSTD were the best fitted models for before and during pandemic respectively. Result shows that volatility persistence was higher during COVID-19 period (1.012639) than before the COVID-19 pandemic (0.988749) .There was also an increase and over persistence in the volatility of Nigerian crude oil price during COVID-19 than before COVID-19 period

Dynamics and Socioeconomic Drivers of Illegal Hunting of Wildlife Animal for Consumption in Oba Hills Forest Reserve in Southwest Nigeria

This study investigated the dynamics and socioeconomic drivers of illegal hunting of wildlife animal commonly called bushmeat in Oba Hills Forest Reserve (OHFR) in Southwest Nigeria. Two hundred and thirty-four households in 8 host communities were subjected to direct household survey using a multi-stage sampling technique. The results revealed that mainly young and middle-aged men engaged in group and seasonal bushmeat hunting, mostly during the dry season. Also, the scale of daily illegal bushmeat hunting is high in the protected area. Non-selective hunting has increased over the last five years with traditional means of hunting still prominent during the hunting expedition. Thus, the socioeconomic drivers (age, ethnicity and household size) had a strong relationship with illegal bushmeat hunting, and their odds ratio ranged between 2.11 and 3.73. Failure to provide stakes for the host communities’ inhabitants and weak penal system influenced illegal bushmeat hunting in OHFR. We conclude that the aforementioned factors need to be addressed for illegal bushmeat hunting to be tackled effectively. However, in the absence of political and economic stability, controlling illegal bushmeat hunting will remain extremely difficult and the future of wildlife conservation will remain bleak. Keywords: Protected area, bushmeat hunting, conservation, seasonal employmen

Drinking patterns: biochemical and haematological findings in alcohol consumers in Ile-Ife, Nigeria

Effect of drinking patterns on biochemical and haematological parameters was conducted on 200 Nigerian men, categorized into non-drinkers (control), occasional, moderate and heavy drinkers, using standard techniques. Their ages ranged between 20 and 57 years. The values obtained for occasionaland moderate drinkers showed no significant difference (p > 0.05) from those of non-drinkers based on their biochemical and haematological parameters. However, there was significant difference (p < 0. 05) in the values obtained for heavy drinkers and those of other categories. This study showed thatoccasional and moderate drinking had no effect on biochemical and haematological parameters while heavy drinking had some effect. Some of the results in conjunction with the clinical history would also be useful in diagnosing and management of alcoholics

NTI-ULCEROGENIC EFFECT OF GENISTEIN AGAINST INDOMETHACIN-INDUCED GASTRIC ULCER IN RATS

ABSTRACTObjectives: Free radicals generation, inflammation, and nitric oxide (NO) modulation are involved in indomethacin (IND)-induced gastric ulcers.Most of the drugs used for the treatment of gastric ulcer have various side effects. Genistein (GEN), the natural isoflavones isolated from soya beanhas an antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and NO modulating activity. These properties could make GEN a promising and safe, natural candidate againstIND-induced peptic ulcers.Methods: Rats were divided into four groups. Control group; GEN group (10 mg/kg, p.o.); IND group (48 mg/kg, orally); and GEN+IND group (GENadministered 1 week before IND injection). 6 hrs after IND administration, all rats were sacrificed. Gastric juice acidity and gastric injury wereevaluated directly. The levels of tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α), myeloperoxidase (MPO), and NO were determined in gastric tissues. Moreover,glutathione (GSH), malondialdehyde (MDA), and superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity were determined in mucosal tissues.Results: Several mechanisms are involved in IND-induced ulcers as evidenced from the increase in TNF-α, MPO, and reduction in NO levels. In addition,free radicals also participate in the pathogenesis as evidenced from the increase in MDA levels and reduction in GSH levels and SOD activity. On theother hand, pre-administration of GEN markedly attenuated IND-induced ulcers without affecting gastric acidity, through a reduction of the elevatedTNF-α and MPO levels. Moreover, GEN significantly restored the declined NO level and ameliorated the unbalanced oxidative stress parameters.Conclusion: GEN markedly protects against IND-induced ulcers as revealed from biochemical data and amelioration of IND-induced lesions.Therefore, GEN may be a promising candidate for protection against IND-induced gastropathy.Keywords: Genistein, Ulcers, Indomethacin, Nitric oxide, Myeloperoxidase, Tumor necrosis factor alpha

An Analysis Review: Optimal Trajectory for 6-DOF-based Intelligent Controller in Biomedical Application

With technological advancements and the development of robots have begun to be utilized in numerous sectors, including industrial, agricultural, and medical. Optimizing the path planning of robot manipulators is a fundamental aspect of robot research with promising future prospects. The precise robot manipulator tracks can enhance the efficacy of a variety of robot duties, such as workshop operations, crop harvesting, and medical procedures, among others. Trajectory planning for robot manipulators is one of the fundamental robot technologies, and manipulator trajectory accuracy can be enhanced by the design of their controllers. However, the majority of controllers devised up to this point were incapable of effectively resolving the nonlinearity and uncertainty issues of high-degree freedom manipulators in order to overcome these issues and enhance the track performance of high-degree freedom manipulators. Developing practical path-planning algorithms to efficiently complete robot functions in autonomous robotics is critical. In addition, designing a collision-free path in conjunction with the physical limitations of the robot is a very challenging challenge due to the complex environment surrounding the dynamics and kinetics of robots with different degrees of freedom (DoF) and/or multiple arms. The advantages and disadvantages of current robot motion planning methods, incompleteness, scalability, safety, stability, smoothness, accuracy, optimization, and efficiency are examined in this paper

Optimizing Vehicle Usage Using CSP, SAT and MAX-SAT

Most of the companies in Iraq spend significant amounts of time and money when transferring employees between home and work. In this thesis, we model the problem of the Dhi Qar Oil company (DQOC) transportations using three modeling languages from AI: Constraint Programing (CP), Boolean Satisfiability (SAT), and Maximum Satisfiability (MAX-SAT). We then use solvers to find optimal solutions to this problem. We show which of these solvers is more efficient when finding optimal solutions. For this purpose, we create a test suite of 360 problems to test these solvers. All solvers are applied to these problems and the final efficiency is shown

Determination of Carbendazim Fungicide and Oxymatrine Insecticide Residues in the Soils of Four Agriculture Stations in Basrah Governorate by HPLC

The current study was concentrated on the determination of carbendazim fungicide and oxymatrine insecticide residues in four agriculture stations at Basrah governorate ; Abu Al-Kaseeb,Al-Hartha, Al-Zubair and ShattAl-Arab. High pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC) was used to determinedthe carbendazim residues  which range between (0-3.05µg/g) .The highest value 3.05µg/g was recorded in Shatt Al- Arab station while the lowest value was recorded in Al-Zubair station.oxymatrine residues range between (0-1.89 µg/g) and the highest value 1.89µg/g was recorded in  Al-Hartha station while the lowest value was recorded in Shatt Al- Arab station.There is no study on carbendazim and oxymatrine residues in soil, so this study was the first of its kind in the region which could be used as a baseline study for incoming study. Keywords: Oxymatrine, Carbendazim, Basrah soil, HPLC.