Business Commons^™

Transportation Safety Performance Of Us Bus Transit Agencies And Population Density: A Cross-Sectional Analysis (2008-2014), Ilker Karaca, Peter T. Savolainen

Ilker Karaca

The paper examines the transportation safety performance of transit agencies providing public bus service in the US by using data from the National Transit Database (NTD)

Uses NTD data for a seven-year period from 2008 to 2014 • 3,853 observations for 651 public transportation agencies in 50 states

Seven types of bus transit fatalities and injuries (including passengers, operators, pedestrians, bicyclists)

Main explanatory variable: urban density obtained from the US Census figures

Other explanatory variables: total agency revenue miles, unlinked passenger trips, agency fleet size, and urban population

Top-Down Construction Cost Estimating Model Using An Artificial Neural Network, Douglas D. Gransberg, H. David Jeong, Ilker Karaca, Brendon Gardner

Ilker Karaca

This report contains the information and background on top-down cost estimating using artificial neural networks (ANN)_to enhance the accuracy of MDT early estimates of construction costs. Upon conducting an extensive review of MDT’s budgeting and cost estimating efforts, and following a survey of agency experts on the identification of the most salient project attributes with the dual-objectives of low effort and high accuracy, a rational method for top-down variable selection is proposed. Selected variables were further tested in their explanatory power of construction costs through the application of two cost estimating methodologies—multiple regression and artificial neural network methodologies. Both methods …

Mobile Devices: The Case For Cyber Security Hardened Systems, Maurice Dawson, Jorja Wright, Marwan Omar

Maurice Dawson

Mobile devices are becoming a method to provide an efficient and convenient way to access, find and share information; however, the availability of this information has caused an increase in cyber attacks. Currently, cyber threats range from Trojans and viruses to botnets and toolkits. Presently, 96% of mobile devices do not have pre-installed security software while approximately 65% of the vulnerabilities are found within the application layer. This lack in security and policy driven systems is an opportunity for malicious cyber attackers to hack into the various popular devices. Traditional security software found in desktop computing platforms, such as firewalls, …

Understanding The Methods Behind Cyber Terrorism, Maurice E. Dawson Jr., Marwan Omar, Jonathan Abramson

Maurice Dawson

Cyber security has become a matter of national, international, economic, and societal importance that affects multiple nations (Walker, 2012). Since the 1990s users have exploited vulnerabilities to gain access to networks for malicious purposes. In recent years the number of attacks on U.S. networks has continued to grow at an exponential rate. This includes malicious embedded code, exploitation of backdoors, and more. These attacks can be initiated from anywhere in the world from behind a computer with a masked Internet Protocol (IP) address. This type of warfare, cyber warfare, changes the landscape of war itself (Beidleman, 2009). This type of …

Understanding The Influence Of Blog On The Development Of Social Capital, Reza Vaezi, Gholamreza Torkzadeh, Jerry Cha-Jan Chang

Reza Vaezi

The rapid use and application of blogs in diverse areas such as education, marketing, journalism, and human resource management in recent years underlines the need for a better understanding of the impact of this new technology on social capital. Social capital reflects the norm of reciprocity and the level of trust among individuals who connect, interact, and benefit from one another. Blog is expected to influence the extent and the scope of this interaction by providing new means of networking among people. This paper examines the relationship between blog use and social capital and reports on the results of an …

Why Hybrid Mail Has Got The International Factor, Jacob Johnsen

Jacob Johnsen, MSc

Hybrid mail is instrumental to the development of international mail, as Jacob Johnsen explains in this article

Teaching Evaluation (Spring 2014), Hwee-Joo Kam

Hwee-Joo Kam

No abstract provided.

The Future Of National And International Security On The Internet, Maurice Dawson, Marwan Omar, Jonathan Abramson, Dustin Bessette

Maurice Dawson

Hyperconnectivity is a growing trend that is driving cyber security experts to develop new security architectures for multiple platforms such as mobile devices, laptops, and even wearable displays. The futures of national and international security rely on complex countermeasures to ensure that a proper security posture is maintained during this state of hyperconnectivity. To protect these systems from exploitation of vulnerabilities it is essential to understand current and future threats to include the laws that drive their need to be secured. Examined within this chapter are the potential security-related threats with the use of social media, mobile devices, virtual worlds, …

Student Feedback (Spring 2014), Hwee-Joo Kam

Hwee-Joo Kam

No abstract provided.

Research In Progress-Defending Android Smartphones From Malware Attacks, Marwan Omar, Maurice E. Dawson Jr.

Maurice Dawson

Smart phones are becoming enriched with confidential information due to their powerful computational capabilities and attractive communications features. The Android smart phone is one of the most widely used platforms by businesses and users alike. This is partially because Android smart phones use the free, open-source Linux as the underlying operating system, which allows development of applications by any software developer. This research study aims to explore security risks associated with the use of Android smart phones and the sensitive information they contain, the researcher devised a survey questionnaire to investigate and further understand security threats targeting Android smart phones. …

International Ict Research Collaboration: Experiences And Recommendations, Erich Prem, Emma Barron, Arcot Desai Narasimhalu, Ian Morgan

Arcot Desai NARASIMHALU

This paper presents results of a study into the collaboration experiences of researchers. The focus is on long-distance collaboration in information and communication technologies (ICT) research and technology development, i.e. between the EU on the one side and Australia, Singapore or New Zealand on the other. The aim of the study was to provide useful recommendations for researchers who engage in international collaboration and to improve the quality of international co-operation projects. The emphasis here is on the views and experiences of Europe"s international partners. The paper analysis collaboration motives, challenges, co-operation types and provides recommendations for project initiation, networking, …

Strategyproof Mechanisms For Ad Hoc Network Formation, C. Jason Woodard, David C. Parkes

C. Jason Woodard

Agents in a peer-to-peer system typically have incentives to influence its network structure, either to reduce their costs or increase their ability to capture value. The problem is compounded when agents can join and leave the system dynamically. This paper proposes three economic mechanisms that offset the incentives for strategic behavior and facilitate the formation of networks with desirable global properties.

Strategic Assessment Of Information Security Maturity, Arcot Desai Narasimhalu, Dayasindhu Nagarajan, Raghavan Subramanian

Arcot Desai NARASIMHALU

CXOs are becoming increasingly interested in the information security maturity of their enterprises. This paper presents a CXO dashboard that will allow better management of the information security resources in an enterprise.

Infosemm: Infosys It Security Maturity Model: A Report, Arcot Desai Narasimhalu, N. Dayasindhu, Raghavan Subramanian

Arcot Desai NARASIMHALU

Businesses are faced with a continuing battle related to cyber security related issues ranging from cyber attacks all the way to cyber (information) war. These issues affect result in information, system, reputation, and revenue related risks. These risks arise because of vulnerabilities introduced in three major parts of the enterprise – infrastructure, intelligence and practices. This report provides a rating system for representing the security health of enterprises.

On-Line Discovery Of Hot Motion Paths, Dimitris Sacharidis, Kostas Patroumpas, Manolis Terrovitis, Verena Kantere, Michalis Potamias, Kyriakos Mouratidis, Timos Sellis

Kyriakos MOURATIDIS

We consider an environment of numerous moving objects, equipped with location-sensing devices and capable of communicating with a central coordinator. In this setting, we investigate the problem of maintaining hot motion paths, i.e., routes frequently followed by multiple objects over the recent past. Motion paths approximate portions of objects' movement within a tolerance margin that depends on the uncertainty inherent in positional measurements. Discovery of hot motion paths is important to applications requiring classification/profiling based on monitored movement patterns, such as targeted advertising, resource allocation, etc. To achieve this goal, we delegate part of the path extraction process to objects, …