Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Neuroevolutional Methods For Decision Support Under Uncertainty, Nina Komleva, Olga Khlopkova, Matthew He

Mathematics Faculty Articles

The article presents a comparative analysis of the fundamental neuroevolutional methods, which are widely applied for the intellectualization of the decision making support systems under uncertainty. Based on this analysis the new neuroevolutionary method is introduced. It is intended to modify both the topology and the parameters of the neural network, and not to impose additional constraints on the individual. The results of the experimental evaluation of the performance of the methods based on the series of benchmark tasks of adaptive control, classification and restoration of damaged data are carried out. As criteria of the methods evaluation the number of …

The Evolution Of Technology In Call Centers, Julieo Stephen Thompson

CCE Theses and Dissertations

Historical research was conducted through literature. The report traces the evolution of technology in call centers (CCs) from their early inception to 2018. CCs are integrated into many facets of multidisciplinary areas of business, industry, and public and private institutions of higher education. Three research questions were addressed:

1. What technologies enabled the start of CCs? How did the communications between customers and CSRs take place? What was the content of the earlier communications?
2. How did services and communications evolve as technology matured?
3. What are the current state-of-the-art technologies that exist in CCs? Which industries appear to have the best solutions? …

Adaptable Privacy-Preserving Model, Emily Elizabeth Brown

CCE Theses and Dissertations

Current data privacy-preservation models lack the ability to aid data decision makers in processing datasets for publication. The proposed algorithm allows data processors to simply provide a dataset and state their criteria to recommend an xk-anonymity approach. Additionally, the algorithm can be tailored to a preference and gives the precision range and maximum data loss associated with the recommended approach. This dissertation report outlined the research’s goal, what barriers were overcome, and the limitations of the work’s scope. It highlighted the results from each experiment conducted and how it influenced the creation of the end adaptable algorithm. The xk-anonymity model …

An Investigation Into The Impact Of Social Networking On Knowledge Sharing, James Harold Gorham

CCE Theses and Dissertations

Today we are experiencing a rapidly increasing trend to use social networking in ways that dramatically affect both our personal and our public lives. This is a global phenomenon being experienced around the world. Exactly how this technology is being used and by whom is of great interest. The problem is that not a lot of research has been conducted to investigate the role social networking sites play to influence a person’s attitude toward sharing knowledge at work. In light of the marked increase in the use of social networking sites and how it is changing the way we live, …

A Data Mining Framework For Improving Student Outcomes On Step 1 Of The United States Medical Licensing Examination, James Clark

CCE Theses and Dissertations

Identifying the factors associated with medical students who fail Step 1 of the United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE) has been a focus of investigation for many years. Some researchers believe lower scores on the Medical Colleges Admissions Test (MCAT) are the sole factor used to identify failure. Other researchers believe lower course outcomes during the first two years of medical training are better indicators of failure. Yet, there are medical students who fail Step 1 of the USMLE who enter medical school with high MCAT scores, and conversely medical students with lower academic credentials who are expected to have …

Instructional Designers As Project Managers: A Phenomenology, La Keshia Lynn Nall

CCE Theses and Dissertations

The ability to effectively manage learning design projects, consult with stakeholders (such as sponsors, subject matter experts, and learners), and direct projects to completion is a vital part of an instructional designer’s role. Although the need for project management education and experience is reiterated in the literature and in cross-industry instructional designer (ID) job postings, it was unclear how these professionals acquired and used project management skills and tools in their profession because project management is not a focus in many higher education programs intended to prepare instructional designers.

The goal of this phenomenological study was to understand the lived …

Gene Ontology-Guided Force-Directed Visualization Of Protein Interaction Networks, James Lowell King

CCE Theses and Dissertations

Protein interaction data is being generated at unprecedented rates thanks to advancements made in high throughput techniques such as mass spectrometry and DNA microarrays. Biomedical researchers, operating under budgetary constraints, have found it difficult to scale their efforts to keep up with the ever-increasing amount of available data. They often lack the resources and manpower required to analyze the data using existing methodologies. These research deficiencies impede our ability to understand diseases, delay the advancement of clinical therapeutics, and ultimately costs lives.

One of the most commonly used techniques to analyze protein interaction data is the construction and visualization of …

Empirical Assessment Of Mobile Device Users’ Information Security Behavior Towards Data Breach: Leveraging Protection Motivation Theory, Anthony Duke Giwah

CCE Theses and Dissertations

User information security behavior has been an area of growing demand in information systems (IS) research. Unfortunately, most of the previous research done in user information security behavior have been in broad contexts, therefore creating a gap in the literature of similar research that focuses on specific emerging technologies and trends. With the growing reliance on mobile devices to increase the flexibility, speed and efficiency in how we work, communicate, shop, seek information and entertain ourselves, it is obvious that these devices have become data warehouses and platform for data in transit.

This study was an empirical and quantitative study …

A Psychosocial Behavioral Attribution Model: Examining The Relationship Between The “Dark Triad” And Cyber-Criminal Behaviors Impacting Social Networking Sites, Kim Withers

CCE Theses and Dissertations

This study proposes that individual personality characteristics and behavioral triggering effects come together to motivate online victimization. It draws from psychology’s current understanding of personality traits, attribution theory, and criminological research. This study combines the current computer deviancy and hacker taxonomies with that of the Dark Triad model of personality mapping. Each computer deviant behavior is identified by its distinct dimensions of cyber-criminal behavior (e.g., unethical hacking, cyberbullying, cyberstalking, and identity theft) and analyzed against the Dark Triad personality factors (i.e., narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy). The goal of this study is to explore whether there are significant relationships among the …

Diversification And Intensification In Hybrid Metaheuristics For Constraint Satisfaction Problems, John M. Lynden

CCE Theses and Dissertations

Metaheuristics are used to find feasible solutions to hard Combinatorial Optimization Problems (COPs). Constraint Satisfaction Problems (CSPs) may be formulated as COPs, where the objective is to reduce the number of violated constraints to zero. The popular puzzle Sudoku is an NP-complete problem that has been used to study the effectiveness of metaheuristics in solving CSPs. Applying the Simulated Annealing (SA) metaheuristic to Sudoku has been shown to be a successful method to solve CSPs. However, the ‘easy-hard-easy’ phase-transition behavior frequently attributed to a certain class of CSPs makes finding a solution extremely difficult in the hard phase because of …

Orlease: Optimistically Replicated Lease Using Lease Version Vector For Higher Replica Consistency In Optimistic Replication Systems, Diaa Fathalla

CCE Theses and Dissertations

There is a tradeoff between the availability and consistency properties of any distributed replication system. Optimistic replication favors high availability over strong consistency so that the replication system can support disconnected replicas as well as high network latency between replicas. Optimistic replication improves the availability of these systems by allowing data updates to be committed at their originating replicas first before they are asynchronously replicated out and committed later at the rest of the replicas. This leads the whole system to suffer from a relaxed data consistency. This is due to the lack of any locking mechanism to synchronize access …

An Investigation Of Electronic Protected Health Information (E-Phi) Privacy Policy Legislation In California For Seniors Using In-Home Health Monitoring Systems, Robert Lee Saganich

CCE Theses and Dissertations

This study examined privacy legislation in California to identify those electronic Protected Health Information (e-PHI) privacy policies that are suited to seniors using in-home health monitoring systems. Personal freedom and independence are essential to a person's physical and mental health, and mobile technology applications provide a convenient and economical method for monitoring personal health. Many of these apps are written by third parties, however, which poses serious risks to patient privacy. Current federal regulations only cover applications and systems developed for use by covered entities and their business partners. As a result, the responsibility for protecting the privacy of the …

A Hybrid (Active-Passive) Vanet Clustering Technique, Garrett Lee Moore

CCE Theses and Dissertations

Clustering serves a vital role in the operation of Vehicular Ad hoc Networks (VANETs) by continually grouping highly mobile vehicles into logical hierarchical structures. These moving clusters support Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) applications and message routing by establishing a more stable global topology. Clustering increases scalability of the VANET by eliminating broadcast storms caused by packet flooding and facilitate multi-channel operation. Clustering techniques are partitioned in research into two categories: active and passive. Active techniques rely on periodic beacon messages from all vehicles containing location, velocity, and direction information. However, in areas of high vehicle density, congestion may occur on …

Examining The Impact Of Learning Management Systems In Computer Programming Courses, Mohammed Naif Alatawi

CCE Theses and Dissertations

The development of software and communication technologies in education has led the majority of universities worldwide to integrate the functions of Learning Management Systems (LMSs) into their learning environments. LMSs offers several features that encourage their use by universities and other educational institutions, such as unlimited access to course content, easy tracking of learners’ progress and performance, and reduced costs in terms of both money and time. Most existing LMS studies have been focused on experienced LMS users who are familiar with its functions, with little consideration given to new users. Furthermore, although previous researchers have identified various means of …

User Information Security Behavior In Professional Virtual Communities: A Technology Threat Avoidance Approach, Vivienne Forrester

CCE Theses and Dissertations

The popularization of professional virtual communities (PVCs) as a platform for people to share experiences and knowledge has produced a paradox of convenience versus security. The desire to communicate results in disclosure where users experience ongoing professional and social interaction. Excessive disclosure and unsecured user security behavior in PVCs increase users’ vulnerability to technology threats. Nefarious entities frequently use PVCs such as LinkedIn to launch digital attacks. Hence, users are faced with a gamut of technology threats that may cause harm to professional and personal lives. Few studies, however, have examined users’ information security behavior and their motivation to engage …

The Influence Of Identifiable Personality Traits On Nurses’ Intention To Use Wireless Implantable Medical Devices, Vincent Molosky

CCE Theses and Dissertations

Technically-driven medical devices such as wireless implantable medical devices (WIMD) have become ubiquitous within healthcare. The use of these devices has changed the way nurses administer patient care. Consequently, the nursing workforce is large and diverse, and with it comes an expected disparity in personalities. Research involving human factors and technology acceptance in healthcare is not new. Yet due to the changing variables in the manner of which patient care is being administered, both in person and in the mechanism of treatment, recent research suggests that individual human factors such as personality traits may hold unknown implications involving more successful …

Lstm Networks For Detection And Classification Of Anomalies In Raw Sensor Data, Alexander Verner

CCE Theses and Dissertations

In order to ensure the validity of sensor data, it must be thoroughly analyzed for various types of anomalies. Traditional machine learning methods of anomaly detections in sensor data are based on domain-specific feature engineering. A typical approach is to use domain knowledge to analyze sensor data and manually create statistics-based features, which are then used to train the machine learning models to detect and classify the anomalies. Although this methodology is used in practice, it has a significant drawback due to the fact that feature extraction is usually labor intensive and requires considerable effort from domain experts.

An alternative …

Assessing The Effects Of Communication Media Affordances And The Awareness Of Media Security On Knowledge Sharing Behavior, Linda C. Greene

CCE Theses and Dissertations

Global Software Development (GSD) team members engage in intellectual activities that involve sharing business domain knowledge and technical knowledge across geographical areas, which is crucial to the successful development of software. In global software development, media choice may influence how virtual teams create and share knowledge. As digital technology advances and organizations become more digitally transformed, current communication theories for media selection lack the explanation to the complicated phenomena with the use of advanced media technologies. There have been many studies focused on the effectiveness of media, but they did not include user’s understanding of system security and its influence …

Citationally Enhanced Semantic Literature Based Discovery, John David Fleig

CCE Theses and Dissertations

We are living within the age of information. The ever increasing flow of data and publications poses a monumental bottleneck to scientific progress as despite the amazing abilities of the human mind, it is woefully inadequate in processing such a vast quantity of multidimensional information. The small bits of flotsam and jetsam that we leverage belies the amount of useful information beneath the surface. It is imperative that automated tools exist to better search, retrieve, and summarize this content. Combinations of document indexing and search engines can quickly find you a document whose content best matches your query - if …

Gamespect: A Composition Framework And Meta-Level Domain Specific Aspect Language For Unreal Engine 4, Benjamin Jay Geisler

CCE Theses and Dissertations

Game engine programming involves a great number of software components, many of which perform similar tasks; for example, memory allocation must take place in the renderer as well as in the creation routines while other tasks such as error logging must take place everywhere. One area of all games which is critical to the success of the game is that of game balance and tuning. These balancing initiatives cut across all areas of code from the player and AI to the mission manager. In computer science, we’ve come to call these types of concerns “cross cutting”. Aspect oriented programming was …

An Instructional Designer Competency Framework For Complex Learning Designs, David Alan Schubert

CCE Theses and Dissertations

Learning design competency frameworks published by professional organizations, exist for typical instructional design efforts. However, a review of literature revealed a lack of frameworks available for the creation of complex learning designs (CLDs). The goal of this research was to develop a competency framework for the creation of CLDs. Quantitative and qualitative methods were employed in the four phases of the design and development research approach In phase one, a survey based on the Educational Technology Multimedia Competency Survey (ETMCS) was sent to instructional designers who self-reported as having experience creating CLDs. The purpose of phase one was to identify …

Usability Challenges With Insulin Pump Devices In Diabetes Care: What Trainers Observe With First-Time Pump Users, Helen Birkmann Hernandez

CCE Theses and Dissertations

Insulin pumps are designed for the self-management of diabetes mellitus in patients and are known for their complexity of use. Pump manufacturers engage trainers to teach patients how to use the devices correctly to control the symptoms of their disease. Usability research related to insulin pumps and other infusion pumps with first-time users as participants has centered on the relationship between user interface design and the effectiveness of task completion. According to prior research, the characteristics of system behavior in a real life environment remain elusive. A suitable approach to acquire information about potential usability problems encountered by first-time users …

Examining Shared Understanding And Team Performance In Global Virtual Teams, Alva Bullard

CCE Theses and Dissertations

Modern organizations face many significant challenges because of turbulent environments and a competitive global economy. These competitive demands have forced many organizations to increase levels of flexibility and adaptability through the use of virtual environments, and global teams are prevalent in business organizations. Although significant research has been conducted on virtual teams, the development of shared understanding among the members of these teams has not been studied adequately. Time/space barriers, communication complexities, and team diversity hinder the development of shared understanding in these teams.

Based on the Media Synchronicity Theory (MST), a new theoretical model was created that used the …

A Comprehensive Cybersecurity Defense Framework For Large Organizations, Willarvis Smith

CCE Theses and Dissertations

There is a growing need to understand and identify overarching organizational requirements for cybersecurity defense in large organizations. Applying proper cybersecurity defense will ensure that the right capabilities are fielded at the right locations to safeguard critical assets while minimizing duplication of effort and taking advantage of efficiencies. Exercising cybersecurity defense without an understanding of comprehensive foundational requirements instills an ad hoc and in many cases conservative approach to network security. Organizations must be synchronized across federal and civil agencies to achieve adequate cybersecurity defense. Understanding what constitutes comprehensive cybersecurity defense will ensure organizations are better protected and more efficient. …

Comprehending The Safety Paradox And Privacy Concerns With Medical Device Remote Patient Monitoring, Marc Doyle

CCE Theses and Dissertations

Medical literature identifies a number of technology-driven improvements in disease management such as implantable medical devices (IMDs) that are a standard treatment for candidates with specific diseases. Among patients using implantable cardiac defibrillators (ICD), for example, problems and issues are being discovered faster compared to patients without monitoring, improving safety. What is not known is why patients report not feeling safer, creating a safety paradox, and why patients identify privacy concerns in ICD monitoring.

There is a major gap in the literature regarding the factors that contribute to perceived safety and privacy in remote patient monitoring (RPM). To address this …

A Newborn Screening Disorders Online Portal For Primary Care Providers And Parents, Jean Becky Whittemore

CCE Theses and Dissertations

Parents do not always receive accurate, timely and comprehensive information regarding a positive newborn screening from their infants’ primary care providers. The dissertation outlines the investigation of this problem. The methodology of the study is discussed including the survey of parents and primary care providers using the past system, the development of a web portal with a focus on plain language and action focused handouts. Without a simple to understand parent handout the newborn screening process is more stressful to families. Review of the literature is detailed including newborn screening, patient education, health literacy, Internet usage, online health education, design …

An Examination Of User Detection Of Business Email Compromise Amongst Corporate Professionals, Shahar Sean Aviv

CCE Theses and Dissertations

With the evolution in technology and increase in utilization of the public Internet, Internet-based mobile applications, and social media, security risks for organizations have greatly increased. While corporations leverage social media as an effective tool for customer advertisements, the abundance of information available via public channels along with the growth in Internet connections to corporate networks including mobile applications, have made cyberattacks attractive for cybercriminals. Cybercrime against organizations is a daily threat and targeting companies of all sizes. Cyberattacks are continually evolving and becoming more complex that make it difficult to protect against with traditional security methods. Cybercriminals utilize email …

Adaptive Strategies Of Multi-Objective Optimization For Greener Networks, Hatem Yazbek

CCE Theses and Dissertations

Increasing energy costs and environmental issues related to the Internet and wired networks continue to be a major concern. Energy-efficient or power-aware networks continue to gain interest in the research community. Existing energy reduction approaches do not fully address all aspects of the problem. We consider the problem of reducing energy by turning off network links, while achieving acceptable load balance, by adjusting link weights. Changing link weights frequently can cause network oscillation or instability in measuring the resulting traffic load, which is a situation to be avoided. In this research, we optimize two objectives, which are minimizing network power …

The Factors That Impact Patient Portal Utilization, William Carroll Reed

CCE Theses and Dissertations

Spawned by legislative mandates, such as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009’s Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act, and individuals desiring to have more personal accountability for their health and healthcare, the introduction and use of electronic personal health information (ePHI) has grown substantially. Given that most ePHI is maintained within the healthcare delivery system, an information portal is required for individuals to have access to the ePHI. As a result, the legislation required the introduction and use of patient portals to grant such access.

Despite substantial financial incentives and disincentives for healthcare organizations to …

Motivation Factors For Using Mobile Information Systems In M-Learning, Neelima Bhatnagar

CCE Theses and Dissertations

Organizations of all types have benefited from the development and use of information systems. With the explosion of mobile applications, also known as mobile information systems, new uses are emerging. One such application of mobile information systems is mobile learning, referred to as m-learning hereafter. M-learning has found its ways in the corporate world for employee training and development, and in higher education for teaching and student learning. However, m-learning has not seen the same extent of usage as distance learning and e-learning, often attributed to technological limitations. Motivational factors, though, may also contribute to the slow adoption of m-learning. …