Computer Sciences Commons^™

An Investigation Into The Imposed Cognitive Load Of Static & Dynamic Type Systems On Programmers, Ian Vaughn Koeppe

Student Work

Static and dynamic type systems have long been a point of contention in the programming language wars. Yet, for many years, arguments on either side were drawn from personal experience and not empirical evidence. A challenge for researchers is that the usability of language constructs is difficult to quantify, especially since usability can be interpreted in many ways. By one definition, language usability can be measured in terms of the level of cognitive load imposed on a developer. This can be done through questionnaires, but ultimately user responses are subject to bias. In recent years, eye-tracking has been shown to …

Predicting User Interaction On Social Media Using Machine Learning, Chad Crowe

Student Work

Analysis of Facebook posts provides helpful information for users on social media. Current papers about user engagement on social media explore methods for predicting user engagement. These analyses of Facebook posts have included text and image analysis. Yet, the studies have not incorporate both text and image data. This research explores the usefulness of incorporating image and text data to predict user engagement. The study incorporates five types of machine learning models: text-based Neural Networks (NN), image-based Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN), Word2Vec, decision trees, and a combination of text-based NN and image-based CNN. The models are unique in their use …

The Influence Of Conversational Agent Embodiment And Conversational Relevance On Socially Desirable Responding, Ryan M. Schuetzler, Justin Scott Giboney, G. Mark Grimes, Jay F. Nunamaker Jr.

Information Systems and Quantitative Analysis Faculty Publications

Conversational agents (CAs) are becoming an increasingly common component in a wide range of information systems. A great deal of research to date has focused on enhancing traits that make CAs more humanlike. However, few studies have examined the influence such traits have on information disclosure. This research builds on self-disclosure, social desirability, and social presence theories to explain how CA anthropomorphism affects disclosure of personally sensitive information. Taken together, these theories suggest that as CAs become more humanlike, the social desirability of user responses will increase. In this study, we use a laboratory experiment to examine the influence of …

Move-Hf: An Internet-Based Pilot Study To Improve Adherence To Exercise In Patients With Heart Failure, Pallav Deka, Bunny Pozehl, Mark A. Williams, Joseph F. Norman, Deepak Khazanchi, Dola Pathak

Information Systems and Quantitative Analysis Faculty Publications

Aim: The use of the internet and newer activity monitors such as the Fitbit Charge HR to improve exercise adherence is limited. The primary aim of the Move on Virtual Engagement (MOVE-HF) was to investigate the effects of group social support by internet-based synchronized face-to-face video and objective physical activity feedback on adherence to recommended exercise guidelines.

Methods: Thirty stable heart failure patients (New York Heart Association class I–III), aged 64.7±11.5 years, were randomly assigned to an experimental or comparison group. Participants were provided a handout on self-care in heart failure, an exercise routine, a Fitbit Charge HR and were …

Exposing The Science In Citizen Science: Fitness To Purpose And Intentional Design, Julia K. Parrish, Hillary Burgess, Jale F. Weltzin, Lucy Fortson, Andrea Wiggins, Brooke Simmons

Information Systems and Quantitative Analysis Faculty Publications

Citizen science is a growing phenomenon. With millions of people involved and billions of in-kind dollars contributed annually, this broad extent, fine grain approach to data collection should be garnering enthusiastic support in the mainstream science and higher education communities. However, many academic researchers demonstrate distinct biases against the use of citizen science as a source of rigorous information. To engage the public in scientific research, and the research community in the practice of citizen science, a mutual understanding is needed of accepted quality standards in science, and the corresponding specifics of project design and implementation when working with a …

Two Critical Positions In Zinc Finger Domains Are Heavily Mutated In Three Human Cancer Types, Daniel Munro, Dario Ghersi, Mona Singh

Interdisciplinary Informatics Faculty Publications

A major goal of cancer genomics is to identify somatic mutations that play a role in tumor initiation or progression. Somatic mutations within transcription factors are of particular interest, as gene expression dysregulation is widespread in cancers. The substantial gene expression variation evident across tumors suggests that numerous regulatory factors are likely to be involved and that somatic mutations within them may not occur at high frequencies across patient cohorts, thereby complicating efforts to uncover which ones are cancerrelevant. Here we analyze somatic mutations within the largest family of human transcription factors, namely those that bind DNA via Cys2His2 zinc …

Patient Preferences For Authentication And Security: A Comparison Study Of Younger And Older Patients, Ann Fruhling, Devika Ramachandran, Tamara Bernard, Ryan Schuetzler, John R. Windle

Interdisciplinary Informatics Faculty Publications

We examine authentication and security preferences of younger versus older patients in the healthcare domain. Previous research has investigated users' perception of the acceptability of various forms of authentication in nonhealthcare domains, but not patients’ preferences. First, we developed an interactive prototype to test three authentication methods: passwords, pattern, and voice. Our results indicate that younger patients prefer passwords by a significant margin. Older patients indicated more mixed preferences. In addition, we evaluated the level of security patients desired for protection of health information compared to financial information. We found no difference based on age: both groups felt financial security …

Cslc Tutoring Portal, Brian Hodges

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

A web portal designed for the Computer Science Learning Center to track students requesting help

Design And Evaluation Of A Privacy Architecture For Crowdsensing Applications, Alfredo J. Perez, Sherali Zeadally

Computer Science Faculty Publications

By using consumer devices such as cellphones, wearables and Internet of Things devices owned by citizens, crowdsensing systems are providing solutions to the community in areas such as transportation, security, entertainment and the environment through the collection of various types of sensor data. Privacy is a major issue in these systems because the data collected can potentially reveal aspects considered private by the contributors of data. We propose the Privacy-Enabled ARchitecture (PEAR), a layered architecture aimed at protecting privacy in privacy-aware crowdsensing systems. We identify and describe the layers of the architecture. We propose and evaluate the design of MetroTrack, …

Security And Privacy In Ubiquitous Sensor Networks, Alfredo J. Perez, Sherali Zeadally, Nafaa Jabeur

Computer Science Faculty Publications

The availability of powerful and sensor-enabled mobile and Internet-connected devices have enabled the advent of the ubiquitous sensor network (USN) paradigm. USN provides various types of solutions to the general public in multiple sectors, including environmental monitoring, entertainment, transportation, security, and healthcare. Here, we explore and compare the features of wireless sensor networks and USN. Based on our extensive study, we classify the security- and privacy-related challenges of USNs. We identify and discuss solutions available to address these challenges. Finally, we briefly discuss open challenges for designing more secure and privacy-preserving approaches in next-generation USNs.

Feasibility Of Using The Fitbit Charge Hr In Validating Self-Reported Exercise Diaries In A Community Setting In Patients With Heart Failure, Pallav Deka, Bunny Pozehl, Joseph F. Norman, Deepak Khazanchi

Information Systems and Quantitative Analysis Faculty Publications

Background: Use of wrist-worn activity monitors has increased over the past few years; however, the use of the Fitbit® Charge HR (FCHR) in a community setting in patients with heart failure has not been tested.

Purpose: The purpose of the study was to assess the feasibility, practicality and acceptability of utilizing the FCHR to validate self-reported exercise diaries and monitor exercise in community dwelling patients with heart failure. Methods: Thirty heart failure patients (12 females and 18 males) aged 64.7 ± 11.5 years were provided with a FCHR. Participants were provided with an exercise routine and for eight weeks, recorded …

The Role Of Ehealth In Disasters: A Strategy For Education, Training And Integration In Disaster Medicine, Anthony C. Norris, Jose J. Gonzalez, David T. Parry, Richard E. Scott, Julie Dugdale, Deepak Khazanchi

Information Systems and Quantitative Analysis Faculty Publications

This paper describes the origins and progress of an international project to advance disaster eHealth (DEH) – the application of eHealth technologies to enhance the delivery of healthcare in disasters. The study to date has focused on two major themes; the role of DEH in facilitating inter-agency communication in disaster situations, and the fundamental need to promote awareness of DEH in the education of disaster managers and health professionals. The paper deals mainly with on-going research on the second of these themes, surveying the current provision of disaster medicine education, the design considerations for a DEH programme for health professionals, …

Towards Robust Classification In Adversarial Learning Using Bayesian Games, Anna Buhman

UNO Student Research and Creative Activity Fair

A well-trained neural network is very accurate when classifying data into different categories. However, a malicious adversary can fool a neural network through tiny changes to the data, called perturbations, that would not even be detectable to a human. This makes neural networks vulnerable to influence by an attacker. Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) have been developed as one possible solution to this problem [1]. A GAN consists of two neural networks, a generator and a discriminator. The discriminator tries to learn how to classify data into categories. The generator stands in for the attacker and tries to discover the best …

Keep It Simple, Keep It Safe - Research On The Impacts Of Increasing Complexity Of Modern Enterprise Applications, Shawn Ware, David Phillips

UNO Student Research and Creative Activity Fair

As the Cybersecurity program within UNO continues to adapt to the ever-changing world of information systems and information security, the Cybersecurity Capstone has recently become an active, community-involvement project, where real-world organizations can receive valuable, useful research and information from students on their way towards a degree. This presentation encompasses two such projects from the Cybersecurity Capstone, looking at how modern, more complex systems can often increase system vulnerability.

Collecting And Organizing Far-Left Extremist Data From Unstructured Internet Sources, Eric Perez

UNO Student Research and Creative Activity Fair

Far-left extremism refers to a network of groups who adhere to and take direct action in accordance with one or more of the following ideas: Support for bio-centric diversity, the belief that the earth and animals are in immediate danger, and the view that the government and other parts of society are responsible for this danger and incapable/unwilling to fix the crisis and preserve the American wilderness (Chermak, Freilich, Duran, & Parkin). Far-left extremism groups self-report activities using publicly accessible, online communiqués. These activities include arson, property damage, harassment, sabotage, and theft (Loadenthal). The communiqués are structured like blog posts …

Extension Of The Ezsmt Software System For Non-Tight Constraint Answer Set Programs, Da Shen

UNO Student Research and Creative Activity Fair

Answer set programming (ASP) is a programming language that plays a critical role in the development of software applications in areas of science, humanities, and industry. Yet, it is faced with some challenges. Therefore, researchers develop a related paradigm called constraint answer set programming (CASP) to tackle several issues of ASP tools. Recently, a method is proposed to find solutions to CASP programs by using satisfiability modulo theories (SMT) solvers. SMT solvers are high-performance systems stemming from the software verification community.

This SMT-based approach is implemented in a system called EZSMT, which often outperforms its peers. Yet, it has several …

Amazon Alexa: The Best Personal Assistant Or An Eavesdropping Witch, Alisa Bohac, Michael Keck

UNO Student Research and Creative Activity Fair

The prolific integration of Internet-of-Things (IoT) devices into our homes is continuously generating discussions surrounding the security and privacy of these devices. One device that has received particular attention in the past few years is the Amazon Alexa, a ‘personal assistant’ IoT device, which listens to user commands and performs certain actions. According to Amazon, “millions of Alexa devices” were sold in the 2017 Holiday period alone [1]. However, the continuous amalgamation of technology has prompted the idea that many digital devices, through their overall functionality, could be utilized by cybercriminals to digitally intrude into our personal lives [2]. Hence, …

Visualize To Realize: Improving Safety Of First Responders, Vikas Sahu

UNO Student Research and Creative Activity Fair

The goal of this study is to improve the safety of first responders during an emergency hazardous material (hazmat) incident.

• A first responder (FR) is an individual who arrives first during a hazmat incident and takes the initiative to act in order to minimize the risk to public health and property from such incidents. Often first responders are firefighters.
• The reports of National Fire Protection Association recorded a national average of more than 30,000 firefighter injuries between 2010-16 (National Fire Protection Association, 2017).
• According to the US Fire Administration, an average fatality of 120 firefighters were recorded between 2010-16 throughout …

Intelligent And Human-Aware Decision Making For Semi-Autonomous Human Rehabilitation Assistance Using Modular Robots, Anoop Mishra

UNO Student Research and Creative Activity Fair

Modular Self-reconfigurable Robots (MSRs) are robots that can adapt their shape and mobility while performing their operations. We are developing an MSR called MARIO (Modular Robots for Assistance in Robust and Intelligent Operations) to assist patients with spinal cord injury in performing daily living tasks. In this research, we are investigating computational techniques that will enable MARIO to autonomously adapt its shape while performing an assistive task, and, while remaining aware of the human user’s satisfaction in receiving assistance from MARIO. We are developing semi-autonomous decision making techniques within a computational framework called shared autonomy that will adapt MARIO’s movements …

Cora: Commingled Remains And Analytics – An Open Community Ecosystem, Nicole Mcelroy, Ryan Ernst

UNO Student Research and Creative Activity Fair

Anthropologists at organizations such as the DPAA (Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency) have the tough job of sorting through commingled remains of fallen soldiers. Under the direction of Professor Pawaskar at the College of IS&T, Ryan Ernst and I are currently developing a web application for the DPAA that will help them inventory the bones and record all the appropriate associations. After the inventory web application is built we will begin the analysis process using graph theory and other mathematical algorithms. This will ultimately help organizations like the DPAA get closer to the end goal of identifying fallen soldiers from commingled …

Explaining Social Recommendations To Casual Users: Design Principles And Opportunities, Chun-Hua Tsai, Peter Brusilovsky

Information Systems and Quantitative Analysis Faculty Proceedings & Presentations

Recommender systems have become popular in recent years, and ordinary users are more likely to rely on such service when completing various daily tasks. The need to design and build explainable recommender interfaces is increasing rapidly. Most of the designs of such explanations are intended to reflect the underlying algorithms by which the recommendations are computed. These approaches have been shown to be useful for obtaining system transparency and trust. However, little is known about how to design explanation interfaces for causal (non-expert) users to achieve different explanatory goals. As a first step toward understanding the user interface design factors, …

Https://Onlinelibrary.Wiley.Com/Doi/10.1002/Spy2.15#:~:Text=A%20review%20and%20an%20empirical%20analysis%20of%20privacy%20policy%20and%20notices%20for%20consumer%20internet%20of%20things, Alfredo J. Perez, Sherali Zeadally, Jonathan Cochran

Computer Science Faculty Publications

The privacy policies and practices of six consumer Internet of things (IoT) devices were reviewed and compared. In addition, an empirical verification of the compliance of privacy policies for data collection practices on two voice-activated intelligent assistant devices, namely the Amazon Echo Dot and Google Home devices was performed. The review shows that IoT privacy policies may not be usable from the human-computer interaction perspective because IoT policies are included as part of the manufacturers' general privacy policy (which may include policies unrelated to the device), or the IoT policy requires to read (in addition to the IoT policies) the …

Knowing And Designing: Understanding Information Use In Open Source Design Through The Lens Of Information Archetypes, Kevin Lumbard, Ammar Abid, Christine Toh, Matt Germonprez

Interdisciplinary Informatics Faculty Proceedings & Presentations

The early phases of the product design process are crucial to the success of design outcomes. While information utilized during idea development has tremendous potential to impact the final design, there is a lack of understanding about the types of information utilized in industry, making it challenging to develop and teach methodologies that support the design of competitive products. As a first step in understanding this process, this study focuses on developing a framework of Information Archetypes utilized by designers in industry. This was accomplished through in-depth analysis of qualitative interviews with large software engineering companies. The results reveal two …

The Influence Of Conversational Agents On Socially Desirable Responding, Ryan M. Schuetzler, G. Mark Grimes, Justin Scott Giboney, Jay F. Nunamaker Jr.

Information Systems and Quantitative Analysis Faculty Publications

Conversational agents (CAs) are becoming an increasingly common component in many information systems. The ubiquity of CAs in cell phones, entertainment systems, and messaging applications has led to a growing need to understand how design choices made when developing CAs influence user interactions. In this study, we explore the use case of CAs that gather potentially sensitive information from people—for example, in a medical interview. Using a laboratory experiment, we examine the influence of CA responsiveness and embodiment on the answers people give in response to sensitive and non-sensitive questions. The results show that for sensitive questions, the responsiveness of …

Open Data Standards For Open Source Software Risk Management Routines: An Examination Of Spdx, Robin A. Gandhi, Matt Germonprez, Georg J.P. Link

Information Systems and Quantitative Analysis Faculty Publications

As the organizational use of open source software (OSS) increases, it requires the adjustment of organizational routines to manage new OSS risk. These routines may be influenced by community-developed open data standards to explicate, analyze, and report OSS risks. Open data standards are co-created in open communities for unifying the exchange of information. The SPDX® specification is such an open data standard to explicate and share OSS risk information. The development and subsequent adoption of SPDX raises the questions of how organizations make sense of SPDX when improving their own risk management routines, and of how a community benefits from …

Regression Analysis Of Open Source Project Impact: Relationships With Activity And Rewards, Vinod Kumar Ahuja

Information Systems and Quantitative Analysis Faculty Publications

Engagement with open source projects is becoming an increasingly important part of how people work. In this regard, there is a growing interest in how we can better understand the dynamics within an open source project related to project activity, project contributor rewards, and project impact. In this paper, we summarize our work of exploring the relationships between these items.

Eight Observations And 24 Research Questions About Open Source Projects: Illuminating New Realities, Matt Germonprez, Georg J.P. Link, Kevin Lumbard, Sean Goggins

Information Systems and Quantitative Analysis Faculty Publications

The rapid acceleration of corporate engagement with open source projects is drawing out new ways for CSCW researchers to consider the dynamics of these projects. Research must now consider the complex ecosystems within which open source projects are situated, including issues of for-profit motivations, brokering foundations, and corporate collaboration. Localized project considerations cannot reveal broader workings of an open source ecosystem, yet much empirical work is constrained to a local context. In response, we present eight observations from our eight-year engaged field study about the changing nature of open source projects. We ground these observations through 24 research questions that …

Exploring The Impact Of Technology Capabilities On Trust In Virtual Teams, Deepak Khazanchi

Information Systems and Quantitative Analysis Faculty Publications

Purpose – In an environment of constant technological change, the use of virtual teams has become commonplace for many organizations. Virtual teams (VTs) bring together dispersed individuals with varying knowledge and skill sets to accomplish tasks. VTs rely heavily on information technology as the medium for communication and coordination of work. The issue of establishing and maintaining trust in VTs poses challenges for these dispersed workers. Previous research has established that higher trusting teams have better cooperation and experience improved outcomes. We hope to contribute to the literature on trust in VTs by exploring how technology can facilitate high trusting …

Semantic Hierarchies For Extracting, Modeling, And Connecting Compliance Requirements In Information Security Control Standards, Matthew L. Hale, Rose F. Gamble

Interdisciplinary Informatics Faculty Publications

Companies and government organizations are increasingly compelled, if not required by law, to ensure that their information systems will comply with various federal and industry regulatory standards, such as the NIST Special Publication on Security Controls for Federal Information Systems (NIST SP-800-53), or the Common Criteria (ISO 15408-2). Such organizations operate business or mission critical systems where a lack of or lapse in security protections translates to serious confidentiality, integrity, and availability risks that, if exploited, could result in information disclosure, loss of money, or, at worst, loss of life. To mitigate these risks and ensure that their information systems …

Severity Of Acute Infectious Mononucleosis Correlates With Cross- Reactive Influenza Cd8 T-Cell Receptor Repertoires, Nuray Aslan, Levi B. Watkin, Anna Gil, Rabinarayan Mishra, Fransenio G. Clark, Raymond M. Welsh, Dario Ghersi, Katherine Luzuriaga, Liisa K. Selin

Interdisciplinary Informatics Faculty Publications

Fifty years after the discovery of Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), it remains unclear how primary infection with this virus leads to massive CD8 T-cell expansion and acute infectious mononucleosis (AIM) in young adults. AIM can vary greatly in severity, from a mild transient influenza-like illness to a prolonged severe syndrome. We questioned whether expansion of a unique HLA-A2.01-restricted, cross-reactive CD8 T-cell response between influenza virus A-M158 (IAV-M1) and EBV BMLF1280 (EBV-BM) could modulate the immune response to EBV and play a role in determining the severity of AIM in 32 college students. Only ex vivo total IAV-M1 and IAV-M1+EBV-BM cross-reactive tetramer+ …