Computer Sciences Commons^™

An Information Security Control Assessment Methodology For Organizations, Angel Rafael Otero

CCAC Theses and Dissertations

In an era where use and dependence of information systems is significantly high, the threat of incidents related to information security that could jeopardize the information held by organizations is more and more serious. Alarming facts within the literature point to inadequacies in information security practices, particularly the evaluation of information security controls in organizations. Research efforts have resulted in various methodologies developed to deal with the information security controls assessment problem. A closer look at these traditional methodologies highlights various weaknesses that can prevent an effective information security controls assessment in organizations. This dissertation develops a methodology that addresses …

A Study Of The 8th Grade Technology Literacy Of A Michigan Charter School, James Edward Spruill

CCAC Theses and Dissertations

As states adopt the common core state standards and next generation assessments for the 2014 - 2015 school year, the importance of students' technology literacy will increase Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium. The next generation assessments will require students to complete technology performance tasks. For the first time in mandatory testing, students' technology literacy will directly impact a school's Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) rating. Technology literacy is defined as the ability to operate hardware and software (computer literacy), conduct effective research for and then evaluate digital content for accuracy and merit (internet and information literacy), and digitally communicate effectively(digital media literacy). …

The User Attribution Problem And The Challenge Of Persistent Surveillance Of User Activity In Complex Networks, Claudio Taglienti

CCAC Theses and Dissertations

In the context of telecommunication networks, the user attribution problem refers to the challenge faced in recognizing communication traffic as belonging to a given user when information needed to identify the user is missing. This is analogous to trying to recognize a nameless face in a crowd. This problem worsens as users move across many mobile networks (complex networks) owned and operated by different providers. The traditional approach of using the source IP address, which indicates where a packet comes from, does not work when used to identify mobile users.

Recent efforts to address this problem by exclusively relying on …

Evaluating Heuristics And Crowding On Center Selection In K-Means Genetic Algorithms, William Mcgarvey

CCAC Theses and Dissertations

Data clustering involves partitioning data points into clusters where data points within the same cluster have high similarity, but are dissimilar to the data points in other clusters. The k-means algorithm is among the most extensively used clustering techniques. Genetic algorithms (GA) have been successfully used to evolve successive generations of cluster centers. The primary goal of this research was to develop improved GA-based methods for center selection in k-means by using heuristic methods to improve the overall fitness of the initial population of chromosomes along with crowding techniques to avoid premature convergence. Prior to this research, no rigorous systematic …

An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis Of Telehealth Champions, Ragan A. Dubose-Morris

CCAC Theses and Dissertations

The implementation of telehealth applications is resource intensive and fraught with challenges unique to the people and places involved. The use of telehealth to provide clinical care to patients, educate patients and providers, and conduct research studies to advance medical science has been shown to positively affect issues of access and the quality of care. Previous research has focused on the use of specific technologies, known barriers to adoption and diffusion, and the general efficacy of these applications. Few studies have researched the role champions play in the deployment and operation of telehealth networks. The researcher proposed conducting an interpretative …

Validating The Octave Allegro Information Systems Risk Assessment Methodology: A Case Study, Corland Gordon Keating

CCAC Theses and Dissertations

An information system (IS) risk assessment is an important part of any successful security management strategy. Risk assessments help organizations to identify mission-critical IS assets and prioritize risk mitigation efforts. Many risk assessment methodologies, however, are complex and can only be completed successfully by highly qualified and experienced security experts. Small-sized organizations, including small-sized colleges and universities, due to their financial constraints and lack of IS security expertise, are challenged to conduct a risk assessment. Therefore, most small-sized colleges and universities do not perform IS risk assessments, which leaves the institution's data vulnerable to security incursions. The negative consequences of …

Assessing The Role Of User Computer Self-Efficacy, Cybersecurity Countermeasures Awareness, And Cybersecurity Skills Toward Computer Misuse Intention At Government Agencies, Min Suk Choi

CCAC Theses and Dissertations

Cybersecurity threats and vulnerabilities are causing substantial financial losses for governments and organizations all over the world. Cybersecurity criminals are stealing more than one billion dollars from banks every year by exploiting vulnerabilities caused by bank users' computer misuse. Cybersecurity breaches are threatening the common welfare of citizens since more and more terrorists are using cyberterrorism to target critical infrastructures (e.g., transportation, telecommunications, power, nuclear plants, water supply, banking) to coerce the targeted government and its people to accomplish their political objectives. Cyberwar is another major concern that nations around the world are struggling to get ready to fight. It …

The Effectiveness Of Virtual Learning Tools For Millennial Generation Students In A Community College Criminal Justice Degree Program, Lawrence Snyder

CCAC Theses and Dissertations

An analysis of data from the Community College Survey of Student Engagement and multiyear analysis of pretest/posttest scores in introductory criminal justice courses revealed there was a systemic decline in student engagement and achievement. Because of this analysis, a commercial virtual learning tool (CJI) that purported great success in improving student engagement and performance was identified and implemented on the college's course management application in the spring of 2010. CJI, a comprehensive learning tool that incorporated Web 2.0 activities, such as video, simulations, and study aids, was designed to improve student engagement and performance. The inclusion of Web 2.0 activities …

Online Deception Detection Using Bdi Agents, Richard Alan Merritts

CCAC Theses and Dissertations

This research has two facets within separate research areas. The research area of Belief, Desire and Intention (BDI) agent capability development was extended. Deception detection research has been advanced with the development of automation using BDI agents. BDI agents performed tasks automatically and autonomously. This study used these characteristics to automate deception detection with limited intervention of human users. This was a useful research area resulting in a capability general enough to have practical application by private individuals, investigators, organizations and others. The need for this research is grounded in the fact that humans are not very effective at detecting …

Code Clone Discovery Based On Concolic Analysis, Daniel Edward Krutz

CCAC Theses and Dissertations

Software is often large, complicated and expensive to build and maintain. Redundant

code can make these applications even more costly and difficult to maintain. Duplicated

code is often introduced into these systems for a variety of reasons. Some of which

include developer churn, deficient developer application comprehension and lack of

adherence to proper development practices.

Code redundancy has several adverse effects on a software application including an

increased size of the codebase and inconsistent developer changes due to elevated

program comprehension needs. A code clone is defined as multiple code fragments that

produce similar results when given the same input. …

Authorship Attribution With Function Word N-Grams, Russell Clark Johnson

CCAC Theses and Dissertations

Prior research has considered the sequential order of function words, after the contextual words of the text have been removed, as a stylistic indicator of authorship. This research describes an effort to enhance authorship attribution accuracy based on this same information source with alternate classifiers, alternate n-gram construction methods, and a genetically tuned configuration.

The approach is original in that it is the first time that probabilistic versions of Burrows's Delta have been used. Instead of using z-scores as an input for a classifier, the z-scores were converted to probabilistic equivalents (since z-scores cannot be subtracted, added, or divided without …

Effectiveness Of Evidence-Based Computerized Physician Order Entry Medication Order Sets Measured By Health Outcomes, Jacob Krive

CCAC Theses and Dissertations

In the past three years, evidence based medicine emerged as a powerful force in an effort to improve quality and health outcomes, and to reduce cost of care. Computerized physician order entry (CPOE) applications brought safety and efficiency features to clinical settings, including ease of ordering medications via pre-defined sets. Order sets offer promise of standardized care beyond convenience features through evidence-based practices built upon a growing and powerful knowledge of clinical professionals to achieve potentially more consistent health outcomes with patients and to reduce frequency of medical errors, adverse drug effects, and unintended side effects during treatment. While order …

Reducing The Cumulative File Download Time And Variance In A P2p Overlay Via Proximity Based Peer Selection, Uriel J. Carasquilla

CCAC Theses and Dissertations

The time it takes to download a file in a peer-to-peer (P2P) overlay network is dependent on several factors. These factors include the quality of the network between peers (e.g. packet loss, latency, and link failures), distance, peer selection technique, and packet loss due to Internet Service Providers (ISPs) engaging in traffic shaping. Recent research shows that P2P download time is adversely impacted by the presence of distant peers, particularly when traffic goes across an ISP that could be engaging in P2P traffic throttling activities. It has also been observed that additional delays are introduced when distant candidate nodes for …

Assessing Behavioral Intention To Use Low Social Presence Icts For Interpersonal Task Completion Among College Students: With Special Consideration Toward Short Message Service (Sms) Text-Messaging, Jeffrey Scott Linney

CCAC Theses and Dissertations

This study sought to investigate whether the popularity of Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) would impact the behavioral intention (BI) to use of these technologies to aid in interpersonal task completion. Out of the ICTs available today, the most popular is textmessaging, especially among a sizable percentage of the college population. Approximately 600 students at a small, private junior college in eastern North Carolina were invited to participate in this study with a target of 248 responses needed to comprise an adequate sample. A total of 259 usable surveys (n = 259) were received and analyzed.

Qualitative data collection instruments consisted …

An Aspect Pointcut For Parallelizable Loops, John Scott Dean

CCAC Theses and Dissertations

This study investigated the need for a pointcut for parallelizable loops in an aspect-oriented programming environment. Several prototype solutions exist for loop pointcuts, but the solutions are not very granular. In particular, they are not able to differentiate between loops that are parallelizable and those that are not. Being able to identify parallelizable loops automatically, as part of an aspect-oriented compiler's weaving process, is particularly important because (1) manually identifying parallelizable loops is known to be a difficult problem and (2) aspectizing parallelized loops can lead to a reduction in code tangling and an increase in separation of concerns.

This …

Toward The Implementation Of Augmented Reality Training, Charles Randall Mayberry

CCAC Theses and Dissertations

The United States Air Force (USAF) trains C-130H Loadmaster students at Little Rock Air Force Base (AFB) through a civilian contract. The Aircrew Training System (ATS) contractor utilizes a Fuselage Trainer (FuT) to provide scenarios for the Loadmaster students to practice loading and unloading a simulated aircraft. The problem was the USAF does not have enough training devices and these devices are not at a high enough fidelity to accomplish many of the aircraft functions to meet the training objectives before flying on the actual aircraft. The ATS has moved the pilot's initial training into the Weapon System Trainer (WST). …

Support Services For Millennial Undergraduates, Marie Pullan

CCAC Theses and Dissertations

Education has changed as a result of technological advances. Distance learning, particularly online learning, has rapidly increased its presence in higher education. Millennials, a new generation of students who have grown up with the Internet, are college-age. They expect access to the Internet to manage their daily lives. However, as they enter college, many discover that support services that are requisite to a successful college experience, are available on-campus but not online. The goal was to determine what contemporary college-aged students expect as online student support services so that institutions will know what to provide.

Data gathered through interviews with …

Pursuing And Completing An Undergraduate Computing Degree From A Female Perspective: A Quantitative And Qualitative Approach, Scott Ragsdale

CCAC Theses and Dissertations

The computing profession in the United States would benefit from an increasingly diverse workforce, specifically a larger female presence, because a more gender-balanced workforce would likely result in better technological solutions to difficulties in many areas of American life. However, to achieve this balance, more women with a solid educational foundation in computing need to enter the computing workplace. Yet a common problem is most colleges and universities offering computer-related degrees have found it challenging to attract females to their programs. Also, the women who begin a computing major have shown a higher tendency than men to leave the major. …

Promoting The Affective Domain Within Online Education, Stephen Roche

CCAC Theses and Dissertations

In the past decade Higher Education Institutions have experienced tremendous growth in enrollments. To meet this demand, many higher education institutions have embraced online education and its requisite technologies. Online education has matured, and studies focusing on the cognitive domain indicate that distance education is as effective as the traditional face-to-face instructional modality. However, there is a scarcity of affective domain studies due to: a) the need for the institutions of higher education to perform quantitative studies to establish the quality of online education b) the affective domain's inherent subjective nature, and c) the educational research environment has slow recognition …

Construction Of A Conceptualization Of Personal Knowledge Within A Knowledge Management Perspective Using Grounded Theory Methodology, Eric M. Straw

CCAC Theses and Dissertations

The current research used grounded theory methodology (GTM) to construct a conceptualization of personal knowledge within a knowledge management (KM) perspective. The need for the current research was based on the use of just two categories of knowledge, explicit and tacit, within KM literature to explain diverse characteristics of personal knowledge. The construct of tacit knowledge has often been explicated and debated in KM literature. The debate over tacit knowledge arose from the complex epistemological roots of tacit knowing and the construct of tacit knowledge popularized by organizational knowledge creation theory. The ongoing debate over tacit knowledge in KM literature …

Application Of A Layered Hidden Markov Model In The Detection Of Network Attacks, Lawrence Taub

CCAC Theses and Dissertations

Network-based attacks against computer systems are a common and increasing problem. Attackers continue to increase the sophistication and complexity of their attacks with the goal of removing sensitive data or disrupting operations. Attack detection technology works very well for the detection of known attacks using a signature-based intrusion detection system. However, attackers can utilize attacks that are undetectable to those signature-based systems whether they are truly new attacks or modified versions of known attacks. Anomaly-based intrusion detection systems approach the problem of attack detection by detecting when traffic differs from a learned baseline. In the case of this research, the …

Using Forecasting To Predict Long-Term Resource Utilization For Web Services, Daniel Wayne Yoas

CCAC Theses and Dissertations

Researchers have spent years understanding resource utilization to improve scheduling, load balancing, and system management through short-term prediction of resource utilization. Early research focused primarily on single operating systems; later, interest shifted to distributed systems and, finally, into web services. In each case researchers sought to more effectively use available resources. Since schedulers are required to manage the execution of multiple programs every second, short-term prediction has focused on time frames ranging from fractions of a second to several minutes.

The recent increase in the number of research studies about web services has occurred because of the explosive growth and …

Employee Determinants To Share Knowledge In A Us Federal Government Environment, Kenneth White

CCAC Theses and Dissertations

Although the literature indicates that knowledge sharing (KS) research is prevalent in the private sector, there is scant empirical research data about KS in the public sector. Moreover, organizations lack an understanding of employee KS behavior. This study investigated two research questions: First, how does the perceived importance of five determinants of KS behavior (organizational culture, workplace trust, incentives, management support, and technology) vary based upon the variables of job function, gender, and work category? Second, what is the relative importance of the five determinants of KS behavior to U.S. federal government employees? This descriptive study employed a Web-based survey …

The Role Of Faculty In The Effectiveness Of Fully Online Programs, Sami Al Salman

CCAC Theses and Dissertations

The enormous growth of online learning creates the need to develop a set of standards and guidelines for fully online programs. While many guidelines do exist, web-based programs still fall short in the recognition, adoption, or the implementation of these standards. One consequence is the high attrition rates associated with web-based distance learning programs. This poor outcome has a negative impact on the perceived quality of these programs which in turn limits the resources that are made available to academic institutions for implementation. Faculty plays a significant role in this dilemma. While academic administrators strive to enhance their online offerings …

Developing Software Requirements For A Knowledge Management System That Coordinates Training Programs With Business Processes And Policies In Large Organizations, James Richard Kiper

CCAC Theses and Dissertations

For large organizations, updating instructional programs presents a challenge to keep abreast of constantly changing business processes and policies. Each time a process or policy changes, significant resources are required to locate and modify the training materials that convey the new content. Moreover, without the ability to track learning objects to processes and policies, training managers cannot conduct an effective training gap analysis in these areas. As a result, the corporate training picture is unclear and instructional needs cannot be accurately determined.

The research addressed these problems by recognizing the need for linkages between an organization's business processes, its policies, …

An Examination Of The Acceptance, Adoption, And Diffusion Of Smartphone Devices With Senior Citizens., James M. Reneau

CCAC Theses and Dissertations

This research looked at the process of the diffusion of an innovation in the context of smartphones with American senior citizens. The subject of diffusion, or spread of a technology, is a rich and varied topic with more than 60 years of research. Much of this diffusion research does not go beyond the study of the original acceptance of a new idea. An on-line and face-to-face questionnaire was used to collect data from 155 seniors on the entire process of diffusion. The questionnaire was adaptive in nature, focusing questions directly at participants based on where they were in the diffusion …

Reducing Cognitive Load Using Adaptive Uncertainty Visualization, Gregory Block

CCAC Theses and Dissertations

Uncertainty is inherent in many real-world settings; for example, in a combat situation, darkness may prevent a soldier from classifying approaching troops as friendly or hostile. In an environment plagued with uncertainty, decision-support systems, such as sensor-based networks, may make faulty assumptions about field conditions, especially when information is incomplete, or sensor operations are disrupted. Displaying the factors that contribute to uncertainty informs the decision-making process for a human operator, but at the expense of limited cognitive resources, such as attention, memory, and workload.

This research applied principles of perceptual cognition to human-computer interface design to introduce uncertainty visualizations in …

An Examination Of Internet Filtering And Safety Policy Trends And Issues In South Carolina's K-12 Public Schools, Mary E. Vicks

CCAC Theses and Dissertations

School districts have implemented filtering and safety policies in response to legislative and social mandates to protect students from the proliferation of objectionable online content. Subject related literature suggests these policies are more restrictive than legal mandates require and are adversely affecting information access and instruction. There is limited understanding of how filtering and safety policies are affecting teaching and learning because no comprehensive studies have investigated the issues and trends surrounding filtering and safety policy implementation. In order to improve existing safety policies, policymakers need research-based data identifying end user access issues that limit technology integration in the kindergarten-12th …

A Comparison Of Users' Personal Information Sharing Awareness, Habits, And Practices In Social Networking Sites And E-Learning Systems, Albert Ball

CCAC Theses and Dissertations

Although reports of identity theft continue to be widely published, users continue to post an increasing amount of personal information online, especially within social networking sites (SNS) and e-learning systems (ELS). Research has suggested that many users lack awareness of the threats that risky online personal information sharing poses to their personal information. However, even among users who claim to be aware of security threats to their personal information, actual awareness of these security threats is often found to be lacking. Although attempts to raise users' awareness about the risks of sharing their personal information have become more common, it …

Incorporating Personal Health Records Into The Disease Management Of Rural Heart Failure Patients, Karen Baron

CCAC Theses and Dissertations

Personal Health Records (PHRs) allow patients to access and in some cases manage their own health records. Their potential benefits include access to health information, enhanced asynchronous communication between patients and clinicians, and convenience of online appointment scheduling and prescription refills. Potential barriers to PHR use include lack of computer and internet access, poor computer or health literacy, security concerns, and provider disengagement. PHRs may help those living in rural areas and those with chronic conditions such as heart failure, monitor and manage their disease, communicate with their health care team and adhere to clinical recommendations. To provide some much …