Computer Sciences Commons^™

Quantifying Performance Costs Of Database Fine-Grained Access Control, David Harold Kumka

CCAC Theses and Dissertations

Fine-grained access control is a conceptual approach to addressing database security requirements. In relational database management systems, fine-grained access control refers to access restrictions enforced at the row, column, or cell level. While a number of commercial implementations of database fine-grained access control are available, there are presently no generalized approaches to implementing fine-grained access control for relational database management systems.

Fine-grained access control is potentially a good solution for database professionals and system architects charged with designing database applications that implement granular security or privacy protection features. However, in the oral tradition of the database community, fine-grained access control …

An Examination Of Teachers' Integration Of Web 2.0 Technologies In Secondary Classrooms: A Phenomenological Research Study, Barbara Ann Boksz

CCAC Theses and Dissertations

An Examination of Teachers' Integration of Web 2.0 Technologies in Secondary Classrooms: A Phenomenological Research Study

By

Barbara A. Boksz

© November 8, 2012

This study examined the process teachers used to change their pedagogy to deliver effective instruction using Web 2.0 tools. A phenomenological approach examined the "lived experiences" of seven secondary teachers through in-depth interviews giving this study an in-depth qualitative analysis of teachers and technology.

The widening digital divide between teachers and students causes a barrier for educators trying to reach their students. Students are raised with pervasive technology, while teachers are using Web 2.0 tools on …

A Comparative Analysis Of Machine Learning Techniques For Foreclosure Prediction, Dexter Randell Brown

CCAC Theses and Dissertations

The current decline in the U.S. economy was accompanied by an increase in foreclosure rates starting in 2007. Though the earliest figures for 2009 - 2010 indicate a significant decrease, foreclosure of homes in the U.S. is still at an alarming level (Gutierrez, 2009a). Recent research at the University of Michigan suggested that many foreclosures could have been averted had there been a predictive system that did not only rely on credit scores and loan-to-value ratios (DeGroat, 2009). Furthermore, Grover, Smith & Todd (2008) contend that foreclosure prediction can enhance the efficiency of foreclosure mitigation by facilitating the allocation of …

A Study Of Targeted Information System Accessibility And Usage By Foreign Domestic Workers In Singapore, Sandra Boesch

CCAC Theses and Dissertations

Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) have had a remarkable influence on society. Many argue that the impact of ICTs, either positive or negative, affects all of humanity. Acceptance, usability, and accessibility are key for ICTs to make a positive impact on society. Previous research states that Information Technology (IT) can lead to higher salaries, better communication, and more rapid advancements from emerging to developed nations. Additionally, information technology has demonstrated the potential to improve society's effectiveness and productivity by establishing a means to circulate knowledge, increase knowledge sharing, and provide knowledge accumulation and internalization. Therefore, if information technology can improve …

Understanding The Value Of Enterprise Architecture For Organizations: A Grounded Theory Approach, Edwin Frank Nassiff

CCAC Theses and Dissertations

There is a high rate of information system implementation failures attributed to the lack of alignment between business and information technology strategy. Although enterprise architecture (EA) is a means to correct alignment problems and executives highly rate the importance of EA, it is still not used in most organizations today. Current literature only gave anecdotal reasons why EA was not more widely adopted. This study explored the problem of EA underutilization by understanding how organizational executives value EA.

This research used the grounded theory methodology to obtain the EA perspectives of organizational executives responsible for EA. Seventeen executives were selected …

Minimizing Recommended Error Costs Under Noisy Inputs In Rule-Based Expert Systems, Forest D. Thola

CCAC Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation develops methods to minimize recommendation error costs when inputs to a rule-based expert system are prone to errors. The problem often arises in web-based applications where data are inherently noisy or provided by users who perceive some benefit from falsifying inputs. Prior studies proposed methods that attempted to minimize the probability of recommendation error, but did not take into account the relative costs of different types of errors. In situations where these differences are significant, an approach that minimizes the expected misclassification error costs has advantages over extant methods that ignore these costs.

Building on the existing literature, …

An Empirical Assessment Of Factors Contributing To Individuals' Propensity To Commit Software Piracy In The Bahamas, Raymond Cleophas Wells

CCAC Theses and Dissertations

Researchers have found that software piracy worldwide over the years has significantly contributed to billions of dollars in lost revenue for many software firms. Software developers have found it difficult to create software that is not easily copied, thus, creating a software protection problem. Software piracy remains a global problem despite the significant effort to combat its prevalence.

Over the years, significant research has attempted to determine the factors that contribute to individuals' propensity to commit software piracy. Most of the research on software piracy has been limited to larger societies, with recommendations by researchers to extend similar studies to …

Instructional Strategies And Activities That Inform The Community Of Inquiry (Coi) Framework, Stephan D. Junion

CCAC Theses and Dissertations

The Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework is one of the more widely used frameworks supporting online learning effectiveness. While there has been extensive research on the development and validation of the CoI framework and survey, less attention has been devoted toward implementation of a CoI and how practitioners design instructional strategies and activities that support this type of constructivist online learning environment.

The research literature about the CoI along with phenomenological interviews with expert designers guided the creation of three products: the Community of Inquiry (CoI) Instructional Strategies and Activities Guide, Community of Inquiry (CoI) Instructional Strategies and Activities Job …

Constructing A Community Response Grid (Crg): The Dublin, Ohio Case Study, John Freund

CCAC Theses and Dissertations

During an emergency, information availability is critical to preserving life and minimizing damages. During the emergency response, however, information may not be available to those who need it. A community response grid (CRG) can help ameliorate this lack of availability by allowing people to document and distribute emergency information to professional emergency responders (PERs). A CRG combines mobile communications services, Internet technologies, e-government applications, and social network concepts with traditional emergency response systems.

The problem that this case study investigated was how to construct a CRG for the City of Dublin, Ohio, Division of Police that works in conjunction with …

A Study Of Technological Barriers To Instructor E-Readiness In The Online Learning Environment, Glenda H. E. Gay

CCAC Theses and Dissertations

A critical factor of e-learning success is the e-learning readiness of the online user. However, there is a scarcity of studies on online instructors' e-learning readiness (E-Readiness) in an online learning environment. The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether there were correlations among online instructor E-Readiness dimensions and factors at the design and delivery stages that affect system outcomes. In this study, the DeLone and McLean model was used as a framework for research to test E-Readiness with the System Design stage (comprising System Quality, Information Quality, and Service Quality), System Delivery stage (comprising System Use, and User …

Securely Handling Inter-Application Connection Credentials, Gary Lieberman

CCAC Theses and Dissertations

The utilization of application-to-application (A2A) credentials within interpretive language scripts and application code has long been a security risk. The quandaries being how to protect and secure the credentials handled in the main body of code and avoid exploitation from rogue programmers, system administrators and other users with

authorized high levels of privilege.

Researchers report that A2A credentials cannot be protected and that there is no way to reduce the risk of the inevitable successful attack and subsequent exploit. Therefore, research efforts to date have primarily been focused on mitigating the impact of the attack rather than finding ways to …

The Interactions Among Information Technology Organizational Learning, Project Learning, And Project Success, Donald Stuart Mckay

CCAC Theses and Dissertations

Knowledge gained from completed information technology (IT) projects was not often shared with emerging project teams. Learning lessons from other project teams was not pursued because people lack time, do not see value in learning, fear a potentially painful process, and had concerns that sharing knowledge will hurt their career. Leaders could change the situation; however organizational leaders have not seen value in project learning and have not made it a priority. Yet, if a relationship existed among IT project success variables (PSVs) organizational learning factors (OLFs) and project learning practices (PLPs) then IT leaders may take greater interest in …

An Empirical Investigation Of The Relationship Between Computer Self-Efficacy And Information Privacy Concerns, Mohammad Abdul Awwal

CCAC Theses and Dissertations

The Internet and the growth of Information Technology (IT) and their enhanced capabilities to collect personal information have given rise to many privacy issues. Unauthorized access of personal information may result in identity theft, stalking, harassment, and other invasions of privacy. Information privacy concerns are impediments to broad-scale adoption of the Internet for purchasing decisions. Computer self-efficacy has been shown to be an effective predictor of behavioral intention and a critical determinant of intention to use Information Technology. This study investigated the relationship between an individual's computer self-efficacy and information privacy concerns; and also examined the differences among different age …

The Impact Of An Osteopathic Medical Program On Information Technology Skills Of Physicians Entering The Workforce, Stephen Edward Bronsburg

CCAC Theses and Dissertations

Increasingly, the health care field is utilizing information technology (IT) to help manage large volumes of medical data. This has created a need for health care workers to learn IT skills, which include information gathering skills (IGS), information analysis skills (IAS), and technology skills (TS). Research focused on medical students learning IT skills seems limited, while research focused on IT skills, age, and gender appear contradictory. Research suggests that physicians lack necessary health care industry specific IT skills.

The survey instrument used the three aforementioned skills (IGS, IAS, & TS), based on the Learning Skills Profile (LSP), to measure IT …

Automated Support For Model Selection Using Analytic Hierarchy Process, Mario Sarkis Missakian

CCAC Theses and Dissertations

Providing automated support for model selection is a significant research challenge in model management. Organizations maintain vast growing repositories of analytical models, typically in the form of spreadsheets. Effective reuse of these models could result in significant cost savings and improvements in productivity. However, in practice, model reuse is severely limited by two main challenges: (1) lack of relevant information about the models maintained in the repository, and (2) lack of end user knowledge that prevents them from selecting appropriate models for a given problem solving task. This study built on the existing model management literature to address these research …

Interoperability Gap Challenges For Learning Object Repositories & Learning Management Systems, Robert T. Mason

CCAC Theses and Dissertations

An interoperability gap exists between Learning Management Systems (LMSs) and Learning Object Repositories (LORs). Learning Objects (LOs) and the associated Learning Object Metadata (LOM) that is stored within LORs adhere to a variety of LOM standards. A common LOM standard found in LORs is the Sharable Content Object Reference Model (SCORM) Content Aggregation Model (CAM). In contrast, LMSs are independent computer systems that manage and deliver course content to students via a web interface. This research addressed three important issues related to the interoperability gap: (a) a lack of a metadata standard that defined the format of how student assessment …

Computer Music Composition Using Crowdsourcing And Genetic Algorithms, Jessica Faith Keup

CCAC Theses and Dissertations

When genetic algorithms (GA) are used to produce music, the results are limited by a fitness bottleneck problem. To create effective music, the GA needs to be thoroughly trained by humans, but this takes extensive time and effort. Applying online collective intelligence or "crowdsourcing" to train a musical GA is one approach to solve the fitness bottleneck problem. The hypothesis was that when music was created by a GA trained by a crowdsourced group and music was created by a GA trained by a small group, the crowdsourced music would be more effective and musically sound. When a group of …

The Blended Learning Experience Of Community College Students, Anita Bleffert-Schmidt

CCAC Theses and Dissertations

Blended learning has sometimes been calledthe best of both worlds, combining the advantages of face-to-face instruction with the advantages of online learning. It has been in existence for over a decade, and more research needed to be done to determine its efficacy and desirability for community colleges. The goal of this dissertation was to document the ways in which blended learning has changed the community college learning experience.

The investigation took place at Ulster County Community College, a small rural college in upstate New York. A mixed method, triangulation design was used. Quantitative data were collected from the college's student …

The Impact Of The User Interface On Simulation Usability And Solution Quality, Bruce Ray Montgomery

CCAC Theses and Dissertations

This research outlines a study that was performed to determine the effects of user interface design variations on the usability and solution quality of complex, multivariate discrete-event simulations. Specifically, this study examined four key research questions: what are the user interface considerations for a given simulation model, what are the current best practices in user interface design for simulations, how is usability best evaluated for simulation interfaces, and specifically what are the measured effects of varying levels of usability of interface elements on simulation operations such as data entry and solution analysis. The overall goal of the study was to …

A Domain Aware Genetic Algorithm For The P-Median Problem, Dennis Vickers

CCAC Theses and Dissertations

The p-median problem is an NP-complete combinatorial optimization problem often used in the fields of facility location and clustering. Given a graph with n nodes and an integer p < n, the p-median problem seeks a set of p medians such that the sum of the distances of the n nodes from their nearest median is minimized. This dissertation develops a genetic algorithm that generates solutions to the p-median problem that improves on previously published genetic algorithms by implementing operators that exploit domain specific information. More specifically, this GA explores the following:

(1) The advantages of using "good" solutions generated using extant heuristics in the initial generation of chromosomes.

(2) The effectiveness of a crossover operation that exchanges centers in the same neighborhood rather than exchanging arbitrarily chosen subsets of centers.

(3) The efficacy of using a biased mutation operator that favors replacing existing medians from less fit chromosomes with non-median nodes from the same neighborhood as the median being replaced.

Using published …

Wiki Behavior In The Workplace: Emotional Aspects Of Content Development, Deborah A. Gears

CCAC Theses and Dissertations

Wikis have been found to be an easy-to-use, low-cost, and Internet-based technology useful in creating and mobilizing knowledge. Wikis hosted within firms (corporate wikis) have become a popular way for employees to share information and collaborate.

Preliminary research suggested that as few as 6% of wiki consumers contributed to the development of wiki pages. Conventional approaches argued that employees judged the costs of participating in wikis (e.g., authoring or changing material, reading messages, following an argument, and posting responses) to exceed the benefits of participating in wikis (e.g., recognition, reputation etc.) - thus many people "lurked" but did not post. …

The Relationship Between Personality Type And Software Usability Using The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (Mbti®) And The Software Usability Measurement Inventory (Sumi), William H. Lindsey

CCAC Theses and Dissertations

This study attempted to determine if there is a relationship between user's psychological personality types, measured by the Myers Briggs Type Indicator® (MBTI®) and distinct measures of usability measured by the Software Usability Measurement Inventory (SUMI). The study was expected to provide an answer to the following basic research question: When interacting with a typical user interface, do different users perceive usability differently? Specific hypotheses were formulated to answer this research question. Hypotheses were tested to determine if there was any statistically significant relationship between specific MBTI® personality types and individual measure of usability as measured by the SUMI.

Each …

The Effects Of Coursecasting In International Freshman Students' Perceptions Of Marginality And Isolation, Anxiety, And English Language Oral Proficiency And Comprehension, Alberto Fernandez

CCAC Theses and Dissertations

The influx of international students attending American universities has put the U.S. at the forefront of international education, generating over $14.5 billion yearly.

International students often face adjustment issues impacting their level of satisfaction with their experience. These involve oral language proficiency, as well as feelings of anxiety and isolation resulting from language deficiencies, which increase their feelings of marginality. Engaged learning, which is dependent on comprehension, is affected by the anxiety students bring to class. It is believed that coursecasts may alleviate anxiety, thus improving student engagement in learning.

A pre-experimental research design investigates whether coursecasting mitigates feelings of …

A Species-Conserving Genetic Algorithm For Multimodal Optimization, Michael Scott Brown

CCAC Theses and Dissertations

The problem of multimodal functional optimization has been addressed by much research producing many different search techniques. Niche Genetic Algorithms is one area that has attempted to solve this problem. Many Niche Genetic Algorithms use some type of radius. When multiple optima occur within the radius, these algorithms have a difficult time locating them. Problems that have arbitrarily close optima create a greater problem. This paper presents a new Niche Genetic Algorithm framework called Dynamic-radius Species-conserving Genetic Algorithm. This new framework extends existing Genetic Algorithm research.

This new framework enhances an existing Niche Genetic Algorithm in two ways. As the …

An Investigation Of Factors That Affect Hipaa Security Compliance In Academic Medical Centers, James William Brady

CCAC Theses and Dissertations

HIPAA security compliance in academic medical centers is a central concern of researchers, academicians, and practitioners. Increased numbers of data security breaches and information technology implementations have caused concern over the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of electronic personal health information. The federal government has implemented stringent HIPAA security compliance reviews and significantly extended the scope and enforcement of the HIPAA Security Rule. However, academic medical centers have shown limited compliance with the HIPAA Security Rule. Therefore, the goal of this study was to investigate the factors that may affect HIPAA security compliance in academic medical centers. Based on a review …

Quantum Algorithm Animator, Lori Eileen Nicholson

CCAC Theses and Dissertations

The design and development of quantum algorithms present a challenge, especially for inexperienced computer science students. Despite the numerous common concepts with classical computer science, quantum computation is still considered a branch of theoretical physics not commonly used by computer scientists. Experimental research into the development of a quantum computer makes the use of quantum mechanics in organizing computation more attractive, however the physical realization of a working quantum computer may still be decades away.

This study introduces quantum computing to computer science students using a quantum algorithm animator called QuAL. QuAL's design uses features common to classical algorithm animators …

Assistive Technology Attrition: Identifying Why Teachers Abandon Assistive Technologies, Michael Edward Sharpe

CCAC Theses and Dissertations

The study surveyed a sample of K-12 teachers who had used assistive technology (AT) in the classroom to determine answers to five research questions. These were, (1) why the teachers adopted AT, (2) their attitudes and perceptions about its value, (3) challenges they have experienced in adopting AT, (4) whether they have discontinued or decreased use of AT, and, if so, (5) the factors that led to this result.

The study used both quantitative and qualitative methods. For the quantitative aspect, an online survey instrument was developed to answer five research questions. Participants were teachers who had used AT in …

Trust And Trustworthiness: A Framework For Successful Design Of Telemedicine, James Robert Templeton

CCAC Theses and Dissertations

Trust and its antecedents have been demonstrated as a barrier to the successful adoption of numerous fields of technology, most notably e-commerce, and may be a key factor in the lack of adoption or adaptation in the field of telemedicine. In the medical arena, trust is often formed through the relationships cultivated over time via clinician and patient. Trust and interpersonal relationships may also play a significant role in the adoption of telemedicine. The idea of telemedicine has been explored for nearly 30 years in one form or another. Yet, despite grandiose promises of how it will someday significantly improve …

An Analysis Of The Radio Frequency Identification (Rfid) Technology Implementation Within An Independent Public Library System: A Case Study Of The North Canton, Ohio Public Library, Keith P. Lyons

CCAC Theses and Dissertations

An Analysis of the Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) Technology Implementation within an Independent Public Library System:

A Case Study of the North Canton, Ohio Public Library

by

Keith P. Lyons

June 2010

Public libraries require efficient control systems to maintain accurate inventories, statistics, and records of patron borrowing. Generally, public libraries use barcode technology to accomplish these tasks. Radio frequency identification (RFID) has gained the attention of public library personnel in recent years as a replacement for barcodes. RFID implementation contributes to improved staff productivity, increased operational efficiency, and improved item security as well. While potential benefits are significant, issues …

Physician Information Seeking Behaviors: Are Physicians Successful Searchers?, Janice Swiatek-Kelley

CCAC Theses and Dissertations

In the recent past, physicians found answers to questions by consulting colleagues, textbooks, and professional journals. Now, the availability of medical information through electronic resources has changed physician information-seeking behaviors. Evidence-based medicine is now the accepted decision-making paradigm, and a physician's ability to locate best practice guidelines through electronic information resources has become an essential skill. As physicians struggle to stay current in the wake of an ever-growing volume of medical information, several electronic resources claim to provide one-stop access to the most current information with correct and complete answers to problems encountered in the practice of health care. The …