Computer Sciences Commons^™

Dworkinian Liberalism, The Right To Pornography, And The Internet, Will Nowell

Honors Theses

In a 1981 journal article, “Is There A Right to Pornography?,” Ronald Dworkin argues that we have a right to ethical independence that includes the right to consume pornography. The purpose of this thesis is to inquire as to whether Dworkinian liberalism does entail a right to specifically internet pornography. This research is primarily focused on Ronald Dworkin’s writings in Justice for Hedgehogs, Sovereign Virtue: The Theory and Practice of Equality, and Taking Rights Seriously to describe the principles and character of Dworkinian liberalism and its philosophical relationship to the question of the right to pornography. This thesis considers contemporary …

Relaxed Mental State Detection Using The Emotiv Epoc And Adaptive Threshold Algorithms, Olin L. Anderson

EWU Masters Thesis Collection

The electroencephalogram (EEG) has proven to be useful in a wide variety of applications, including: diagnosis of mental disorders, psychological research, neurofeedback, and brain-computer interfacing. Most such applications of the EEG benefit from an ability to automatically detect when the subject is in a relaxed state. Recently, inexpensive and relatively easy to use EEG systems, with multiple electrodes, have become available at prices comparable to cellular phones or game machines. This project’s purpose is to investigate the feasibility of real-time classification of a subject's relaxation state using one such consumer-grade EEG system, the Emotiv Epoc. The subject's state is classified …

The Impact Of Terrain And Other Factors On Wild Fires, Matthew L. Kingston

Undergraduate Theses, Professional Papers, and Capstone Artifacts

Abstract - Wild fires have become an annual concern in the United States, and despite the vast amount of resources and manpower used to combat the spread of wild fires, the success rate tends to vary. With this in mind, a research project has commenced which is primarily aimed at discovering the relationship between environmental factors and wild fire growth, or lack of growth. This research analyzes data available in the Google Earth Engine and includes geographical features such as roads, elevation, and other factors like humidity and wind. Using Google Earth Engine programs, the goal is to establish meaningful …

Computational Thinking Bins: Outreach And More, Briana B. Morrison, Brian Dorn, Michelle Friend

Computer Science Faculty Publications

Computational Thinking Bins are stand alone, individual boxes, each containing an activity for groups of students that teaches a computing concept. We have a devised a system that has allowed us to create an initial set, test the set, continually improve and add to our set. We currently use these bins in outreach events for middle and high school students. As we have shared this resource with K-12 teachers, many have expressed an interest in acquiring their own set. In this paper we will share our experience throughout the process, introduce the bins, and explain how you can create your …

Virtual Hearings And Blockchain Technology Solutions In Criminal Law, Chantell Bergquist

Political Science Theses and Capstones

Technology has evolved and raided our personal and professional lives. Although the courts are not immune to the advancement and integration of technology, the courts are not keeping up with relevant technological advancements. Historically, courts have been hesitant to embrace new technologies despite the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and the American Bar Association Model Rules of Professional Conduct. Rule 1 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure creates the right to a “just, speedy, and inexpensive determination of every action and proceeding.” Likewise, the American Bar Association Model Rules of Professional Conduct have determined attorneys must “keep abreast of …

Influential Determinants Of Internet Of Things Adoption In The U.S. Manufacturing Sector, Ronville D. Savoury

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Manufacturers have been hesitant to adopt Internet of things (IoT) due to a lack of understanding about the innovate characteristics, technology, organizational and environmental factors related to IoT adoption and how their organizations can apply IoT correctly. This quantitative, correlational study used a combination of diffusion of innovation theory and technology–organization–environment framework as the foundation to examine if a relationship exists between relative advantage, complexity, compatibility, technology readiness, top management support, firm size, competitive pressure, and regulatory support and IT leaders' intent to adopt IoT in U.S. manufacturing organizations. A sample of 168 information technology (IT) leaders from the U.S. …

Managing Security Objectives For Effective Organizational Performance Information Security Management, Ramamohan Gutta

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Information is a significant asset to organizations, and a data breach from a cyberattack harms reputations and may result in a massive financial loss. Many senior managers lack the competencies to implement an enterprise risk management system and align organizational resources such as people, processes, and technology to prevent cyberattacks on enterprise assets. The purpose of this Delphi study was to explore how the managerial competencies for information security and risk management senior managers help in managing security objectives and practices to mitigate security risks. The National Institute of Standards and Technology framework served as the foundation for this study. …

Cybersecurity Strategies To Protect Information Systems In Small Financial Institutions, Johnny Fadel Rawass

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Leaders of financial institutions face challenges in protecting data because of the increased use of computer networks in the commerce and governance aspects of their businesses. The purpose of this single case study was to explore the strategies that leaders of a small financial institution used to protect information systems from cyber threats. The actor-network theory was the conceptual framework for this study. Data were collected through face-to-face, semistructured interviews with 5 leaders of a small financial institution in Qatar and a review of company documents relevant to information security, cybersecurity, and risk management. Using thematic analysis and Yin'€™s 5-€step …

Factors Affecting Employee Intentions To Comply With Password Policies, Ernest Tamanji Anye

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Password policy compliance is a vital component of organizational information security. Although many organizations make substantial investments in information security, employee-related security breaches are prevalent, with many breaches being caused by negative password behavior such as password sharing and the use of weak passwords. The purpose of this quantitative correlational study was to examine the relationship between employees’ attitudes towards password policies, information security awareness, password self-efficacy, and employee intentions to comply with password policies. This study was grounded in the theory of planned behavior and social cognitive theory. A cross-sectional survey was administered online to a random sample of …

A Machine Learning Approach To Artificial Floorplan Generation, Genghis Goodman

Theses and Dissertations--Computer Science

The process of designing a floorplan is highly iterative and requires extensive human labor. Currently, there are a number of computer programs that aid humans in floorplan design. These programs, however, are limited in their inability to fully automate the creative process. Such automation would allow a professional to quickly generate many possible floorplan solutions, greatly expediting the process. However, automating this creative process is very difficult because of the many implicit and explicit rules a model must learn in order create viable floorplans. In this paper, we propose a method of floorplan generation using two machine learning models: a …

Equivalence Of Classical And Quantum Codes, Tefjol Pllaha

Theses and Dissertations--Mathematics

In classical and quantum information theory there are different types of error-correcting codes being used. We study the equivalence of codes via a classification of their isometries. The isometries of various codes over Frobenius alphabets endowed with various weights typically have a rich and predictable structure. On the other hand, when the alphabet is not Frobenius the isometry group behaves unpredictably. We use character theory to develop a duality theory of partitions over Frobenius bimodules, which is then used to study the equivalence of codes. We also consider instances of codes over non-Frobenius alphabets and establish their isometry groups. Secondly, …

Web-Based Recommendation System For Smart Tourism: Multiagent Technology, Raheleh Hassannia, Ali Vatankhah Barenji, Zhi Li, Habib Alipour

Faculty Articles

The purpose of the study is to design and develop a recommended system based on agent and web technologies, which utilizes a hybrid recommendation filtering for the smart tourism industry. A hybrid recommendation system based on agent technology is designed by considering the online communication with other sectors in the tourism industry, such as the tourism supply chain, agency etc. However, online communication between the sectors via agents is designed and developed based on the contract net protocol. Furthermore, the design system is developed on the java agent development framework and implemented as a web application. Case study-based results considering …

The Structural Information Filtered Features Potential For Machine Learning Calculations Of Energies And Forces Of Atomic Systems., Jorge Arturo Hernandez Zeledon

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

In the last ten years, machine learning potentials have been successfully applied to the study of crystals, and molecules. However, more complex materials like clusters, macro-molecules, and glasses are out reach of current methods. The input of any machine learning system is a tensor of features (the most universal type are rank 1 tensors or vectors of features), the quality of any machine learning system is directly related to how well the feature space describes the original physical system. So far, the feature engineering process for machine learning potentials can not describe complex material. The current methods are highly inefficient …

Multimodal Approach For Malware Detection, Jarilyn M. Hernandez Jimenez

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Although malware detection is a very active area of research, few works were focused on using physical properties (e.g., power consumption) and multimodal features for malware detection. We designed an experimental testbed that allowed us to run samples of malware and non-malicious software applications and to collect power consumption, network traffic, and system logs data, and subsequently to extract dynamic behavioral-based features. We also extracted code-based static features of both malware and non-malicious software applications. These features were used for malware detection based on: feature level fusion using power consumption and network traffic data, feature level fusion using network traffic …

Training Neural Networks Through The Integration Of Evolution And Gradient Descent, Gregory Morse

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Neural networks have achieved widespread adoption due to both their applicability to a wide range of problems and their success relative to other machine learning algorithms. The training of neural networks is achieved through any of several paradigms, most prominently gradient-based approaches (including deep learning), but also through up-and-coming approaches like neuroevolution. However, while both of these neural network training paradigms have seen major improvements over the past decade, little work has been invested in developing algorithms that incorporate the advances from both deep learning and neuroevolution. This dissertation introduces two new algorithms that are steps towards the integration of …

Task Focused Robotic Imitation Learning, Pooya Abolghasemi

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

For many years, successful applications of robotics were the domain of controlled environments, such as industrial assembly lines. Such environments are custom designed for the convenience of the robot and separated from human operators. In recent years, advances in artificial intelligence, in particular, deep learning and computer vision, allowed researchers to successfully demonstrate robots that operate in unstructured environments and directly interact with humans. One of the major applications of such robots is in assistive robotics. For instance, a wheelchair mounted robotic arm can help disabled users in the performance of activities of daily living (ADLs) such as feeding and …

Multi-Modal Interfaces For Sensemaking Of Graph-Connected Datasets, Anthony Wehrer

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The visualization of hypothesized evolutionary processes is often shown through phylogenetic trees. Given evolutionary data presented in one of several widely accepted formats, software exists to render these data into a tree diagram. However, software packages commonly in use by biologists today often do not provide means to dynamically adjust and customize these diagrams for studying new hypothetical relationships, and for illustration and publication purposes. Even where these options are available, there can be a lack of intuitiveness and ease-of-use. The goal of our research is, thus, to investigate more natural and effective means of sensemaking of the data with …

Blockchain-Driven Secure And Transparent Audit Logs, Ashar Ahmad

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In enterprise business applications, large volumes of data are generated daily, encoding business logic and transactions. Those applications are governed by various compliance requirements, making it essential to provide audit logs to store, track, and attribute data changes. In traditional audit log systems, logs are collected and stored in a centralized medium, making them prone to various forms of attacks and manipulations, including physical access and remote vulnerability exploitation attacks, and eventually allowing for unauthorized data modification, threatening the guarantees of audit logs. Moreover, such systems, and given their centralized nature, are characterized by a single point of failure. To …

Scalable Network Design And Management With Decentralized Software-Defined Networking, Kuldip Singh Atwal

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Network softwarization is among the most significant innovations of computer networks in the last few decades. The lack of uniform and programmable interfaces for network management led to the design of OpenFlow protocol for the university campuses and enterprise networks. This breakthrough coupled with other similar efforts led to an emergence of two complementary but independent paradigms called software-defined networking (SDN) and network function virtualization (NFV). As of this writing, these paradigms are becoming the de-facto norms of wired and wireless networks alike. This dissertation mainly addresses the scalability aspect of SDN for multiple network types. Although centralized control and …

Action Recognition, Temporal Localization And Detection In Trimmed And Untrimmed Video, Rui Hou

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Automatic understanding of videos is one of the most active areas of computer vision research. It has applications in video surveillance, human computer interaction, video sports analysis, virtual and augmented reality, video retrieval etc. In this dissertation, we address four important tasks in video understanding, namely action recognition, temporal action localization, spatial-temporal action detection and video object/action segmentation. This dissertation makes contributions to above tasks by proposing. First, for video action recognition, we propose a category level feature learning method. Our proposed method automatically identifies such pairs of categories using a criterion of mutual pairwise proximity in the (kernelized) feature …

Detecting Anomalies From Big Data System Logs, Siyang Lu

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Nowadays, big data systems (e.g., Hadoop and Spark) are being widely adopted by many domains for offering effective data solutions, such as manufacturing, healthcare, education, and media. A common problem about big data systems is called anomaly, e.g., a status deviated from normal execution, which decreases the performance of computation or kills running programs. It is becoming a necessity to detect anomalies and analyze their causes. An effective and economical approach is to analyze system logs. Big data systems produce numerous unstructured logs that contain buried valuable information. However manually detecting anomalies from system logs is a tedious and daunting …

Multi-Touch Detection And Semantic Response On Non-Parametric Rear-Projection Surfaces, Jason Hochreiter

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The ability of human beings to physically touch our surroundings has had a profound impact on our daily lives. Young children learn to explore their world by touch; likewise, many simulation and training applications benefit from natural touch interactivity. As a result, modern interfaces supporting touch input are ubiquitous. Typically, such interfaces are implemented on integrated touch-display surfaces with simple geometry that can be mathematically parameterized, such as planar surfaces and spheres; for more complicated non-parametric surfaces, such parameterizations are not available. In this dissertation, we introduce a method for generalizable optical multi-touch detection and semantic response on uninstrumented non-parametric …

Contingent Requirements For Artifical Intelligent Systems Development, Gary Langford, Herman Migliore

Engineering and Technology Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

A substantial portion of project failures are due to poorly defined requirements before enough is known about pragmatic end-item product capability, technology maturity, or development strategy. Process models either start with requirements or are weakly structured to elicit and derive actual stakeholder needs and to establish incontrovertible requirements. Existing process models are used acceptably for systems but are wholly inadequate for system and system of systems requirements that involve interactions with humans at a personal level. Problems with products and services are notable when artificial intelligent systems are put into use. Rather than establishing a technology baseline then working up …

Strategic Technology Planning In Product-Service Systems With Embedded Customer Experience Requirements, Soheil Zarrin, Tugrul Daim

Engineering and Technology Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

The undeniable impact of Artificial Intelligence and Internet of things on value proposition and offerings of firms, drive many strategic initiatives in organizations to design solutions which integrate products and services. Since designing Product-Service Systems inherently introduce high level of complexity and adding artificial intelligence requirements as one of the influential factors overcomplicate the long-term planning processes, the strategic planners seek for effective tools to enable them to manage the level of complexity as well as empowering them to communicate the outcomes with the whole organization. In order to achieve this purpose, Technology Roadmaps provides a structured and flexible means …

The Changing Moral Mirror Of Society: From Human To Artifical Intelligent Systems, Gary Langford, Teresa Langford

Engineering and Technology Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

Management of technology and its development carry along the responsibility and consequences for interactions between Human and Artificial Intelligent Systems (AIS). In spite of all good intentions, the effects and repercussions of conflicts between Human and the systems built with intent to assist Human may be proceeding along the path that will recognize a dismal mistake in judgment. Dreadful and intolerable impositions on Human behavior may arise regardless of how AIS is designed. That is not to say progress should cease, but rather to make the case that intensely determined efforts need to delve into the uses and implications of …

Domain Process Model Overcome Limitations Of Engineering Models For Developing Artificial Intelligent Systems, Gary O. Langford, John Green, Daniel P. Burns, Alexander Keller, Dean C. Schmidt

Engineering and Technology Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

The integrated set of prognostic domains (ISPD) of technology presented here provides a normative means to construct a wholly new process model for guiding Technology Management of Artificial Intelligent Systems (AIS). Seventeen domains represent all-inclusive stakeholder perspectives that encapsulate lifecycle analyses, evaluations, feasibilities, and tradeoffs with the domain contexts. Following Systems Model-Based thinking (SMBT), a postulated focal point interaction is the entry condition from which each domain is considered and thereafter traversed. Domains are interactive with each other through concurrent, iterative, recursive, and non-recursive processes. This interactive work continues until the completion milestones of each domain are satisfied. Techniques such …

User-Centered Design Strategies For Clinical Brain-Computer Interface Assistive Technology Devices, Geraldine Light

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Although in the past 50 years significant advances based on research of brain-computer interface (BCI) technology have occurred, there is a scarcity of BCI assistive technology devices at the consumer level. This multiple case study explored user-centered clinical BCI device design strategies used by computer scientists designing BCI assistive technologies to meet patient-centered outcomes. The population for the study encompassed computer scientists experienced with clinical BCI assistive technology design located in the midwestern, northeastern, and southern regions of the United States, as well as western Europe. The multi-motive information systems continuance model was the conceptual framework for the study. Interview …

A Case Study On Social Media As An Effective Management Tool, Appolloh Omolloh

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

In small businesses in the United States, specifically those with fewer than 10 employees,

leaders may be skeptical of and resistant to the use of social media in their management

operations. Management literature does not indicate clear and effective guidelines and

policies detailing small marketing firms use of social media. The purpose of this

qualitative case study was to explore the perceptions of small marketing firm leaders

about the resources and knowledge needed for effective use of social media as a

management tool. Emerson's social exchange theory grounded the study. The study

targeted owners and managers of small marketing firms …

Knowledge Sharing And Customer Relations In Mobility, Katie Dyretha Moore

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

After the events of September 11, 2001, inadequacies in how government organizations and agencies shared knowledge and communication with defense mission partners became readily apparent. A reasonable U.S. government information technology expectation is the integrated use of mobile phones across organizations and agencies. Yet, it is difficult to meet this expectation, as the provisioning process for mobile devices can be different for each government organization or agency. The Department of Commerce National Institute of Standards and Technology does not set provisioning standards, and organizations and agencies determine policies tailored to their particular needs. Using Schein's theory on organizational culture, the …

Successful Strategies For Retaining Profitability In An Education-Sector It Project, Cassandra Romae Middleton

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Many information technology (IT) project managers (PMs) and other business leaders lack effective strategies for enhancing communication among their project team members, thereby reducing profitability and organizational cohesion. The purpose of this multiple case study was to explore communication strategies that IT PMs used to successfully complete IT mobile device projects. The conceptual framework for this study was McQuail's mass communication, Craig's communication, and Deming's profound knowledge theory. Purposive sampling method was used to identify 6 successful IT PMs and leaders who worked at 2 leading educations settings located in southeastern South Carolina. Data gathered from the semistructured interviews and …