<p> Affirmative action public procurement programs (AAPPP) stem from legislation related to the Civil Rights movement. Debates about program usefulness and relevance have occurred as well as court decisions challenging not only the legality of these programs, but their very existence. The problem is that, although minority small businesses are fast-growing, access to public procurement opportunities is minimal. An assessment of the perceived social and economic impact of affirmative action public procurement programs between participants and non-participants could provide needed information to inform stakeholders more about how these programs are experienced. The purpose of this quantitative quasi-experimental causal-comparative (ex post facto) study was to determine whether minority business owners who have participated in AAPPP perceive the economic benefits, economic costs, social benefits, and social costs in minority businesses differently than non-participants. A random sample of 128 minority business owners seeking government contracts in the information technology field participated in this study. The participants were requested to complete a survey to assess their perceptions of affirmative action public procurement program participation on its economic benefits, economic costs, social benefits, and social costs. The findings showed AAPPP participants and non-AAPPP participants perceived economic costs and economic benefits similarly. The findings also showed AAPPP participants perceived both the social costs and benefits significantly greater than non-participants. Although the findings lend support for the continued use of these programs, the results paradoxically lend some support for their discontinuance. Without any overwhelming evidence to the contrary, it can be argued that continuing with these programs is necessary, since an inherent form of discrimination based on race or gender within the economic system still appears to exist, although not coherently depicted or understood. </p>

<p> Information visualization offers a unique method to assist users in understanding large quantities of data, such as that which is found in social media. The recent surge in the use of social media platforms, the abundance of data generated, and the implications about what this data means has made it increasingly necessary to provide feedback to these users about what they and others are presenting online. Thus, it is critical for these individuals to access this information and gain some level of visual understanding regarding their own identities or that of a particular group. This dissertation is organized in the format of a three-paper dissertation. Chapter 1 is the introduction for the subsequent three chapters and provides background on information visualization and identity presentation in social media, while exploring theoretical approaches to visual perception and design. Chapter 2 demonstrates a variety of past and current multidimensional information visualization techniques that are relevant to social media data, as related to online identity presentation. The overview includes data portraits, motion-based visualization, music visualization, and textual structures. Chapter 3 introduces <i>CarrinaCongress</i>, an information visualization dashboard that affords users with the ability to compare two members of Congress in order to better understanding the elected officials&rsquo; tweets and external information. Chapter 4 presents <i> HadithViz</i>, a motion-based information visualization dashboard that borrows from video game interfaces and focuses on event-based tweets, as defined by hashtags related to sexism in the video gaming industry. Finally, Chapter 5 is the conclusion to this dissertation and will summarize the three individual studies, discuss limitations and implications, and provide recommendations that future work consist of simple, accessible visualizations that are based on existing visual languages and can be interpreted by a wide-ranging audience. </p>

<p> Unauthorized data removal and modification from information systems represents a major and formidable threat in modern computing. Security researchers are engaged in a constant and escalating battle with the writers of malware and other methods of network intrusion to detect and mitigate this threat. Advanced malware behaviors include encryption of communications between the server and infected client machines as well as various strategies for resilience and obfuscation of infrastructure. These techniques evolve to use any and all available mechanisms. As the Internet has grown, DNS has been expanded and has been given security updates. This study analyzed the potential uses of DNSSEC as a covert channel by malware writers and operators. The study found that changing information regarding the Start of Authority (SOA) and resigning the zone can create a covert channel. The study provided a proof of concept for this previously undocumented covert channel that uses DNSSEC. </p>

<p> The need for cyber ethics continues to grow at a staggering pace within the federal government and the private industry&rsquo;s code of conduct. However, the practice of cyber ethics in these environments has presented many challenges for the organizations. A few of them include: cyber ethics training for IT professionals and employees, a lack of sharing information between the federal government and private sector; and the difficulty of creating applicable and legal standards concerning cyber ethics. These challenges prove there is a great need for further research to address these issues, and while the research presented in this paper is still in its infancy there have been documented methodologies which have shown promise. The limitations however include people are vulnerabilities of cybersecurity; a cyber-ethics training plan is critical for federal government and private sector employees and there is a lack of a global code of conduct on cybersecurity. The results of a more comprehensive study into these issues may help to better inform and influence decision making by the federal government, as well as by IT and cybersecurity professionals.</p>

<p> The research topic of this study is the impact of consumer security awareness on the adoption of the Internet of Things. The Internet of Things (IoT) is the emerging network of Internet connected smart devices. Several authors have predicted that adoption of the IoT will be hindered if security issues are not addressed. Other authors have noted that users often trade security and privacy for convenience. To better understand these two points of view, the main research question of this study is: to what extent does consumer security awareness impact adoption of the Internet of Things. To address the competing factors impacting adoption, the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) will be used as the base model of this study and was extended to account for the construct of security awareness. A quantitative non-experimental correlational study was designed to measure the impact. The population of this study is U.S. adult consumers of Internet connected smart devices. The sample frame was selected from the SurveyMonkey&trade; voluntary audience panel. Multiple regression was used as the statistical analysis to perform hypothesis testing and attempt to answer the research questions. The findings of the study showed that although there is a statistically significant impact of security awareness on adoption of the IoT, it is not the dominant factor. Other factors, such as performance expectation and effort expectation prove to be better indicators of adoption of the IoT at this time. Several recommendations are given to improve future studies in this area. The results of this study provide business managers, IoT device manufacturers and service providers with valuable information on the relation between awareness of security risks and adoption of the IoT.</p>

<p> Increased globalization and competition have forced companies to implement solutions at a rapid pace using new and evolving technology. As a result, companies are now initiating an increasing number of complex projects each year. Project management (PM) practitioners &ndash; the individuals responsible for leading a project team through the planning and implementation of these complex projects &ndash; need to understand the tools and techniques to implement a complex project successfully to meet the strategic goals of the organization. Emotional intelligence (EI) is a primary component of the leadership skills necessary to manage a complex project. The purpose of this study was to explore the EI competencies used by PM practitioners who managed a complex project as defined by Qureshi and Kang (2015). Using the Goleman model of EI, this study investigated 22 PM practitioners who managed a complex project and found the PM practitioner&rsquo;s ability to be adaptable, innovative, and trustworthy to be key personal competencies used in the management of a complex project. Furthermore, the ability to understand organizational politics and its effect on the team and the complex project, to maneuver around it, and to be influential, and deal with conflict are necessary social competencies when managing a complex project. These competencies are not limited to complex projects. This study also investigated EI competencies experienced in non-complex projects and found that trust, conflict management, influence, and political awareness were all EI competencies that held equal importance to PM practitioners when managing a non-complex project. People were the key. Findings from this study found that &ndash; although non-complex projects may not provide the innovative approaches or the need to adapt to change as found in a complex project &ndash; when people are involved, PM practitioners still need the ability to trust, resolve conflict, deal with and maneuver around the political climate, and influence the team.</p>

<p> Objective: To evaluate the utilization of computer decision support software by nurse practitioners and the effect on functional outcomes for patients with low back pain.</p><p> Design: The DNP project used a cohort study design utilizing a convenience sample of patients with nonspecific low back pain to evaluate the intervention. The study was divided into two phases. During each phase the patients completed the functional tools on initial treatment and then again at approximately six weeks. The initial phase measured outcomes following the clinicians&rsquo; current treatment model without benefit of support software. During the second phase, the computerized clinical decision support software was introduced and implemented. The results were compared of Phase I outcomes were compared to the results of Phase II to determine if the software indeed improved functionality with the patient.</p><p> Measurements: A change in the patient&rsquo;s functional outcomes judged whether the treatment plan was effective. The functional tools utilized in the study were the Oswestry Disability Index and the Roland-Morris Questionnaire. The computer decision support software utilized was <i>iOutcomes</i>. </p><p> Results: There were 249 patients verbally consenting for this study with 104 individuals electronically signing consent. Of the 249 participants, 104 individuals completed the written consent. Of the 104 individuals giving written consent, only 94 completed the entire registration process. Of the 94 individuals completing the registration process, only 37 completed the initial functional tools assessment. Of the 37 individuals completing the initial functional tools, only 34 completed the 6-week follow up functional tools.</p><p> The findings of the pre-treatment and post-treatment did not demonstrate a statistically significant difference with the introduction of the computer decision support software. The mean for the difference in the ODI and the difference of the RDQ was -1.65 (p = 0.177, SD = 6.96). There was no improvement demonstrated between Phase I and Phase II in regards to the introduction of the computer decision support software.</p>

<p> Smart spaces are physical environments equipped with pervasive technology that sense and react to human activities and changes in the environment. End User Development (EUD) skills vary significantly among end users who want to design, develop and deploy software applications for their smart spaces. Typical end user development is opportunistic, requirements are usually unplanned and undocumented, applications are simplistic in nature, design is ad-hoc, reuse is limited, and software testing is typically haphazard, leading to many quality issues. On the other hand, technical end users with advanced EUD skills and domain expertise have the ability to create sophisticated software applications for smart spaces that are well designed and tested.</p><p> This research presents a systematic approach for adopting reuse in end user development for smart spaces by using Software Product Line (SPL) concepts. End User (EU) SPL Designers (who are technical end users and domain experts) design and develop EU SPLs for smart spaces whereas less technical end users derive their individual smart space applications from these SPLs. Incorporating SPL concepts in EUD for smart spaces makes it easier for novice end users to derive applications for their spaces without having to interface directly with devices, networks, programming logic, etc. End users only have to select and configure the EU SPL features needed for their space. Another benefit of this approach is that it promotes reuse. End user requirements are mapped to product line features that are realized by common, optional, and variant components available in smart spaces. Product line features and the corresponding component product line architecture can then be used to derive EU applications. Derived EU applications can then be deployed to different smart spaces, thereby avoiding end users having to create EU applications from scratch. Finally the proposed approach has the potential of improving software quality since testing will be an integral part of EU SPL process.</p><p> In particular, this research has: (a) defined a systematic approach for EU SPL Designers to design and develop EU SPLs, (b) provided an EU SPL application derivation approach to enable end users to derive software applications for their spaces, (c) designed an EU SPL meta-model to capture the underlying representation of EU SPL and derived application artifacts in terms of meta-classes and relationships that supports different EUD platforms, (d) designed and implemented an EUD development environment that supports EU SPL development and application derivation, and (e) provided a testing approach and framework for systematic testing of EU SPLs and derived applications.</p>

<p> This paper will examine how the organizational structures of the U.S. military and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) evolved to address the proliferating array of cyber threats. One of the gaps in military cybersecurity is the growing demand for qualified cyber security personnel. Estonia and other countries have employed all-volunteer cyber militias to help protect national security during emergencies. However, the U.S. and NATO are not in the political or legal position to rely upon an all-civilian group. Utilizing Thomas Malone's framework for business, the U.S. military and NATO could abandon their traditional hierarchies and embrace a centralized market model in order to delegate some of their cybersecurity tasks. One way to decentralize their structures is to modify the Estonian Cyber Defense League model by further implementing their reserves systems. They could hire skilled civilian technology professionals through their reserves, eventually creating Cyber Defense Leagues that are primarily comprised of non-commissioned officers.</p>

<p> Lack of information is a serious concern for clinicians. Information resources can address this problem, leading to improvements in decision making and patient outcomes. Genomics is an information-rich domain where searching for information can be complex. For example, most physicians agree that pharmacogenomics can be used to improve the quality of care, and there is evidence that many patients harbor actionable pharmacogenomic variation. However, surveys have shown that physicians feel their knowledge of pharmacogenomics to be inadequate. This represents an information need. A natural approach to meet this need is to provide context-aware access to the precise information needed. The Health Level 7 Context-Aware Knowledge Retrieval Standard, a.k.a the Infobutton, offers a modality to deliver context-aware knowledge into electronic health record (EHR) systems. OpenInfobutton is a reference implementation of this standard that offers an open-source instantiation. In this thesis, we aimed to provide insight into pharmacogenomics information needs and an automated mechanism for addressing these needs. Such work can aid the design of tools that support clinical decisions in genomics.</p>