Botnets remain a potent threat due to evolving modern architectures, inadequate remediation methods, and inaccurate measurement techniques. In response, this research exposes the architectures and operations of two advanced botnets, techniques to enumerate infected hosts, and pursues the scientific refinement of infected-host enumeration data by…

It was just a generation ago that computers entered the workplace. Back then, they only "represented" the work we did, nothing else. But today, some sort of computing device is involved in how we play, how we communicate, how we get our news and of course, how we work. What this means is that today almost all aspects of our lives are "represented"…

This dissertation describes a line of research that addresses translational research questions related to the use of computerized simulation to affect the knowledge, beliefs, motivation and self-management behaviors of individuals with chronic disease. The specific research projects focus on type 2 diabetes (T2DM) and physical activity as…

Open Source Software (OSS) communities are homogenous and their lack of diversity is of concern to many within this field. This problem is becoming more pronounced as it is the practice of many technology companies to use OSS participation as a factor in the hiring process, disadvantaging those who are not a part of this community. We should…

Research that examines diachronic change and modality posit that modal verbs follow certain universal paths of development (e.g. Cornillie, 2007; Bybee & Fleischman, 1995; Bybee, Perkins & Pagliuca, 1994). The present study examines the development of Spanish modality in Mexico through the use of multivariate analyses, relative…

Impetus to study how leaders of academic institutions navigate change is a contemporary challenge and opportunity. Understanding a case study of one institution's experience of change strategies through two significant events offers the opportunity to understand leadership and change in light of theoretical perspectives about change in higher…

Although the two-year curriculum guide includes coverage of all eight software engineering core topics, the computer science courses taught in Alabama community colleges limit student exposure to the programming, or coding, phase of the software development lifecycle and offer little experience in requirements analysis, design, testing, and…

This thesis describes new approaches to the formal modeling of narrative discourse. Although narratives of all kinds are ubiquitous in daily life, contemporary text processing techniques typically do not leverage the aspects that separate narrative from expository discourse. We describe two approaches to the problem. The first approach considers…

Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) are institutions developed to educate minority students. Several HBCUs expanded and opened nursing programs to educate more minority nurses in the nursing profession. The challenge of HBCUs is to consistently meet the Board of Nursing requirements; this warranted further exploration of reasons…

A single subject study with multiple baselines across participants was used to explore the effect of giving access to picture-to-text software for writing to young students, with moderate autism, and documented difficulties with written language. For this intervention study, three participants, who had strengths in visual processing and who were…

The role of a graduate-level academic advisor is essential to all levels of higher education. With the introduction of the Post 9/11 GI Bill, there has been an influx of military and student veterans enrolling in postsecondary and graduate-level education programs. The role of the academic advisor has increased significantly with the influx of…

Improvements in Information Technology (IT) infrastructure and standardization of interoperability standards among heterogeneous Information System (IS) applications have brought a paradigm shift in the way an IS application could be used and delivered. Not only an IS application can be built using standardized component but also parts of it can…

This study was designed with the overall goal of understanding how difficulties in reading comprehension are associated with early adolescents' performance in large-scale assessments in subject domains including science and civic-related social studies. The current study extended previous research by taking a cognition-centered approach based on…

Research suggests a linkage between the academic success of culturally and linguistically diverse students and the cultural competence practice and behaviors of educators. Attention in the available research is given to urban school districts with a large population of culturally and linguistically diverse students and the relationships between…

In this study, the author examined the instructional and leadership practices of STEM faculty and leaders at a private university on the West Coast. The author seeks to (a) explore the building of university's capacity to support students with ADHD in STEM disciplines, (b) analyze promising leadership and instructional practices to support…