Three Essays on Information Security Breaches and Big Data Analytics: Accounting and Auditing Perspective

The dissertation examines two separate yet significant Information Technology (IT) issues: one dealing with IT risk and the other involving the adoption of IT. The IT risks that the dissertation focuses are information security breaches and the adoption/outsourcing of big data analytics. Using competitive dynamics theory and the theory of information transfer, the dissertation examines whether there is a spillover effect from information security breaches of breached firms to those firms’ rivals. Market reaction from spillover effects is captured from market activity and information asymmetry. The results suggest that the market of rival firms react to the focal firm’s experience of a data breach. However, the overall effects of data breaches on rival firms are the opposite to those to focal firms, although in many cases rival firms also experience negative reactions in the financial markets. Specifically, the results suggest that the characteristics of data breach types and previous data breach histories of focal firms have implications for rivals. However, strong information technology governance capabilities of rivals play a shielding role in mitigating those negative effects. The dissertation also examines the adoption of big data analytics by Internal Audit Function (IAF). Particularly, the dissertation examines the implications of data analytics challenges to the adoption of big data analytics by IAF. The results suggest that dataspecific IT knowledge rather than general IT knowledge is a significant predictor of adoption of big data analytics. Additionally, critical thinking skills and business knowledge also contributes to the adoption of big data analytics. Furthermore, if IAFs face management challenges, such as fraud risk detection, they are also more likely to adopt big data analytics. Results from interaction effects analysis suggest that Chief Audit Executives (CAEs) with CPA certifications are more likely to adopt big data analytics than the CAEs without CPA certification, when the size of the organization is small, when the size of the IAF is small, or when there is a lack of data-specific IT knowledge or business skills. Another important finding is that when two groups of IAFs have similar size and data-specific IT knowledge, IAFs with fraud detection responsibilities are more likely to adopt big data analytics. Finally, IAFs in Anglo culture countries are more likely to adopt big data analytics than IAFs in non-Anglo culture countries, even when both IAFs have the same size and data-specific IT knowledge. Finally, the dissertation examines the motivation of outsourcing of data analytics by IAF. The results suggest, contrary to conventional wisdom, that economic factors are not a significant predictor. Rather, strategic and sociological factors are significant in predicting the outsourcing of big data analytics. Specifically, IAFs outsource big data analytics when they lack data skills and are tasked with fraud risk management. Additionally, the role Chief Audit Executives (CAEs) is also significant. There is also a cultural variation of the outsourcing decision: IAFs from developing nations are more likely to outsource than are the IAFs from the developed countries. Further analysis of the interaction effects of these significant variables suggests that as the data skills of IAFs increase, the conditional difference of the likelihood of outsourcing decreases, suggesting that IAFs recognize both the value of data analytics and their lack of competencies. The three-way interactions of the variables support the same conclusion. The findings have implications about the formation of effective internal controls designed to mitigate the risks in the outsourcing decision. Moreover, external auditors will find the results useful when they evaluate the competence and objectivity of IAFs before they rely on their work

ELECTROMAGNETIC SURVEY DESIGN USING ARTIFICAL NEURAL NETWORKS

Acquiring geophysical information requires selection of the geophysical method based upon the defining physical property and a survey design with adequate resolution but cost effective based upon the size of the area to be surveyed. The objective of this study is to use artificial neural nets (ANNs) to design an optimal survey. The developed approach is tested for the case of soil pipe surveying using electromagnetics. Soil pipes are tortuous voids located within 1.5 m depth of the ground surface. They trend perpendicular to the slope and have cross-sectional dimensions on the order of millimeters to tens of centimeters. The contrast in electrical conductivity (EC) is significant especially if the soil pipe is filled with air. Based upon these characteristics an EM38B is chosen to survey the area. The EM38B is relatively fast and its maximum exploration depth is approximately 1.5m. The measured apparent electrical conductivity (ECa) is a dipole dependent weighted average over a soil volume of about 1m3. A benchmark high resolution survey was conducted having a 2D cross grid pattern with a 0.5m line spacing to ensure an overlap of soil volume being interrogated. The benchmark data set is then decimated (7 options) based upon orientation and line spacing options to simulate various surveying patterns. ANN models are developed using the various reduced datasets. The quantile method is used to generate a table to guide the choice of survey for a given ECa range. To validate the concept, an exercise is conducted starting with a reconnaissance survey consisting of a few lines based on surface features of soil pipes. Using the table as a guide, a survey plan is proposed and the ANN models are created using this data set. The measured and model generated data are used to create the 2D ECa map using kriging interpolation. This map is in good agreement with the benchmark ECa map, although the second map required 60% less data

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT POLICY AND ECONOMIC GROWTH IN THE AMERICAN STATES

The American states routinely adopt various economic development policies but those policies do not always contribute to economic growth in the state. Scholars identify several reasons to explain why the policies do not always work. First, policies that do not address market demand; rather, provide economic incentives to bring inward industrial investments do not contribute to economic growth because the cost it takes to create jobs by such industrial recruitments is too high. Second, policies that are adopted out of inertia chosen from traditionally practiced policies do not work because they are not evaluated for their effectiveness in terms of meeting the current and future market demand. Third, policies that are adopted because neighboring or ideologically congruent states adopt them do not work because the appropriateness of a particular policy may not be the same in the pioneer and the follower states. These reasons imply that economic development policies that are not new enough to meet the current market demand, that are not helpful to promoting in-state entrepreneurship, that are designed to help out-of-state firms in extending their branch-plants, and that are inappropriate in terms of the home conditions can be ineffective for economic growth. I conduct empirical testing to examine these four expectations and the results suggest that innovative economic development policies, entrepreneurial policies, and policies that are congruent to the state’s industrial strength lead to economic growth, but policies that are meant for industrial recruitments lead to leakage from the state’s economy

An Analysis of Factors Affecting on Online Shopping Behavior of Consumers

The purpose of this study is to analyze factors affecting on online shopping behavior of consumers that might be one of the most important issues of e-commerce and marketing field. However, there is very limited knowledge about online consumer behavior because it is a complicated socio-technical phenomenon and involves too many factors. One of the objectives of this study is covering the shortcomings of previous studies that didn't examine main factors that influence on online shopping behavior. This goal has been followed by using a model examining the impact of perceived risks, infrastructural variables and return policy on attitude toward online shopping behavior and subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, domain specific innovativeness and attitude on online shopping behavior as the hypotheses of study. To investigate these hypotheses 200 questionnaires dispersed among online stores of Iran. Respondents to the questionnaire were consumers of online stores in Iran which randomly selected. Finally regression analysis was used on data in order to test hypothesizes of study. This study can be considered as an applied research from purpose perspective and descriptive-survey with regard to the nature and method (type of correlation). The study identified that financial risks and non-delivery risk negatively affected attitude toward online shopping. Results also indicated that domain specific innovativeness and subjective norms positively affect online shopping behavior. Furthermore, attitude toward online shopping positively affected online shopping behavior of consumers. Keywords: online shopping, shopping behavior, consumer attitudes, perceived risks, B2C, e-commerce

Dual Tobacco Use in a Random Sample of UK Resident Bangladeshi Men

PhDUK resident Bangladeshi men pose a public health challenge because of their preference for traditional tobacco use along side cigarette smoking. Studies investigating UK black and minority ethnic tobacco use have not had a primary focus on this issue. Furthermore, the extent and nature of dual tobacco use by Bangladeshi men had not been reliably established due to a reliance on self-report and a definitional confusion about paan with and without tobacco. This study aims to establish the prevalence of dual tobacco use by UK resident Bangladeshi men using a random survey design. It also plans to establish baseline information for dual tobacco use against the key determinants of a health inequality model. Psychosocial, health and nicotine related parameters of dual tobacco users are compared with cigarette only smokers and paan tobacco chewers. Risk factors for dual tobacco use have been explored through multivariate analysis. Three hundred and twenty-five men of Bangladeshi origin were randomly selected using the Tower Hamlets Electoral Register and interviewed at home using a pre piloted questionnaire incorporating items used in other relevant UK studies. Expired carbon monoxide readings were recorded using a Bedfont CO monitor. Dual tobacco was used by 22% of the sample, while 36% smoked cigarette only, 70/0 chewed paan tobacco only, and 350/0 did not use any form of tobacco. When dual tobacco users were compared with the cigarette smokers in bivariate analysis, there were significant differences in terms of self reported social class, age, education, employment, and heath status. A multivariate analysis controlling for age, education status, social class, self reported health and social capital scores showed tha1 only wife's tobacco use predicted dual tobacco use (OR=6.3). The findings from this study confirm the diversity and social nature of dual tobacco use by UK Bangladeshi men. These observations need to be considered and integrated into the development and implementation of tobacco cessation interventions for UK Bangladeshi adults in public health programs

Creating Opportunities to Developing Leadership in Private Sector Enterprises of Bangladesh-A Study in Airlines/ Shipping/Freight Forwarding Industry

Developing and nurturing leadership is become very popular concept now a days. Big corporation at least understand the hidden benefit of focusing into this very important agenda for long term sustainability of business. We have experienced that organizations is automatically moving even if there is sudden demise of the owner. It happens because of the system developed through creating, retaining and nurturing leadership to create successor within the organizations. Over the years, the mind set was isolated with one man show to run everything by one individual regrettable when the owner is the signatory of all bills and vouchers to strategic decisions. This point probably gets more focus when the employee also understands and realized the necessity of growth and advancement in professions. So the perception and reality is a win-win expectation arises behind the focus to creating leadership opportunities in organizations. This article exhibits the means and opportunities to creating, developing & nurturing leadership by private sector organizations in Bangladesh giving a particular focus in airlines, shipping lines & supply chain and freight forwarding logistics companies working in Bangladesh as international joint –venture and licensing agents. This also focused on the factors related with the Leadership development, the end benefit that organizations dreamt to attain from leadership development and suggestion to take more initiatives in particular attentions. The article has been designed through structures questionnaire from about 150 employees of midlevel, senior level, and executive level including human resources managers on the employee views on current practices. The hypothesis developed in four grades related to the study objective. There is group discussion and practical work experiences of the author with one of the largest supply chain and freight forwarding logistics company operating in 21 countries around the globe. The data has been presented in an understandable way of descriptive analysis through mean, mode and standard deviation so that it might be more meaningful to contribute the relevancy of the study. Keywords: Leadership, feedback, technique, airlines, shipping lines, freight forwardin

A Critical Analysis of Censorship Law and Bangladeshi Film

Personally, I am one of the biggest fans of film from my very childhood.  Especially I am the audience of Bangladeshi film. When I first met with television at that time the film was telecasted in Bangladesh television in every 15 days. These 15 days seemed like a thousand years. Normally at that time Bangladesh television was telecasted the film of early 70’s and 80’s (it is called the golden time of Bangladeshi film). Sareng bou, jibon theke neya, father, golapi ekhon train e, ora egaro jon, vat de, shutorang, behula, nil akasher niche, abar tora manush ho type film made me the biggest fan of Bangladeshi film. But when I reached in class 8/9 the total scenario was changed radically. Vulgarity in film, cut peace etc made the nasty environment. Someone came from cinema hall was not expected from our society. Sometimes it indicated the less personality of him! I felt sorry for that. From that time we lost our film market rapidly. We transfer the responsibility of entertainment to the big shoulder of television. Specifically a 14” to 32” television captured our every taste of entertainment. Specifically Indian serial exploit us. Those who declared themselves as a smart and intellectual audience heavily relied on toliwood movies. Almost the same story of Kolkata movies grasps the cinema field of Bangladesh. Bangladeshi film lost its own journey. A lot of critics and Bangladeshi film lover think that the then censors board, its official’s o censorship laws are the main culprit for that situation. The main aim of this article is to identify the real fact behind it. To identify the responsibility of the officials of the censor board, the application of the law and the maturity of censorship law of Bangladeshi film. My desire is not really made some harsh criticism of our censorship law and Bangladeshi film, but to give some suggestion to change the present scenario of our beloved medium of entertainment. Keywords: Censorship law, Bangladeshi film, censor board, limitations

Comprehensive proteome and phosproteome analysis of human LRRK2 Drosophila model of Parkinson's disease

Gene mutations in the leucine-rich repeat kinase 2 (LRRK2) are the most common cause of autosomal dominant Parkinson`s Disease (PD) and elevated levels of hLRRK2 mutant variants in Drosophila induces PD. Here, we introduced the human LRRK2 (R1441C) variant in dopaminergic neurons of flies and observed a reduced locomotor activity, an age dependent degeneration of dopaminergic neurons, and shorter lifetime. To better understand the hLRRK2 (R1441C) induced pathobiology, we performed stable isotope labeling in fly to accurately quantify the proteome and phosphoproteome dynamics. We quantified almost 3000 proteins and found several regulated cytoskeletal, mitochondrial, and synaptic vesicle (SV) proteins in our PD fly model. To explore the hLRRK2 (R1441C) function more precisely, we compared our model to three different alpha-Synuclein overexpressing fly strains (WT,A30P, A53T), which show a similar PD phenotype. For example, synaptotagmin, syntaxin and rab3 were only affected in hLRRK2 (R1441C) flies compared to all other tested fly strains. Moreover, our global phosphoproteome analysis revealed several synaptic vesicle proteins with enhanced phosphorylation, including synaptojanin (pT1131) and the microtubule-associated protein futsch (pS4106). Consistently, a protein-protein interaction screen confirmed that hLRRK2 is tightly associated with synaptic vesicle proteins. Thus, our results provide a systemic view on the pathobiology mechanism caused by hLRRK and S overexpression and suggest that the increased kinase activity of the hLRRK2 (R1441C) mutant results in enhanced phosphorylation of synaptojanin. These findings may contribute to develop new therapeutic strategies to prevent hLRRK2-induced Parkinson disease

Early Age Properties of Zeolite Cementitious Materials

The cement industry is recognized as being responsible for a large amount of CO2 emission during the production of portland cement. In order to minimize CO2 emissions by limiting the use of cement, natural pozzolans may be a sustainable solution for making concrete. One such natural pozzolan is alumina-silicate based clinoptilolite type of natural zeolite. It has three dimensional crystalline frame structures with extremely small pores having alkali and alkaline earth cations. In the present research, application of natural zeolite as a supplementary cementitious material for producing durable concrete has been investigated. In this respect, clinoptilolite zeolite with very high purity (97%) replaced portland cement at 0, 5, 10, 15, and 20% by mass. Setting time, workability, as well as heat of hydration of paste via isothermal calorimetry was conducted to assess the effects on early age properties. Research results revealed that replacement of zeolite increase the demand for water in the fresh mixture, although this situation can be overcome by adding low amount of high range water reducing admixture without any segregation. Research results also shown that zeolite accelerates the setting time due to the nucleation effect of C-S-H precipitation. Additionally, replacement of portland cement with zeolite can produce lower heat of hydration in the cementitious paste due to adsorption of water by its grain along with slow dissolution process of the fresh mixture. However, from practical point view, incorporation of 15% natural zeolite was found as an appropriate option for improving the early age properties

Data warehouse stream view update with hash filter.

A data warehouse usually contains large amounts of information representing an integration of base data from one or more external data sources over a long period of time to provide fast-query response time. It stores materialized views which provide aggregation (SUM, MIX, MIN, COUNT and AVG) on some measure attributes of interest for data warehouse users. The process of updating materialized views in response to the modification of the base data is called materialized view maintenance. Some data warehouse application domains, like stock markets, credit cards, automated banking and web log domains depend on data sources updated as continuous streams of data. In particular, electronic stock trading markets such as the NASDAQ, generate large volumes of data, in bursts that are up to 4,200 messages per second. This thesis proposes a new view maintenance algorithm (StreamVup), which improves on semi join methods by using hash filters. The new algorithm first, reduce the amount of bytes transported through the network for streams tuples, and secondly reduces the cost of join operations during view update by eliminating the recompution of view updates caused by newly arriving duplicate tuples. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)Dept. of Computer Science. Paper copy at Leddy Library: Theses & Major Papers - Basement, West Bldg. / Call Number: Thesis2003 .I85. Source: Masters Abstracts International, Volume: 42-05, page: 1753. Adviser: C. I. Ezeife. Thesis (M.Sc.)--University of Windsor (Canada), 2003