Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are the backbone of the global economy, constituting 90% of all businesses. Despite being widely adopted by large businesses who have reported numerous benefits including increased profitability and increased efficiency and a survey in 2017 of 50 Fortune 1000 and leading firms’ executives indicated that 48.4% of respondents confirmed they are achieving measurable results from their Big Data investments, with 80.7% confirming that they have generated business. Big Data Analytics is adopted by only 10% of SMEs. The paper outlines a review of Big Data Maturity Models and discusses their positive features and limitations. Previous research has analysed the barriers to adoption of Big Data Analytics in SMEs and a scoring tool has been developed to help SMEs adopt Big Data Analytics. The paper demonstrates that the scoring tool could be translated and compared to a Maturity Model to provide a visual representation of Big Data Analytics maturity and help SMEs to understand where they are on the journey. The paper outlines a case study to show a comparison to provide intuitive visual model to assist top management to improve their competitive advantage.

Sentiment analysis is a critical component in natural language processing applications, particularly for text classification. By employing state-of-the-art techniques such as ensemble methods, transfer learning and deep learning architectures, our methodology significantly enhances the robustness and precision of sentiment predictions. We systematically investigate the impact of various NLP models, including recurrent neural networks and transformer-based architectures, on sentiment classification tasks. Furthermore, we introduce a novel ensemble method that combines the strengths of multiple classifiers to improve the predictive ability of the system. The results demonstrate the potential of integrating state-of-the-art Natural Language Processing (NLP) models with ensemble classifiers to advance sentiment analysis. This lays the foundation for a more advanced comprehension of textual sentiments in diverse applications.

Farmland security in Nigeria is still a major challenge and existing methods such as building brick fences around the farmland, installing electric fences, setting up deterrent plants with spikey branches or those that have displeasing scents are no longer suitable for farmland security. This paper presents an IoT based farmland intrusion detection model using sensors and computer vision techniques. Passive Infrared (PIR) sensors and camera sensors are mounted in strategic positions on the farm. The PIR sensor senses motion by the radiation of body heat and sends a message to the raspberry pi to trigger the camera to take a picture of the scene. An improved Faster Region Based Convolutional Neural Network is developed and used for object detection and One-shot learning algorithm for face recognition in the case of a person. At the end of the detection and recognition stage, details of intrusion are sent to the farm owner through text message and email notification. The raspberry pi also turns on the wade off system to divert an intruding animal away. The model achieved an improved accuracy of 92.5% compared to previous methods and effectively controlled illegal entry into a farmland.

Education is a field that utilizes information technology to support academic and operational activities. One of the technologies widely used in the education sector is web-based applications. Web-based technologies are vulnerable to exploitation by attackers, which highlights the importance of ensuring strong security measures in web-based systems. As an educational organization, Udayana University utilizes a web-based application called OASE. OASE, being a web-based system, requires thorough security verification. Penetration testing is conducted to assess the security of OASE. This testing can be performed using the ISSAF and OSSTMM frameworks. The penetration testing based on the ISSAF framework consists of 9 steps, while the OSSTMM framework consists of 7 steps for assessment. The results of the OASE penetration testing revealed several system vulnerabilities. Throughout the ISSAF phases, only 4 vulnerabilities and 3 information-level vulnerabilities were identified in the final testing results of OASE. Recommendations for addressing these vulnerabilities are provided as follows. Implement a Web Application Firewall (WAF) to reduce the risk of common web attacks in the OASE web application. input and output validation to prevent the injection of malicious scripts addressing the stored XSS vulnerability. Update the server software regularly and directory permission checks to eliminate unnecessary information files and prevent unauthorized access. Configure a content security policy on the web server to ensure mitigation and prevent potential exploitation by attackers.

In the lightning-quick world of software development, it is essential to find the most effective and efficient development methodology. This thesis represents "Scrum Spiral" which is an improved hybrid software development model that combines the features of Scrum and Spiral approach to enhance the software development process. This thesis aims to identify the usefulness of "ScrumSpiral" methodology and compare it with other hybrid software development models to encourage its use in software development projects. To develop this hybrid model, we did extensive research on the software engineering domain and decided to create a hybrid model by using Scrum and Spiral, named "Scrum Spiral" which is suitable for complicated projects and also for those projects whose requirements are not fixed. Traditional software development models face numerous challenges in rapidly changing markets. By developing this kind of hybrid model, we want to overcome these kinds of limitations and present the software development community with a novel concept for better project results. Final outcome of this thesis was that we developed a model that should be able to complete the project according to the expected schedule, satisfy customer requirements, and obtain productivity through team coordination. The significance of the hybrid model "Scrum Spiral" is reflected in its ability to offer flexibility towards various size projects, proactive risk management to identify all risks before developing the system, and result in higher-quality outcomes for those projects whose requirements are not properly described initially in the project.