identifier: Gauvreau, C.-Sophie  (2018) The impact of climate change on two temperate tree species of maple in urban areas of Canada.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
ABSTRACT
The Impact of Climate Change on Two Temperate Tree Species of Maple in Urban Areas of Canada

C.-Sophie Gauvreau

The flowering responses of many trees are affected by climate change.  In the long term, a species’ survival rests on its ability to produce seeds.  Phenological events such as budburst or flowering are an effective variable to assess the effect of climate change, as these events are mainly controlled by temperature.  This study aims to examine the effect of climate change on two anemophilous tree species with early spring pollen onset, the silver maple and the Manitoba maple, in mid-latitude Canadian cities.  I used pollen season onset date and meteorological data from various urban areas in Canada to assess the impact of climate change on the timing of pollen release onset.   The first part of the analysis used linear regression models and the second part used linear mixed-effect models along with different degree-day functions to estimate the effect of winter and spring temperature.
The results showed a strong correlation between mean monthly air temperature during spring and pollen season onset as well as heating degree-days accumulated during the quiescence phase of the yearly biological cycle of the two species, in March and April.  This suggest that changing spring temperatures may already be having an effect on the timing of pollen onset and we may expect this to continue as temperatures continue to increase.
Keywords: Phenology – Aerobiology – Temperature – Climate Change – Pollen – Linear Regression – Mixed-Effect Models - Flowering – Canada


identifier: Sherman, Stephen  (2018) Being Underground.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

title: Being Underground

type: Thesis NonPeerReviewed

abstract: This thesis examines the social world of a Montreal music scene. Using the concept of scene as an organizing principal, I engage in an ethnography of the socio-cultural formation of the alternative techno scene. Methodologies of depth interviewing and sensuous ethnography are employed. Analysis of this data relies on affect theory and queer theory, and I incorporate thinking on the movement and intersection of socio-cultural forms within the social landscape. I argue that scene participants innovate by affirming and exploring affective and productive bonds that represent social and cultural otherness.


identifier: AlHilani, Mariam  (2018) On Certain Techniques in Convex Geometry.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: We recall a proof of Mahler's conjecture in R2 and the technique employed to prove it. This technique shows that, by adding new vertices to a convex polygon K, one increases the value of Mahler's functional K --> V (K).V ( K*), thus the minimum of the functional is reached for the convex polygon with least number of vertices. We then study similar techniques in connection to Petty's conjecture in R2 and R3, respectively. Petty's conjecture states that the functional K --> V (Pi K) V^ {n-1}(K) , where K is a compact convex set in Rn, reaches the maximum for the polytope of least vertices in Rn. In R2, we prove that the inequality holds for any convex body K by a similar technique with that of Mahler's problem, which is di�erent from the original proof of Petty's inequality in R2. In R3, we validate the conjecture for a few speci�c cases. More precisely, we compare the value of Petty's functional of a convex body K in Rn, for n = 2 and n = 3, with that of another convex body K' that is obtained by cutting of a vertex of K with a plane, thus introducing more vertices. However, we provide an example that shows that this technique cannot be applied to arbitrary polytopes in R3 to prove Petty's conjecture in this class and then, by approximation, in general.


identifier: Hamouni, Parham  (2018) A Pedestrian Route Choice Model Concerning Quantified Built Environment Factors.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: This thesis builds on a growing body of research that seeks to understand how the built-in environmental attributes of the road network influence pedestrian route choice. Better understanding of these factors can help promotion of walkability. The thesis uses a high-quality GPS dataset of pedestrian trips recorded between October 17 to November 21, 2016, through the MTL Trajet app developed at Concordia University. Trip route characteristics are obtained by matching the GPS traces to a detailed GIS network dataset of road attributes. Additionally, built-in environment factors were captured by scenery quantification and micro-level land use analysis using Google Places API. Scenery was quantified by employing computer vision and machine learning techniques, with help of Google Street View API and deep learning frameworks. A path-size multinomial logit model is used to assess the utility of road and user features. Additionally, to improve prediction accuracy, a set of supervised learning classification techniques, including decision tree, random forest and gradient boosting tree were examined. The analysis of the results shows that the variation in scenery has a significant impact on pedestrians route choice. Additionally, machine learning classification techniques showed significant improvement of the accuracy ratio in comparison to discrete choice modeling framework.


identifier: Ahmadi, Fatemeh ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0353-8856 <https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0353-8856>  (2018) A N-ary sorting system using an Integrated Droplet-Digital Microfluidics (ID2M).  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

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abstract: Droplet microfluidics has the ability to compartmentalize reactions in sub nano-liter (or pico) volumes that can potentially enable millions of distinct biological assays to be performed on individual cells. Typically, there are two main droplet operations that can be performed with these platforms: cell encapsulation and sorting. Droplet sorting has been a means to select a subset of reactions or activities that can be used for further manipulation and it has been used for single cell analysis and directed evolution. But one of the challenges with these techniques is that these are typically binary sorters – i.e. only relying on two sorting channels. This can limit the range of detecting rare events and to sort based on multiple conditions (i.e. more than two conditions). To alleviate this challenge, we have integrated droplet microfluidics with digital microfluidics to enable n-ary sorting techniques, which we call ‘Integrated Droplet-Digital Microfluidics’ (ID2M). Furthermore, our ‘ID2M’ microfluidic technique also allow on-demand droplet creation and droplet mixing which are two other operations that are difficult to perform in current droplet microfluidic platforms. ID2M is integrated to an automation system for on-demand manipulation of droplets and a spectrometer to detect droplet of interest. The ID2M platform has been validated as a robust on-demand screening system by sorting fluorescein droplets of different concentration with an efficiency of ~ 96 %. The device is further demonstrated for sorting tolerant wild-type and yeast mutants to ionic liquid. We propose that this system has the potential to be used for screening different types of cells and for performing directed evolution on chip.


identifier: Parent, Emmanuelle  (2018) Du micro-récit au public intime : la page Facebook de Humans of New York.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Les études de narratifs en ligne de Georgakopoulou et Page observent le micro-récit sur les profils personnels d’un réseau social ou dans de petites communautés en ligne. On y comprend que lorsque l’auditoire est relativement petit, l’usage de ce type de narratif semble un acte dédié au support social et à l’expression personnelle. Qu’arrive-t-il à ces concepts d’affectivité quand on partage le micro-récit à un public de plusieurs millions de personnes? Cette recherche est une étude de cas de la page Facebook de Humans of New York (HoNY), un blogue de photos accompagnées de courts témoignages, qui regroupe plus de 18 millions de mentions J’aime. Une analyse systémique détaille la relation entre les affordances de Facebook, la nature des récits et le sens de connexion personnelle qui se dégage des commentaires. Cette thèse propose que le micro-récit de la page Facebook de Humans of New York entraîne la formation de publics intimes, où les utilisateurs font preuve d’intimité les uns envers les autres, dans un environnement très contrôlé par la plateforme Facebook et l’organisation HoNY. L’identification personnelle et les échanges entre les usagers entraînent un phénomène de normalisation sociale et transforment le micro-récit en outil promotionnel de causes sociales ou de marketing. Malgré l’essence pseudo-ordinaire et affective de ces récits, ils ne représentent pas l’ensemble des New Yorkais et ils nécessitent des mises en garde.


identifier: Yan, PeiJia  (2018) High Precision Hybrid Pulse and Phase-Shift Laser Ranging System.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
With the rapid development of military, aerospace, and precision manufacturing technology, a multitude of situations need to carry out a large-range and high-precision distance measurement. The growth of measurement applications has led to a higher requirement for the laser ranging technology which can be accomplished by using different patterns. At present, the pulse laser ranging method is widely used for medium-range and long-range measurement because of the fast measurement speed and considerable measurement range. However, the ranging precision is low. The short-distance measurement mostly adopts the phase-shift laser ranging method which has high ranging accuracy but limited measurement range. Therefore, the research on lifting the accuracy of pulse laser ranging method and extending the measurement range of the phase-shift laser ranging method will be carried out.
In this thesis, combining the existing pulse laser ranging system and phase-shift laser ranging system, dual-frequency and single-frequency hybrid pulse and phase-shift laser ranging systems are proposed. The basis for solving the current problems of poor measurement precision in pulse laser ranging method and short measurement distance in phase-shift laser ranging method are provided. Also, the designed structures have a broad application prospect in the fields of industrial production, military, and aviation.
At the beginning of the thesis, the principle and characteristics of the current typical laser ranging methods are introduced and analyzed. According to the Fourier Series theory, the spectrum analysis of the pulse signal and the relationship between the pulse signal and the same-frequency sinusoidal signal, the idea of phase-shift laser ranging based on pulse modulation signal is generated. Instead of a continuous sinusoidal signal, the laser is modulated with a periodic pulse signal. Distance measurement by calculating the phase difference on the sinusoidal signal extracted from the pulse signal with the same frequency at the receiving end.
Based on the principle of conventional dual-frequency phase-shift laser ranging method, a dual-frequency pulse laser ranging method is proposed. The distance to be measured is obtained by transmitting two periodic pulse signals with different frequency and then combining the implementation of rough and accurate measurement outcomes. Afterward, a single-frequency pulse laser ranging method is introduced. After receiving the pulse signal, the direct counter method is used to realize rough measurement and phase-shift of the co-frequency sinusoidal signal is utilized to improve the ranging accuracy. This proposed model has the advantages of high ranging precision and long-distance measurement without any other auxiliary frequency.
The accuracy of the phase difference calculation is the most critical element in both the dual-frequency and single-frequency laser ranging systems. Currently, the commonly used phase difference calculation methods operated in phase-shift laser ranging system are digital synchronous detection, fast Fourier transform method, and all phase fast Fourier transform method. Published works have discussed the performance of frequency estimation and initial phase calculation using these approaches. In this thesis, the precision of phase difference measurement based on these methods above is compared. The effects of normalized frequency deviation, white Gaussian noise, harmonics are simulated in MATLAB. Simulation results show that all phase fast Fourier transform method has a superior anti-noise ability so that exceptional accuracy of phase difference measurement can be achieved. Furthermore, as the number of sampling points increases, all phase fast Fourier transform method will obtain a more accurate calculation consequence.
Finally, this thesis carries on the co-simulation test of the designed dual-frequency and single-frequency hybrid pulse and phase-shift laser ranging systems in Optisystem and MATLAB. The transmitting frequencies of pulse signals operated in the dual-frequency method are 15 MHz and 150 KHz. The pulse used in the single-frequency method is set to 15 MHz. In the simulation, the performance of proposed methods is tested by setting various measuring distance. When the number of sampling points is 1024, the standard deviation and ranging error of the dual-frequency method are 3.72 cm and 13.6 cm within 963.15 meters. For the single-frequency method, the results show a 3.78 cm standard deviation and 14.6 cm ranging error. Simulation results illustrate that the proposed ranging methods have lower ranging error compared with recently published works. It means that the combination of the pulse method and the phase-shift method can achieve high-accuracy and long-range measurement.


identifier: Radu, Lilioara  (2018) Student Attitudes Towards NNS ESL Teachers in the Hybrid Context of Quebec.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
ABSTRACT
Student Attitudes Towards Nonnative ESL Teachers in the Hybrid Context of Quebec
Lilioara Radu
This study examined students’ attitudes towards native-speaking anglophone and nonnative francophone and allophone ESL teachers in Quebec, a hybrid context that encompasses characteristics of both EFL and ESL settings. This three-pronged inquiry focused on unveiling students’ attitudes towards their teachers in relation to teachers’ effectiveness in the instruction of specific linguistic skills, such as speaking and grammar, teachers’ pedagogical styles, and teachers’ professional characteristics. A sample of 150 participants representing Grade 10 and 11 high school intermediate-level francophone and allophone students from Montreal rated three teacher types (anglophone, francophone, allophone) in a questionnaire administered over a 75-minutes class period. The results showed that, despite their reduced experience with native-speaking anglophone teachers, students have a more positive attitude towards these teachers than towards nonnative ESL teachers, especially in relation to teacher effectiveness in the teaching of linguistic skills. Also, considering teachers’ and students’ affiliation to the majority (francophone) and minority (allophone) groups, an in-group preference—more clearly visible in the case of francophone students—emerged from the study. Francophone students displayed a more positive attitude towards nonnative francophone teachers. In contrast, allophone students largely did not display stronger preferences towards allophone teachers, most probably because of the heterogeneous makeup of both allophone student and teacher populations. The results generally suggested that, in a hybrid context like Quebec, a shared language between students and teachers, students’ familiarity with teachers’ variety of spoken English, and students’ social identity and accommodation-related behaviours may all impact students’ attitudes towards their teachers.


identifier: Khosravifar, Sama  (2018) Anomaly Detection Using Multi Agent Systems.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Daily access to Internet, increase in number of users, and newly discovered violations of policies, have become much more frequent over the last few decades as technology advances. Learning how to recognize these new violations as well as facing these new violations are two parallel concepts. There exist approaches that detect these violations often called intrusions or anomalies. A large body of knowledge focuses on developing new algorithms for anomaly detection, determining accurate thresholds for decision making upon detection, and combining different sources of data for increased performance. In this thesis, we propose a multi-agent anomaly detection system, in which agents collaborate with each other to detect anomalies in an effective way. We use multiple agents to set a cost on communication between them, and to make the final decision based on the combined results of all agents. Unlike other approaches, since our proposed approach is flexible in terms of the number of agents, so it will not fail while using fewer agents, or some agents fail to perform.
The key elements in our approach are in using system call based datasets, deciding on the number of agents, and their methodologies, as well as the cost for communication between the agents. The final result of the system might ignore agents if they are not providing feedback that will result in higher accuracy of anomaly detection. We analyze the results by plotting a Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curve and focusing on the Area Under the Curve (AUC) using different thresholds. We make the final decision based on the most suitable threshold for agents.


identifier: Schmitt, Ryan  (2018) “The New World Information and Communications Order”: Revisiting an International Debate over News Media in the Context of Ascending Neoliberalism.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
This thesis investigates a debate that took place from 1975-1985, largely within the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), over the international flow of information and news media. This work looks closely at two key phases in the confrontation. The first, taking place from 1975-1980, can be characterized as the rise, and early success, of a Third World movement to create a more equitable flow of information on the global stage. This moment witnessed the successful attempt by nations of the Third World to both politically problematize the imbalanced flow of information, while at the same time to bolster practical and technical avenues of communication. Unesco, under the helm of Director-General Amadou M’Bow, was central in coordinating, funding and lending moral support, both to technical and normative transformations. In this first phase, the Western bloc responded to the Global South with a “Marshall Plan” approach. This plan was characterized by passive negotiation, attempting to delay the more radical Third World voices in the realm of information and media by placating moderate critics; this was enacted by offering a decidedly non-political material transfer of funds, technology and manpower.
The second phase of this debate, beginning in 1981, showcases how the Western bloc warded off significant transformations in the realm of information and communication through a successful campaign against the “inappropriately politicized” Global South. Unesco quickly became the main target of opprobrium. The election of Ronald Reagan marked a turning point from American accommodation and engagement to outright hostility and disengagement. The Reagan administration began to pursue legislation and international declarations to coordinate resistance to the normative critiques emanating from the Third World. As this show of force failed to alter the course of Unesco and the Third World, Reagan vowed to withdraw from the agency. The United States officially withdrew its membership on January 1, 1985.
In the end, Unesco found itself hamstrung by the precipitous reduction of funding and legitimacy that came with the shocking news of withdrawal. Although the United States was willing to aid and fund the development of media technology and institutions throughout the world - notably through NGOs such as the World Press Freedom Committee and Freedom House - the debate over the “politics” of information was effectively precluded as the neoliberal consensus of “information as commodity” became universally accepted.


identifier: Jafari, Behzad  (2018) WHOLE SPACECRAFT VIBRATION ISOLATION: A COMPARISON OF PASSIVE VS. SEMI-ACTIVE ISOLATION DESIGNS.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: The launch phase is the harshest mechanical environment a spacecraft experiences through its lifetime. The severity of the vibrations during the launch phase poses a serious challenge for the design of the spacecraft which generally contains many sensitive electronic components. The need to guarantee the launch survival of the spacecraft has instigated a significant amount of research in the field of vibration isolation of the whole spacecraft, which resulted in development of various passive vibration isolation systems and their widespread use since two decades ago. The present study is aimed to analyze the feasibility of implementation of semi-active vibration isolation system instead of a passive one and to compare its potential benefits in attenuating the vibrations transmitted to the sensitive components of the spacecraft during the launch phase. First, the passive system has been studied and a methodology for design optimization of the multi-degree of freedom system in frequency and time domain has been formulated. The optimized passive system is then used as a baseline to compare the performance of the optimal passive isolator with that of a semi-active system. Semi-active control strategies based on Skyhook (SH) and combined Skyhook and Acceleration Driven Damping (SH-ADD) have been utilized to control the damping of the isolator between spacecraft and launch vehicle to attenuate vibration. The results showed that while semi-active system has a significant advantage over passive system to attenuate vibrations when the excitations are harmonic or narrow band, the results are not as promising when broadband random excitation, which is a realistic model of the excitations that the spacecraft experiences during launch, is considered. This calls into question the practical effectiveness of the semi-active system to be used in whole spacecraft vibration isolation system. Further research work with experimental tests are required to verify if semi-active systems can have a practical application in whole spacecraft isolation system.


identifier: Donaldson, Braeden P  (2018) Donaldson, Braeden (2018). The Effect of Perceived Predation on the Neural Development of Convict Cichlids.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Elevated levels of background risk have been shown to elicit changes in behaviour, physiology, morphology, and cognitive function. While there is a growing body of research investigating how various aspects of the environment influence brain growth, research examining neuroplastic responses to local predation is lacking. Using lab-reared convict cichlids (Amitatlania nigrofasciata) as a model species, I tested the hypothesis that neuroplastic responses will vary between two levels of perceived predation risk in both juveniles and adults. In a series of laboratory trials, convict cichlids at two different ontogenetic stages (juveniles and adults) were exposed to either the alarm cues of injured conspecifics (high risk) or distilled water (low risk). When juvenile convict cichlids were exposed to high risk cues, they showed a significant increase in olfactory bulb size (19.7%) compared to the low-risk control. Additionally, all brain regions, when exposed to high risk cues, increased in size when compared to the low risk group: 13.5% in the telencephalon, 20.8% in the optic bulb, 11.9% in the cerebellum, and 18.2% in the hypothalamus. Overall the entire brain increased by 16.2% when compared to the low risk group, however no allometric growth of any single brain region was observed. Unlike the results seen in juveniles 1 day post treatment, examination of adult cichlid brains revealed no difference in olfactory bulb size, or any brain region, between the high and low risk groups. Furthermore, high risk juveniles that were given an 11-day latency period following treatment, showed no significant difference in any brain region, including olfactory bulb size, when compared to those given distilled water. Taken together these results suggest that juvenile cichlids may exhibit a bidirectional neuroplastic response to high risk cues and that these responses are ontogenetically constrained.


identifier: Abu-Thuraia, Hamza  (2018) CFD Analysis of the Influence of Guide Vanes.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Advances in wind power and tidal power have grown considerably to offer a clean and sustainable energy alternative. Nevertheless, distributed small-scale energy production from wind in urban areas has been disappointing due to very low turbine efficiencies. Hence, it is the objective of this thesis to study and analyze the performance of a novel wind turbine design, a seven bladed Savonius vertical axis wind turbine (VAWT), which is horizontally oriented inside a diffuser-shaped shroud with a flange and attached with four deflectable guide vanes, mounted on the top of a building, which is shown to have the potential to achieve higher efficiencies. The flow field over the turbine is analyzed by using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) Software Package of Star CCM+, on a three-dimensional (3D) grid for multiple tip speed ratio (TSR) at four different guide vane angles of 35°, 45°, 55° and 65°, while keeping all vanes open. Another case was analyzed where selected vanes would be open while closing others. In this work, the wind flow directly facing the turbine is studied to compute the coefficient of power Cp. The coefficient of power with detachable guide vane attached was found to be 0.333 at vane angle of 55°. Finally, the most effective case is when the bottom vane is closed compared to the bottom two vanes closed. This case with only one closed vane achieves a maximum Cp value of 0.398.


identifier: Brassard, François  (0026) Temperature drives caste-specific size and shape clines in North American ants.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: What regulates the distribution of plants and animals on Earth remains a long-standing question in ecology and biogeography. Since an organism’s morphology relates to virtually all aspects of its life history, understanding what drives size and shape variation is fundamental to elucidate the factors that limit species distribution. Eusocial insects, especially ants, epitomize morphological variation with their unique castes; workers are typically wingless sterile females whereas queens and males are fertile and winged. Thus, the environment may select for different morphologies in each caste. As such, ants offer a unique opportunity to assess how selection operates on different components of insect societies. Here, I use global climate data and over 40,000 morphometric measurements on multiple species of closely related Formica ants to assess how abiotic factors affect morphology at the continental scale. Specifically, I examine caste-specific variation in morphology along broad-scale climatic gradients. My results show that (1) body size is strongly and positively related to geographic variation in temperature, especially in queens and males (2) temperature drives geographic variation in shape in the worker caste, but not in queens or males. Specifically, workers had relatively thinner and smaller heads in warmer environments, whereas their legs, antennae and thorax were longer. This study highlights the importance of temperature in regulating species distributions and shows the value of simultaneously examining all castes in ant ecology.


identifier: Oubiri, Saber  (2018) Traduire la migration : traduction commentée de quelques chapitres du roman L’Absent de l’arabe vers le français.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
RÉSUMÉ
Traduire la migration : traduction commentée de quelques chapitres du roman
L’Absent de l’arabe vers le français.

Saber Oubiri

                La traduction est fortement liée au phénomène de la migration des personnes. D’ailleurs, plusieurs traductologues et spécialistes en anthropologie, philosophie, sociologie et théorie littéraire ont établi une relation entre les deux notions, entre autres, Moira Inghilleri, Loredana Polezzi, Michael Cronin, Homi Bhabha , Zygmunt Baumanet et Salman Rushdie. En matière de la traduction littéraire, la traduction met en évidence la différence linguistique et notamment culturelle entre la langue du pays d’accueil et celle de l’émigrant et contribue au transfert du bagage culturel de celui-ci. La traduction des textes littéraires présente un grand défi pour le traducteur du fait de sa nature subjective, les figures de style, la charge culturelle, la tonalité et l’esthétique de l’œuvre.
               Le présent travail vise à faire la lumière sur la littérature arabe de la migration, notamment celle présente à Montréal. Pour ce faire, nous avons eu recours à la traduction commentée de quelques chapitres, de l’arabe vers le français, du roman de l’écrivain Anis Ben Ammar, intitulée L’Absent. La traduction commentée nous a permis, d’une part, de soulever en général les différences qui existent entre l’arabe et le français, d’autre part, de discuter des difficultés de la traduction littéraire et en particulier les difficultés que nous avons rencontrées lors de la traduction des chapitres. Dans l’étude traductologique, nous nous sommes basés sur la théorie de la traduction des théoriciens Jean-Paul Vinay (1910-1999) et Jean Darbelnet (1904-1990). Nous avons aussi employé la théorie de traduction d’Eugène Albert Nida (1914-2011).


identifier: Sinha, Hugo ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0284-7195 <https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0284-7195>  (2018) Automating Gene Editing Using Digital Microfluidics to Decipher Cancer Pathways.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Gene-editing techniques such as RNA-guided endonuclease systems are becoming increasingly popular for phenotypic screening. Such screens are normally conducted in arrayed or pooled formats. There has been considerable interest in recent years to find new technological methods for conducting these gene-editing assays. We report here the first digital microfluidic method that can automate arrayed gene-editing in mammalian cells. Functional microfluidic devices were designed and optimized to produce repeatable experiments and validate the relevant biological processes on device. Specifically, this method was useful in culturing lung cancer cells for up to six days, as well as implementing automated gene transfection and knockout procedures. In addition, a standardized imaging pipeline to analyse fluorescently labelled cells was also designed and implemented during these procedures. A gene editing assay for interrogating the MAPK/ERK pathway was performed to show the utility of our platform and to determine the effects of knocking out the RAF1 gene in lung cancer cells. In addition to gene knockout, we also treated the cells with an inhibitor, Sorafenib Tosylate, to determine the effects of enzymatic inhibition. The combination of enzymatic inhibition and guide targeting on device resulted in lower drug concentrations for achieving half-inhibitory effects (IC50) compared to cells treated only with the inhibitor, confirming that lung cancer cells are being successfully edited on the device. We propose that this system will be useful for other types of gene-editing assays and applications related to personalized medicine.


identifier: Nakhle, Wissam ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3367-7504 <https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3367-7504>  (2018) Development of A Rheological Measurement Technique to Study Diffusion in Molten Polystyrene.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Diffusion through polymers impacts a wide range of existing applications, and could create new applications for polymers. Diffusion in polymer melts has gained considerable interest, and its industrial importance has triggered the need for faster measurement techniques. Rheological measurements characterize the behavior of polymeric materials, and are an effective tool to study various aspects of diffusion and interdiffusion in molten polymers. The rheological behavior in the molten state of high density polyethylene exposed to carbon dioxide has been probed under small amplitude oscillatory shear, but relatively few papers have been published on this topic. Results show that SAOS accelerates diffusion, but only a limited number of cases have been reported. This observation provides evidence that SAOS accelerates diffusion, and defines new research directions. This study aims at developing a robust experimental technique and accurate analytical and numerical methods to probe diffusion and interdiffusion in molten polymers. Both approaches can be applied to parallel disk rheometry data, to determine fundamental properties governing the diffusion process in polymer melts. Diffusion of small solvent molecules through molten polystyrene, as well as interdiffusion across a binary polystyrene interface, are studied here. We found that applying SAOS accelerates diffusion, even thought there is no large scale net convection of fluid. At constant temperature, the diffusion coefficient is independent of the oscillation frequency, and at temperatures closer to the glass transition temperature, applying SAOS further accelerates the diffusion.


identifier: Oubiri, Saber  (2018) Traduire la migration : Traduction commentée de quelques chapitres du roman L’Absent de l’arabe vers le français.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.


identifier: Dai, Yubo  (2018) The Impact of Brand Familiarity on Self-Brand Connections, a Mediator between Narrative Ads and Consumers’ Brand Attitudes.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Brands use advertisements that tell a story (i.e., narrative ads) to illustrate the positive outcomes that consumers could achieve by consuming their products. When consumers relate ad narratives to their life stories, a link is expected to build between the brand and the consumers’ self-identity. This self-brand connection is positively related to consumers’ brand attitudes. A different body of literature suggests that consumers tend to have more brand associations that connect to the story elements in narrative ads for a familiar brand rather than an unfamiliar brand. This thesis seeks to contribute to current knowledge by investigating whether and how brand familiarity affects the relation between narrative ads, subsequent self-brand connections, and consumers’ brand attitudes.


identifier: Fibla Gutierrez, Enrique  (2018) A Pedagogical Impulse: Noncommercial Film Cultures in Spain (1931-1936).  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
This dissertation analyzes noncommercial film culture in Spain during the Second Spanish Republic (1931-1936), focusing on the pedagogical efforts of film criticism, nontheatrical, educational, amateur, and political filmmaking, as well as institutional developments associated with these movements. In this short and intense period of time the country experienced unprecedented social transformations and heightened participation of citizens in the public sphere through mass media and cultural initiatives. The images of ecstatic crowds celebrating the advent of the Republic on April 14th, 1931, are a testament to the hopes that the new era brought to those that wanted to break with the country’s unequal and corrupt old order. But it was also a time of unstable governments, resistance to democratic change and social justice, and political radicalization that found a tragic end in the Civil War provoked by Francisco Franco’s failed coup d’état in July 18, 1936.
The emergence, international consolidation, and lasting effects of noncommercial film culture amidst this incredibly convulsive and complex context are the subject of the thesis. In its four chapters I examine the use of film as a tool for cultural and social progress in a country that was avidly looking for new models of political organization and modernization. Specifically, I look at the appeal of Soviet cinema and Socialist modernity for Spanish intellectuals and filmmakers and the influence that this radical film culture had in the later production of propaganda films during the Civil War; the materialist translation of the avant-garde into Spain through transnational networks of film education and critical spectatorship epitomized in the journal Nuestro Cinema created by Juan Piqueras in 1932; the participation of Catalan amateur filmmakers in the emergent international amateur film movement that organized its first international congress in 1935 in Barcelona; and the institutionalization of cinema into state film policies, geopolitical initiatives, and educational programs by the Spanish and Catalan governments during the 1930s.
The aim of the dissertation is, then, to include the Spanish context into 1930s film scholarship, from which it has been largely excluded, showing how it can illuminate new perspectives on the relationship between cinema and modernity, the emergence of film culture, the avant-garde, film education, institutionalization and cinema beyond the commercial screen.


identifier: Sadek, Jack  (2018) Why so stressed? Effects of Challenge, Hindrance, and Threat Stress on Work Engagement.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
The current study expanded the Challenge-Hindrance Model of Stress (Cavanaugh et al., 2000) to also include threat stress (Tuckey et al.,2015) and studied how these different types of stress influence employee work engagement (Schaufeli et al., 2002; Schaufeli et al., 2010). Research has shown that job resources (Bakker & Demerouti, 2008) and personality (Mäkikangas et al.,2013) are important constructs that help explain an employee’s level of work engagement. Therefore, this study analyzed the moderating effects of the job resource, social support (Cobb,1976), and the personality trait, hardiness (Kobasa et al., 1982) known to buffer the effects of stress. A total of 148 employees from an international pharmaceutical service company located in Montreal, Quebec took part in this study. Multiple regression analysis showed that hindrance and threat stress were negatively related to work engagement. Furthermore, social support moderated the relationship between challenge stress and work engagement such that in the presence of social support challenge stress had a significant positive relationship with work engagement. Although the study did not find any significant moderating effects for hardiness, the construct had a high correlation with work engagement. The study expands the literature on stress by differentiating between hindrance and threat stress which in turn expands the challenge-hindrance model. Furthermore, it suggests that hindrance and threat stress are types of stress that practitioners should try to limit, while also suggesting they provide social support for employees when they are faced with a challenge stress, in order for them to stay engaged in their work.

Keywords: work engagement, hardiness, social support, challenge stress, hindrance stress, threat stress


identifier: Maroufian, Seyede Sara  (2018) Winding Function Modeling of Synchronous Reluctance Machines.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
The current electric vehicle market, as well as many other industrial applications, is heavily focused on the application of permanent magnet (PM) machines and induction machines (IM). However the limitations of these two types of electric machines reveal the necessity for further research in the field of electrical machines to substitute the existing types with less expensive, and more fault tolerant machines. The synchronous reluctance machine (SynRM) is a singly excited machine with great potential to replace permanent magnet machines and induction machines in traction, as well as many other industrial applications. The rotor structure is simple and only made of steel laminations, which makes the manufacturing procedure less expensive compared to PM machines and IMs. Moreover the absence of rotor windings and a rotor cage eliminates the rotor copper loss, thus enhancing the efficiency compared to IMs. However, the use of the SynRM has not yet reached the same maturity level of its counterparts and still faces problems like low power density, poor power factor, and limited torque-speed envelope, representing a fertile terrain for research.
The aim of this research is to develop an analytical approach based on the winding function method for modeling, analysis, and design of SynRMs and PM assisted SynRMs. The proposed analytical approach is based on the winding configuration of the machine, and the magnetic characteristics of the rotor topology. It provides insight of the machine’s characteristics, and can be used to apply design modifications on existing SynRMs to improve the performance of future designs. The analytical model is later modified for designing a PM assisted SynRM using AlNiCo magnets, with the aim to improve the power factor and torque density of the regular SynRM.
The self-excitation phenomenon in synchronous reluctance generators (SynRGs) is also investigated and the requirements for the assurance of self-excitation are identified. Therefore in traction applications, and electric vehicles with vehicle to grid (V2G) capability, the possibility of utilizing the onboard SynRM as a power generation unit for emergency situations can be considered. The stand-alone SynRG can also be used as a fault tolerant power generation unit to supply electric power in remote areas.


identifier: Vosoughi, Saeid  (2018) Deep 3D Human Pose Estimation under Partial Body Presence.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: 3D human pose estimation is estimating the position of the main body joints in the 3D space from 2D images. It remains a challenging problem despite being well studied in computer vision domain. This stems from the ambiguity caused by capturing 2D imagery from 3D objects and thus the loss of depth information. 3D human pose estimation is especially challenging when not all the human body is present (visible) in the input 2D image. This work proposes solutions to reconstruct the 3D human pose from a 2D image under partial body presence. Partial body presence includes all the cases in which some of the body's main joints do not fall inside the image. We propose two different deep learning based approaches to address partial body presence: 1) 3D pose estimation from 2D poses estimated from the 2D input image and 2) 3D pose estimation directly from the 2D input image. In both approaches, we use Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN) for regression. These networks are designed and trained to work under partial body presence but output the full 3D human pose (i.e., including not visible joints). In addition, we propose a detection CNN network to detect those joints present in the input image. We then propose to integrate both regression and detection networks so to estimate the partial 3D human pose, in addition to the full 3D human pose estimated by the regression network. Experimental results comparing the performance of the state-of-the-art demonstrate the effectiveness of our approaches under partial body presence. Experimental results also show that the direct regression of the 3D human pose from 2D images yields more accurate estimation compared to having 2D pose estimation as an intermediate stage.


identifier: Bulat, Maxim  (2018) Three dimensional hydrodynamic modelling of the impact of macrophytes in Lake Saint-Pierre.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Aquatic plants (macrophytes) are known to affect flow dynamics by contributing to flow resistance. Most studies on flow-vegetation interactions are performed in laboratory flumes and focus on the flow field around simulated plants. Little research is done at the level of real vegetation patches in water bodies such as Lake Saint-Pierre (LSP), a large fluvial lake of the Saint-Lawrence River in Quebec, Canada. Although some two-dimensional (2D) hydrodynamic models have included additional drag due to macrophytes in natural rivers through an increase in roughness coefficient (Manning’s n), these studies do not well represent the near-zero velocities observed in dense macrophyte zones such as those of LSP. Furthermore, because most submerged plants are flexible and have different growth forms and heights, a three-dimensional (3D) approach may better represent their true impact on the flow field. The objective of this study is to develop a 3D hydrodynamic model (Delft3D) of a large-scale field site with abundant macrophytes (LSP) and investigate to what extent the flow and residence time are affected by macrophytes. Two macrophyte simulation approaches (trachytope and modified k-ε turbulence closure model) were first compared to laboratory experiments from the literature to determine how best to simulate the macrophyte impact on flow dynamics. Results indicated that the modified k-ε turbulence approach better predicted the variability of the flow field. This approach was then used to study the zone at the mouth of the Saint François River in LSP, where an extensive macrophyte zone is present annually. Results showed a marked increase in residence time in the zone affected by macrophytes when using the modified k-ε turbulence closure model compared to the Manning’s n approach, particularly near the bed. An improved agreement with field measured depth-averaged velocity is obtained with this novel approach (correlation coefficient of 0.80 compared to 0.46 with Manning’s n only). In addition, a good fit was obtained between vertical velocity profiles modelled and measured in the macrophyte zone. Sensitivity analysis revealed that the additional drag due to plants was closely associated with plant height, but that plant density played only a minor role in current reduction.  These findings indicate that it is possible to accurately quantify both the horizontal and vertical differences in flow resulting from submerged vegetation in large fluvial systems.


identifier: Vara, Celia  (2018) Fina Miralles' Relacions: Kinesthetic Knowledge and Corporeal Agency.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: By looking at corporeal agency, kinesthesia, and embodiment from a feminist perspective, this dissertation investigates the corporeal emancipatory strategies employed by the Catalonian artist Fina Miralles. It focuses specifically on her series of works from 1972-76, including Sensitiveland, Natura Morta, Fenòmens Atmosfèrics, Translacions, Relacions and Petjades. It argues that producing corporeal sensorial knowledge generated from her experience and movement is a transgressive and emancipatory act (even if only temporarily) in the context of the acute restrictions on body politics during the Franco dictatorship (1935-1975). This dissertation argues that Fina Miralles’ performances explore new corporeal experiences and existences in order to inhabit bodies in new and possibly empowering ways. Her artwork helps to cause a momentary rupture in the chauvinist socialization of the Francoist system that reinforced women’s disembodiment, or their inhabiting objectified bodies. The dissertation then turns to the expressive capacity of the body and its possibilities as a rich source of knowledge (within the body and in the body’s relation with the world) in feminist liberatory processes.  Drawing from my research experience developed in and through the fieldwork and archival stages, the dissertation proposes ways of “doing” research based on “embodied methodologies” (Spatz, 2017), “research-creation” (Chapman and Sawchuck, 2012), “practice as research” (Barrett, 2014), “kinesthetic empathy” (Sklar, 1994; Reynolds & Reason, 2012), and proceeding from a situated feminist approach (Haraway, 1988).


identifier: Ayoobzadeh, Mostafa ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7817-1059 <https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7817-1059>  (2018) Leader Development Outcomes of Relational Mentoring for Mentors.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Mentoring is widely recognized as a beneficial tool to develop new employees or students (i.e., protégés). Though mentors can also benefit from mentoring relationships, this aspect has been largely neglected in the empirical literature. One of the objectives of this dissertation, therefore, was to investigate mentoring outcomes for mentors.  In this dissertation, I focused on leader and leadership development as mentor outcomes. The leadership literature has focused mainly on leadership development through formal training programs, rather than through challenging assignments and daily life experiences such as mentoring others. To fill the research gaps, I proposed and investigated leader development outcomes of relational mentoring for mentors. In particular, I hypothesized improvements in mentor- and leader-related identity, self-efficacy, and motivation, as the mentor outcomes.
Secondly, in this dissertation, I distinguish between traditional and relational mentoring. Mentoring scholars have studied almost exclusively average-quality, exchange-based mentoring relationships (i.e., traditional mentoring) and have overlooked a full continuum of mentoring quality that includes high-quality relationships (i.e., relational mentoring) as well. Therefore, mentoring research needs to incorporate relational mentoring into its exploration.
To test the hypotheses, I conducted three separate studies. First, I conducted two studies with the following objectives: (1) to develop a short-form scale to measure relational mentoring, by reducing the items of the Relational Mentoring Index (RMI; Ragins, 2011) and (2) to examine the validity and reliability of the short-form scale. The results from Study 1 and Study 2 supported the validity and reliability of the short-from scale.
Second, to examine the leader development outcomes for mentors, I implemented a mentoring program and recruited its mentors as the participants of the study. I collected the data at four points in time. The results of Study 3 confirmed that mentors who participated in a formal mentoring program gained many mentor and leader development outcomes. Moreover, the provision of traditional and relational mentoring were related to increases in the development outcomes when treated as separate independent variables. However, when entered in the analyses together, the provision of relational mentoring did not explain more variance in the outcomes over and above traditional mentoring.
This dissertation contributes to the literature by developing a short-form scale to advance research on relational mentoring, putting the emphasis on mentors (rather than protégés), investigating mentoring beyond the average-quality relationships, and connecting the mentoring and leadership development literatures through investigating leader development outcomes for mentors.


identifier: Sharma, Monika  (2018) Data and Simulation Models for Route Optimization in Vehicle Routing Problem.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
The generalization of online commerce to a wide range of industries is transforming customer's practices by removing the requirement of visiting the physical stores. This has made it essential to develop a system to improve pickup/delivery of items ordered online, in particular, to avoid the extra costs associated with failed home pickup/deliveries. This thesis aims to contribute to the development of such a system by developing failure prediction data models and a prototype of a simulator leveraging these models to improve the planning of routes.
We use Random Forest classifier to build failure prediction models. Three data re-sampling strategies are used to address class imbalance issue as the proportion of the failed services is much less than that of the successful ones. To interpret classification results, we extract Association Rules where the antecedent is a set of service features and the consequent is a failed service status. To avoid the memory limitations often caused for large datasets, we design a two-step algorithm to first extract Association Rules on the failed services. Then the limited set of rules are obtained based on the frequencies of the antecedents in the complete dataset and in the dataset containing only failed services.  The simulation model is developed using the SimGrid library. It simulates route generated by the optimization model, introduces random service failures and computes total traveled distance and time.
We obtain good prediction results on the real dataset (aggregated dataset). Our classifier reaches an average sensitivity of 0.7 and an average specificity of 0.7 for the 5 studied types of failure. Association Rules reassert the importance of confirmation calls to prevent failures due to customers not at home, show the importance of the time window size, slack time, and geographical location of the customer for the other failure types, and highlight the effect of the retailer company on several failure types. The simulation model is successfully validated using sample routes. To reduce the occurrence of service failures, our data models could be coupled with optimizers through simulation or used to define counter-measures to be taken by human dispatchers.


identifier: Prevost, Ashlee  (2018) Assessing reproductive success of Atlantic salmon in two restoration programs.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Restoration programs, including reintroductions and supplementations are often used to offset the continued decline of freshwater fish populations. While frequently implemented, few succeed in establishing self-sustaining populations. Some limitations that are thought to impede the success of these programs often stem from genetic and ecological issues due to carry over effects from a captive setting.  These risks often influence the donor populations ability to reproduce in the wild. In this study, we evaluated the reproductive success of Atlantic salmon through genetic parentage analyses from a reintroduction program in two major tributaries of Lake Champlain, USA (Boquet, and Winooski Rivers, NY, VT respectively); as well as four different adult rearing groups (with varying duration of time spent in captivity) from a smolt-to-adult supplementation program and live gene-banking program in the Upper Salmon River, Fundy National Park, NB. We determined that adults which returned to both Lake Champlain tributaries, successfully reproduced in the wild. However, few adults produced the low numbers of surviving offspring sampled in this system. On the other hand, in Fundy National Park, we determined that all adult rearing groups were successful in reproducing in the wild. However, the relative reproductive success of the rearing group that spent the shortest time in captivity was comparable to other groups which spent longer periods of time in captivity. While our results suggested that fish from these restoration programs can reproduce in the wild, adults in both systems had low reproductive success. If this continues over subsequent years, the establishment and long-term persistence of these populations may be difficult to achieve. These studies not only contribute to a greater understanding of the reproductive ability of fish from both programs in the wild, but demonstrate the complexity of these restoration programs and the various factors involved in influencing restoration success.  Therefore, these studies emphasize the importance of combining continued monitoring and an adaptive management to promote re-establishment and long-term persistence in restoration programs.


identifier: Shao, Muxin  (2018) Understanding Chinese Consumers’ and Chinese Immigrants’ Purchase Intention toward Global Brands Using Chinese Elements: The Moderating Role of Acculturation.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Nowadays, it is prevalent that global brands use Chinese elements in their products to attract more consumers and increase market share. However, the relevant research on this topic is still in its infancy. This article aims to investigate the relationship between the three independent variables (cultural pride, cultural compatibility, and Chinese elements authenticity) and the dependent variable (purchase intention) toward the global brands using Chinese elements in their products in Chinese market and North American market. Another aim of this research is to understand how acculturation moderates the relationship between cultural pride and purchase intention, and the relationship between cultural elements authenticity and purchase intention. The findings show that cultural pride, cultural compatibility, and Chinese elements authenticity are positively related to the purchase intention of the global brands’ products with Chinese elements for both Chinese consumers and Chinese immigrants in North America. There is a partial moderation effect of acculturation on the relationship between cultural pride and purchase intention; however, the moderation effect on the relationship between cultural elements authenticity and purchase intention has not been found.

Keywords: Chinese elements; Cultural pride; authenticity; cultural compatibility; moderation; acculturation; global brands.


identifier: Malette, Antoine  (2018) L'Irlande en Québec: résonances joyciennes et représentations irlandaises dans les oeuvres d'Hubert Aquin, Jacques Ferron et Victor-Lévy Beaulieu.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Le Québec et l’Irlande ont longtemps entretenu d’étroites relations. Dès leur arrivée dans la colonie française d’Amérique qui allait devenir le Québec, les immigrants irlandais se sont révélés d’une influence majeure sur le développement sociohistorique de la province. L’expérience partagée des deux groupes – que ce soit du point de vue de leur religion majoritairement catholique, de leurs expériences postcoloniales britanniques ou encore de leurs situations linguistiques particulières – a grandement contribué les unir. Au tournant du XXe siècle, la tendance se renverse lorsqu’un conflit clérical brouille le portrait : l’Irlande, jusqu’alors si présente dans l’imaginaire collectif canadien-français, s’estompe. Ce mémoire défend l’hypothèse que ce n’est qu’au début des années 1960 que l’Irlande refait surface dans l’imaginaire québécois. Cette réapparition coïncide avec la découverte québécoise de l’oeuvre de James Joyce. Très tôt, Hubert Aquin identifie dans le style résolument moderne de l’écrivain irlandais un « potentiel révolutionnaire » pouvant inspirer les écrivains d’ici à donner au Québec une voix propre. Pour le docteur Jacques Ferron, c’est davantage de l’Irlande elle-même dont nous aurions intérêt à nous inspirer. Tant son passé mythique que sa situation présente (qui correspond, dans les années soixante et soixante-dix, à la montée des mouvements pour les droits civiques en Irlande du Nord) en font une nation exemplaire pour l’avenir du Québec. Plusieurs années plus tard, Victor-Lévy Beaulieu synthétise les enseignements d’Aquin et de Ferron en offrant une fresque monumentale de l’influence de Joyce et de la résonance irlandaise sur le Québec, « ce pays souverainement irlandais. »


identifier: Sathiyanarayanan, Ajhay  (2018) Exploring the effect of weather on nighttime road collisions.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Roadway artificial lighting assists drivers to navigate to their final destination at night time. Despite less traffic during such period of time, most fatal accidents occur at dark conditions. Factors such as fatigue, impaired driving, poor visibility and excessive speed contribute to make driving during night more dangerous than any other time of day. The impact of weather conditions on lighting to explain road collisions has not been investigated in the literature. This thesis explores weather at the time of road collisions during nighttime for accidents observed at Victoria Ville in Quebec. Available data encompassed various characteristics including values of illuminance measured during 2014 for the entire network in one night. Values of various lighting parameters were measured again at different weather conditions and attached to the database. Two analyses were conducted: One with the change in lighting conditions for roads in the region and the other without making any changes to understand the impact of weather on visibility issues leading to collisions. Two methods of representation of collisions and various road segment sizes were tested.

The results show that the recommended approach is to consider weather dependent illuminance, luminance and Unified Glare Index values for each individual collision. If the analysis is based on collisions frequency, then 100 meter segments are recommended, if the analysis is based on collisions severity, then 500 meters segments are advisable.


identifier: Hazrati Ashtiani, Iman ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3192-3196 <https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3192-3196>  (2018) Safety investigation of partially filled railway tank cars.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
The adverse effects of liquid cargo slosh on dynamic responses and safety performance of partially filled road vehicles are well known. The general-purpose railway tank car may also encounter partial fill conditions due to variations in density of the liquid cargo and track load limit. The additional slosh forces and moments from the partially filled state of the tank may further affect the wheel-rail forces, dynamic response, and safety of the rail vehicles. The coupled sloshing cargo and vehicle system dynamics have been investigated in only a few studies because of complexity and high computation demand. The objective of this study is to investigate the influence of liquid cargo sloshing on the dynamic performance of railway tank cars. Other than detail modelling, the topics of lateral dynamics, curving performance and switch passing responses of partially filled railway tank cars through a co-simulation approach have been addressed in this dissertation.
The nonlinear damping characteristics of friction wedges in the secondary suspension of a freight wagon are investigated considering non-smooth unilateral contact, multi-axis motions, slip-stick conditions, and geometry of the wedges. The parameters of the contact pairs within the suspension were identified to achieve smooth and efficient numerical solutions while ensuring adequate accuracy. The friction wedge model was integrated into the multibody dynamic model of a three-piece bogie to study the effects of wedge properties on hunting characteristics. The resulting 114-degrees-of-freedom wagon model incorporated constraints due to side bearings, axle boxes, and the centre plates, while the wheel-rail contact forces were obtained using the FastSim algorithm. The simulation results were obtained to study hunting characteristics of the wagon in terms of critical speed and the predominant oscillation frequency. The study also examined the effects of wedge friction and geometry on lateral stability characteristics of the freight car. The results showed subcritical Hopf bifurcation of dynamic responses of the wagon. The parametric study showed an increase in the wedge angle, friction coefficient, and springs free length to yield higher critical speed. The validated dynamic model of the wagon is further used to investigate the effects of liquid sloshing on hunting speed of partly filled tank car. An analytical liquid slosh model is used to capture dynamic response of the liquid cargo in a horizontal cylindrical tank using up to five fundamental modes in the roll plane under lateral as well as yaw motions of the tank car. The liquid slosh model is co-simulated with the comprehensive nonlinear model of a railway tank car to evaluate the lateral dynamic response of the tank car. The results suggest that fill levels and the corresponding slosh forces can adversely affect the lateral stability performance and yield lower critical hunting speed of railway tank car.
The influence of liquid cargo sloshing on the dynamic performance of railway tanker in a typical curve negotiation is further examined using the proposed coupled co-simulation model. The performance measures include car roll angle, unloading of the wheelset and derailment quotient. The results clearly demonstrate that partial state of the tank car and resulting slosh could lead to a significantly larger dynamic response of the system and may result in separation of wheel and rail contact at lower forward speed in comparison to the rigid cargo assumption. Dynamic simulations of partially filled railway tank cars without fluid slosh consideration will thus lead to underestimation of overturning critical conditions on the curving manoeuvres. Above performance measures in a switch-passing manoeuvre is finally examined for different fill ratios and switch geometries. The results obtained for the coupled vehicle and liquid slosh model clearly showed strong interactions between the switch-induced transient liquid slosh and vehicle dynamics for the partial-fill ratio of 60% and less. The effect of fluid slosh on the car body roll angle and wheelset unloading ratio was observed to diminish with fill ratio above 90%. Neglecting the contributions due to dynamic slosh force and roll moment may lead to overestimation of the critical speed in switch-passing manoeuvres if the car is partially filled.


identifier: Jandaghian, Zahra  (2018) Effects of Increasing Surface Reflectivity on Urban Climate, Air Quality and Heat-Related Mortality.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
This dissertation investigates the effects of increasing surface reflectivity (ISR) on urban climate, air quality, and heat-related mortality and some of the details of simulations and modelling. Meteorological and photochemical models are applied to assess the benefits of albedo enhancement in the Greater Montreal Area (GMA, Quebec) in Canada and Sacramento (California), Houston (Texas) and Chicago (Illinois) in the United State.
Mesoscale models are comprised of physical parameterizations (cumulus, microphysics, planetary boundary layer, radiation, and land-surface) that need to be carefully selected to predict weather conditions. A proper simulation platform is essential to have a better understanding of the effects of UHI and its mitigation strategy on urban climate and air quality for environmental policymakers. The sensitivity of near surface air temperature, wind speed, relative humidity and precipitation to different physical models was evaluated by applying the WRF for Greater Montreal Area, Canada for the period 9–11 August 2009. A combination of WDM6 as microphysics estimation, Grell 3D for cumulus scheme, MYJ as planetary boundary layer and RRTMG as radiation scheme, resulted in the least error compared to the measurements. Thus, this combination is suggested as an appropriate platform for urban climate simulations and heat island mitigation strategy in Greater Montreal Area. Increasing the surface albedo of roofs, walls, and pavements from 0.2 to 0.65, 0.60, and 0.45, respectively, resulted in a decrease in 2-m air temperature by 0.2oC in a rainy day and by 0.7 in a sunny day, a slight increase in 10-m wind speed, a decrease in relative humidity by 3%, and a decrease in precipitation by 0.2 mm/day across the domain.
The proper physical parameterizations for Montreal were applied to investigate the effects of increasing surface reflectivity on meteorological parameters (air temperature, wind speed, relative humidity, and dew point temperature), heat stress indices (National Weather Service – Heat Index, apparent temperature, Canadian Humid Index, and Discomfort Index), and heat-related deaths. The simulation domain was the Greater Montreal Area. The simulations were conducted during the 2005 and 2011 heat wave periods. Heat-related mortality correlations were developed for Montreal. The beneficial contributions of albedo enhancement were a decrease in temperature by 0.8oC, an increase in relative humidity by 2%, an increase in dew point temperature by 0.4oC, a slight increase in wind speed, and a decrease in heat-related mortality by 3.2%. Increasing surface reflectivity could save seven lives and improve the level of comfort for urban dwellers.
To assess the effects of increasing surface reflectivity on mitigating urban heat islands and improving air quality, simulations were carried out over a larger geographical area (North America with horizontal resolution of 12km) within nested domains as urban areas (Sacramento in California, Houston in Texas, and Chicago in Illinois with horizontal resolution of 2.4km) in a two-way nested approach by online coupling of chemistry package with the solver of WRF (WRF-Chem). The 2-way nested approach provided an integrated simulation setup to capture the full impacts of meteorological and photochemical reactions and decrease the uncertainties associated with scale separation and grid resolution. The Lin, Goddard, Rapid Radiative Transfer Model, Mellor-Yamada-Janjic and Grell-Devenyi ensemble schemes are respectively selected for microphysics, shortwave radiation, longwave radiation, planetary boundary layer and cumulus parameterization. For anthropogenic and biogenic emission estimations, the models of the United States National Emission Inventory for 2011 (US-NEI11) and Model of Emissions of Gases and Aerosols from Nature (MEGAN) are respectively simulated for the inner domains. The Modal Aerosol Dynamics Model for Europe and Regional Atmospheric Chemistry Mechanism (RACM) are applied to estimate the effects of aerosols on radiation processes and hydrological cycles in the atmosphere and to estimate the gas-phase reactions. Photolysis frequencies are calculated by the Fast_J model scheme. Increasing surface albedo resulted a decrease in air temperature by 2-3oC in urban areas of these three cities. Albedo enhancement resulted in a slight increase in wind speed; an increase in relative humidity (3%) and dew point temperature (0.3oC) during simulation period. Increasing urban reflectivity led to a decrease in PM2.5 and O3 concentrations by 2-4μg/m3 and 4-8 ppb in urban areas of these three cities based on their locations. Sacramento showed a larger reduction in ozone concentration as a result of larger decrease in air temperature because of the heat island mitigation strategy.
The two-way nested approach was employed to investigate the effects of albedo enhancement on aerosol-radiation-cloud (ARC) interactions over the Greater Montreal Area during the 2011 heat wave period. The third domain of simulation covers the GMA with the horizontal resolution of 800m. Four sets of simulations with and without aerosol estimations and convective parameterizations were carried out to explore the direct, semi-direct and indirect effects of aerosols. The physical and chemical parameterizations are modified to be coupled with the Model for Simulating Aerosol Interactions with Chemistry (MOSAIC) aerosol scheme and the Carbon Bond Mechanism (CBM-Z) gas phase chemistry scheme. The Morrison double-moment scheme and the Mellor-Yamada-Janjic scheme are selected as microphysics and planetary boundary layer options, respectively. The Grell-Devenyi ensemble scheme and the rapid radiative transfer model are respectively used for cumulus parameterization and shortwave and longwave radiations. The US-NEI11 and MEGAN are applied to calculate the anthropogenic and biogenic emission estimation, respectively. The Fast-J is used for the photolysis scheme in WRF-Chem. Aerosols cause a decrease in shortwave radiation reaching to the ground (20 Wm-2) and thus reduces the radiation budget (25 Wm-2). The albedo enhancement induced a decrease in air temperature by nearly 0.5oC in Montreal during heat wave period. The relative humidity and water mixing ratio also decreased by 0.5 g/kg and 3%, respectively. Increasing surface reflectivity led to a decrease of 8-h ozone concentrations by 2ppb across the GMA. Reducing temperature induced a reduction in planetary boundary layer height, which reduced the advection and diffusion of pollutants. Hence, reducing planetary boundary layer height increases the pollutant concentrations and assists the O3 and NO reaction rates to produce NO2. The fine particulate matter also decreased by nearly 3 µg/m3 in GMA during simulation period. An increase of albedo led to a net decrease of radiative flux into the ground and therefore a decrease of convective cloud formation.
The comparisons between simulated air temperature using WRF and WRF-Chem with measurements indicated that both models predict the temperature reasonably well. The modeling results indicated that each of these four cities (Montreal, Sacramento, Houston, Chicago) across North America can benefit from increasing surface reflectivity. But, the extent to which surface modification can improve urban climate and air quality effectively depends on meteorology, geography, scale, topography, morphology, land use patterns, the emission rates and mixture of biogenic and anthropogenic pollutants, baseline albedo fraction distribution, and the potential for surface modification in that specific city.


identifier: Moussa, Bassam ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5076-8670 <https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5076-8670>  (2018) Detection and Mitigation of Cyber Attacks on Time Synchronization Protocols for the Smart Grid.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
The current electric grid is considered as one of the greatest engineering achievements of the twentieth century. It has been successful in delivering power to consumers for decades. Nevertheless, the electric grid has recently experienced several blackouts that raised several concerns related to its availability and reliability. The aspiration to provide reliable and efficient energy, and contribute to environment protection through the increasing utilization of renewable energies are driving the need to deploy the grid of the future, the smart grid. It is expected that this grid will be self-healing from power disturbance events, operating resiliently against physical and cyber attack, operating efficiently, and enabling new products and services. All these call for a grid with more Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). As such, power grids are increasingly absorbing ICT technologies to provide efficient, secure and reliable two-way communication to better manage, operate, maintain and control electric grid components.

On the other hand, the successful deployment of the smart grid is predicated on the ability to secure its operations. Such a requirement is of paramount importance especially in the presence of recent cyber security incidents. Furthermore, those incidents are subject to an augment with the increasing integration of ICT technologies and the vulnerabilities they introduce to the grid. The exploitation of these vulnerabilities might lead to attacks that can, for instance, mask the system observability and initiate cascading failures resulting in undesirable and severe consequences.

In this thesis, we explore the security aspects of a key enabling technology in the smart grid, accurate time synchronization. Time synchronization is an immense requirement across the domains of the grid, from generation to transmission, distribution, and consumer premises. We focus on the substation, a basic block of the smart grid system, along with its recommended time synchronization mechanism - the Precision Time Protocol (PTP) - in order to address threats associated with PTP, and propose practical and efficient detection, prevention, mitigation techniques and methodologies that will harden and enhance the security and usability of PTP in a substation. In this respect, we start this thesis with a security assessment of PTP that identifies PTP security concerns, and then address those concerns in the subsequent chapters. We tackle the following main threats associated with PTP: 1) PTP vulnerability to fake timestamp injection through a compromised component 2) PTP vulnerability to the delay attack and 3) The lack of a mechanism that secures the PTP network. Next, and as a direct consequence of the importance of time synchronization in the smart grid, we consider the wide area system to demonstrate the vulnerability of relative data alignment in Phasor Data Concentrators to time synchronization attacks. These problems will be extensively studied throughout this thesis, followed by discussions that highlight open research directions worth further investigations.


identifier: Hegde, Sandesh Rathnavarma ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7888-3729 <https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7888-3729>  (2019) Thermal Cycling of Composite Honeycomb Sandwich Structure for Space Application.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: A spacecraft during its operation, can experience temperature variations as high as ± 185 °C. Materials used in its structure such as carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) solid laminates and sandwich structures with honeycomb core are sensitive to the hostile space environment. One of the most common types of defect is microcracking. This thesis aims to study the effect of thermally induced microcracks on the mechanical property of the composite honeycomb sandwich structure. Composite honeycomb sandwich structure with Kevlar core and facesheet made of carbon fiber/ cyanate ester resin was studied. Sandwich material made of the different core and facesheet thickness were examined to study the thickness effect. To expose the samples to cryogenic temperature, the samples were submerged in Liquid Nitrogen (LN2). To get it elevated temperature, samples were placed in a convection oven. Two different experimental setups for cryogenic conditioning was used, one with accelerated cooling and the other with a slower rate of cooling. This was done to study the effect of the cooling rate on the formation of microcracks. Longitudinal microcracks were primarily observed between the facesheet and core interphase. Microscopic observation was done on two perpendicular polished cross-sections of the samples (ribbon and transverse ribbon directions). Microcracks were quantified using parameters such as crack density and crack length. Flatwise tensile mechanical test was performed on the samples to study the effect of microcracks. Good correlation was made between the crack area and the mechanical strength with the increase in thermal cycles. It is observed that the crack formation get saturated after a number of cycles, avoiding the need to conduct more thermal cycles. Microcrack formation both at the free edge and middle of laminate was observed. The crack density at the middle was comparatively less than the ones found on the free edges. Results for non-contact cooling and direct nitrogen contact cooling were compared. Microscopic inspection and flatwise test show significant difference between contact and non-contact cooled samples. The effect of thermal cycling on the different core and facesheet thicknesses for the same material system was compared. Samples with thicker core seemed to be more sensitive to microcracking. 3D finite element analysis (FEA) was conducted on the sandwich structure geometry to predict the experimental observations. The FEA results are in good agreement with the experimental findings.


identifier: Rangthong, Siriluksamee  (2018) The effects of product and brand designs on gender perceptions and consumer responses: a study of cross-gender line extensions.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Extending an existing brand within the same product category to attract a consumer segment consisting of an opposing gender is known as cross-gender line extension. This research explores the effectiveness of brand and product designs as means to change consumers’ perceptions of brand masculinity and femininity in a cross-gender line extensions context. Building on prior work on brand and product gender, this research explicates the effect of masculinity and femininity evoking brand and product designs on visual aesthetic value, brand attitudes, and purchase intent. Two experimental studies consider the joint effects of brand and product designs on gender perceptions and, ultimately, consumer responses for cross-gender line extension by using a between-subject design involving existing brands of personal care products. Results suggest that product design is an important source of masculinity and femininity perceptions, which in turn enhance aesthetic value, positive attitude, and purchase intention. Aesthetic value mediates the effect of gender perceptions on purchase intention. These findings have theoretical contributions to the brand and product design, cross-gender line extension, and consumer behavior literatures. They furthermore provide managerial implications for the consideration of brand and product (re)designs for cross-gender line extensions. Limitations and direction for future study are also discussed.


identifier: Bambara, James  (2018) A Methodology for the Design of Greenhouses with Semi-Transparent Photovoltaic Cladding and Artificial Lighting.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Greenhouse construction is on the rise in response to a growing demand for fresh local produce and the need for a climate resilient food web. In mid-to-high latitude locations, greenhouses that control light to a consistent daily integral can produce crops year-round by employing heating, horticultural lighting and movable screens. Their energy consumption represents a major production cost and is largely dictated by the envelope design. As an increasing number of envelope materials (including energy generating photovoltaic cladding) become available, methods for determining the most efficient design are needed.

A methodology was developed to assist in identifying the most suitable envelope design from a set of alternatives. First, the energy performance was assessed by conducting integrated thermal-daylighting analysis using building energy simulation software. Then, life cycle cost analysis was employed to determine the most cost-effective design. The methodology was applied to the following three case studies for a mid-latitude (Ottawa (45.4°N), Canada) and a high-latitude location (Whitehorse (60.7°N), Canada): 1) semi-transparent photovoltaic cladding (STPV) applied to the roof; 2) comparison of a glass, polycarbonate and opaque insulation on the walls and roof; and 3) design of ground thermal insulation.

For Ottawa, the STPV cladding caused internal shading that was counteracted by augmenting supplemental lighting by as much as 84%, which in turn reduced heating energy use by up to 12%. Although STPV cladding increased lighting electricity use, it generated 44% of the electricity that was consumed for supplemental lighting in the present study and 107% in the future projection study. Currently, STPV cladding is not an economically attractive investment unless time-of-use (TOU) electricity pricing is available. However, in the future, a 23% and 37% reduction in life cycle cost (LCC) was achieved for constant and TOU electricity pricing, respectively. STPV will increasingly become a promising cladding alternative for improving energy efficiency and economics of greenhouse operations. By reflecting light onto the crops, an insulated and reflective opaque north wall can lower both lighting electricity and heating energy consumption, while reducing the LCC by 2.6%. The use of ground insulation had a positive albeit negligible impact on energy and economic performance.


identifier: Filteau, Stephanie  (2018) The Effects of LOGO Design Elements on Consumers’ Immediate Emotional and Cognitive Reactions and Resulting Brand Attitudes and Perceptions.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Consumers’ emotional and cognitive responses to an unknown brand’s logo are analyzed using Albert and Mehrabian’s PAD emotional states model (1974) as well as by measuring thought count and valence at initial exposure. This research attempts to find out whether or not viewing an unknown logo for the first time affects brand attitude and perception depending on the design elements of the logo presented. The individual’s need for cognition and aesthetic sensitivity levels are also included in the research to view their effects on the responses and ultimately perceptions of the brand at first exposure. The logos presented to consumers are created for the sole purpose of this research to insure non-familiarity of the brand. Experts also explain their involvement and thoughts in the creation process and how they believe consumer perceptions are crafted as a result of their work. The conclusions that arise from the consumer results and expert interviews help provide further clarity not only on concerns that are definitely interesting to pursue in future literary work; they also help professionals shed light on what should be done to help ensure that the brands created attract the right consumers at first exposure.


identifier: Akhtar, Sohail ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3462-5784 <https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3462-5784>  (2018) Numerical analysis of pipeline uplift resistance in a frozen clay soil subjected to temperature changes.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Frozen clay soils comprise a large portion of permafrost in Canada. Long-term records indicate an on-going global warming has resulted in the thawing of portions of the permafrost area, which leads to extensive settlement of the ground surface and causing damage to infrastructures such as pipelines. The design of buried pipelines in permafrost region or artificially frozen grounds requires knowledge of the uplift resistance. The uplift resistance of a frozen soil is dependent on soil mechanical properties such as tensile strength, shear strength, and deformation modulus, and those properties are critical for characterizing the plastic yielding zones in the frozen soil around the pipe. Due to the existence of a large amount of unfrozen water, frozen clay soil displays complex mechanical properties which vary with temperatures. Previously, extensive experimental and simulation work has been done on the soil pipe interactions at normal temperatures, but less attention is given to the frozen soil pipe interactions. There are limited researches on frozen clay pipe interactions with the consideration of temperature changes.
In this study, the finite element analysis is conducted to investigate frozen clay soil-pipe interactions at varying temperatures, where a pipe is simulated as being subjected to vertical load-controlled or vertical displacement-controlled stress path conditions. The temperature-dependent mechanical properties of frozen clay soil are obtained from the literature. Both tensile yielding and shear yielding behavior are included in the modeling and the temperature-dependent yielding surfaces are included in an explicit way. Modeled stress paths in several soil monitoring points are collected and analyzed. A comparison of results from the Mohr-Coulomb model with tensile cut off and the hyperbolic Drucker-Prager model is presented. The results indicate that hyperbolic Drucker-Prager model is an effective model for analyzing the plastic zones. Under a plane strain condition, the applied hyperbolic Drucker-Prager model gives more conservative uplift resistance-displacement relation when compared with the result from the Mohr-Coulomb model.


identifier: Cotte, Olivier ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1290-9399 <https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1290-9399>  (2018) N-bit ΔΣ optical transmitter for Digitized Radio Over Fiber Fronthaul Transmission.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
According to an estimate by the Global Technology, Media and Telecom (GTMT) team, global mobile data traffic grew 70% in 2012, which was nearly 12 times the size of the entire global Internet in 2000. In the future, the amount of data traffic will grow at a pace never seen before. Many recent forecasts project mobile data traffic to grow more than 24 between 2010 and 2015, and much higher beyond 2015. To catch up with the need and to remain competitive, network operators need to increase the broadband capability of their networks fast. This poses a big challenge for wireless communication system designers. Researchers have been working on innovative systems that will provide several Gbit/s over the air interface.

	Digitized radio over fiber (DROF) offers the capability to support various current and future wireless standards, independent of wireless system specifics if the carrier frequency falls within the passband of the ROF link. For example, the same ROF links should be able to transmit either time-division multiple access (TDMA), code-division multiple access (CDMA), or orthogonal frequency-division multiple access (OFDMA) radio signals without modification if their carrier frequencies are the same. Properly designed, the ROF link can also carry multiple RF carriers simultaneously in a subcarrier-multiplexing manner and support multi-standard radio. If the ROF link is properly designed, the portable device should be unaware of the existence of fiber in its radio path. Essentially, radio over fiber (ROF) is an analog communications system, and with DROF, the signal it carries is digital.

	Since nonlinear distortions, limited dynamic range, and cumulating noise are major concerns with the analog ROF backbone; alternative approaches are also investigated by researchers. One approach is to transmit a digitized RF signal over fiber from the base station to the radio access point. The falling cost of high-speed digital-to-analog converter (DAC) and analog-to-digital converter (ADC) converters has led to heightened recent interest in digitized radio over fiber links (DROF). In DROF, the I and Q baseband digital signals immediately after the digital signal processor are converted to optical and transported via the fiber. This means that the remote radio heads can be relatively simple too, consisting of DAC converters, up-converters, and amplifiers in the downlink direction and ADC converters, down-converters, and amplifiers in the uplink direction. Signal processing and modulation functions will take place in the central base station (CBS). Therefore, this architecture also satisfies the requirement that the RAP remains small and relatively simple. Such digital links are uses for current wireless systems (UMTS, WiMAX, and LTE) to connect digital base stations to remote radio heads.

	In order to use optical fiber to deliver radio signal to remote antennas, methods include the use of an intensity modulator to introduce an RF subcarrier onto the intensity of a CW laser source. This method cannot be extended to millimetre waves due to the limited bandwidth of available modulators. A novel transmitter architecture for the generation and distribution of GHz RF signals is described in this work. One of the principal objectives of this Master Thesis is to present the development of a digitized radio over fiber optical transmission systems under advanced modulation formats. We analyze the impact of chromatic dispersion and nonlinear microwave devices distortions considering one optical subcarrier carrying multiple RF signals.


identifier: Crompton, Emily  (2018) Our Bodies of Water.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

title: Our Bodies of Water

abstract: Our Bodies of Water grapples with the double vision of Atlantic Canada: in one hand, the rich economic and cultural history of the easternmost provinces and, in the other, the rampant rural poverty. The poems use the histories of the region’s settlers—the English, Scots, Irish, and Acadians—to understand how the provinces’ prosperity has decayed over the last century. Modernity’s impact on the province is addressed by topics such as the collapse of viable industry, the impact of global warming on coastal communities, and the youth population migration towards Central and Western Canada—colloquially “goin’ down the road”.


identifier: Bakhshi, Nima  (2018) Process-Induced Defects during Tow Steering in Automated Fiber Placement: Experiment, Modeling and Simulation.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Various advantages offered by Automated Fiber Placement (AFP) have led to its increasing application in the aerospace industry to manufacture high-quality, large structural parts. Application of this technology, however, is considerably restrained by the defects that appear in the layup particularly during tow steering. An extensive experimental investigation using various process parameters and steering radii is performed to gain a deeper understanding of defect formation processes during steering of thermosetting prepreg tows. Five predominant defect types, namely in-plane fiber waviness, sheared fibers, tow pull up (bridging), blisters and out-of-plane wrinkles that occur during the steering are identified. The defects formation mechanisms are explained and discussed. Furthermore, a more detailed set of experiments is performed to capture the viscoelastic growth of individual wrinkles with time.

A novel finite element modeling framework for simulating the prepreg deposition process is presented in the commercial finite element software, Abaqus. It is demonstrated that by prescribing the global behavior of prepreg tow during the process and representing prepreg tack with an appropriate cohesive zone model, this approach is capable of capturing wrinkles and blisters that are caused by tow steering. Moreover, the conventional local approaches for modeling defects are extended by utilizing a viscoelastic interface to develop a theoretical model which is capable of demonstrating the time-dependent growth of wrinkles.

The interaction between prepreg and compaction roller is known to be influential on the quality of the deposited tow. Five compaction rollers with different materials, stiffness, and architecture are built. In a series of experiments the effect of each roller on the appearance of defects, particularly on blisters is investigated. The optimum roller design based on the experimental observations was identified.


identifier: Brunelle-Leclerc, Etienne  (2018) Transparency or Opacity? Re-thinking Video Game Interfaces.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: This thesis presents the results of a two year research-creation project that sought to address a gap in the theorization of video game interfaces. The conceptual framework of game interface design borrows several concepts from more established schools of user experience design. However in doing so, it also imports the biases that are built into these concepts, i.e. that interfaces should always maximize transparency and control. While this holds true for regular software, it does not apply to game interfaces where lapses in transparency and control can be repurposed as sources of challenge. This leaves designers with no way to adequately represent the interface’s contribution to gameplay. This project used a research-creation approach to investigate the merits of possibilities that run against the grain of standard interface design practice. The creative part of the research (conducted in collaboration with the Lablablab team) has produced Hammurabi, a game that leverages the inefficiencies of its interface as the centerpiece of its gameplay. Building upon this success, the reflexive part of the research offers a new theoretical perspective that proposes to frame game interfaces in terms of opacity as opposed to transparency and control as well as concepts and design strategies that will assist the work of future designers.


identifier: Portanier, Ronald  (2018) French Naval Sculpture under the Ancien Régime (1650-1789).  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: French naval sculpture under the ancien régime was a significant form of art and architecture that has left almost no trace of its existence. It can however be understood, despite the scarcity of extant objects, by exploring the agents and factors that animated its production, which were legion. These agents and factors in turn were contingent on the intended function of the sculpture, which was tied to: the type and purpose of the warship; the symbolic meaning attributed to the sculptural composition; the sculpture’s decorative style of the time, and; its form and fit as determined by the allotted sculptural space of the hull. Analysis of these criteria will permit greater understanding of what I am calling the production network that surrounded, inhibited, and advanced French naval sculpture as an art form, and how certain rules, which were instrumental in the design and execution of the sculptural composition, conformed to the policy of Versailles at the time. In this dissertation I accomplish this analysis and further this understanding of an important yet under-studied aspect of French art and architecture through careful assessment of the few artefacts on display in naval museums and archival documents. This made it possible to define the production network that governed the practice of naval sculpture and those internal and external agents whose instrumentality ensured its continuation for almost two centuries.