identifier: Renahan, Andrew  (2013) From Authenticity to Accountability: Re-Imagining Charles Taylor's Best Account Principle.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
ABSTRACT

From Authenticity to Accountability:
Re-Imagining Charles Taylor’s Best Account Principle

Andrew Renahan, Ph.D.
Concordia University, 2013
This dissertation explores the possibility of re-imagining aspects of the moral theory advanced by Charles Taylor. The framework of my study is moral discourse as it is, and has been, expressed in what is historically and culturally understood as western philosophy.
What might it mean to live a good life? It is upon this question that the crux of my dissertation revolves. In his tome Sources of the Self, Charles Taylor eloquently drew the distinction between a utilitarian concept of what it is right to do, and a more substantive consideration of what it is good to be. My own work has been considerably influenced by this short dialectic. Despite my sympathy with some of Taylor’s arguments, my dissertation involves a considerable critique of his conclusions vis-à-vis authenticity and dignity. A prime focus of my analysis deals with what I contend is Taylor’s unnecessarily limited descriptions of languages and embodiment.
My aim is to engage in a re-imagining of Taylor’s concept of the “best account principle”. I argue that in Taylor’s work, the “best account” evinces a genre of clairvoyance on the part of a self-reading moral agent. I critique Taylor’s portrayal of agents transitioning toward increasingly lucid expressions of their vision of the good. The basis of my critique is focused upon what I contend to be the narcissistic self-concern underlying Taylor’s concept of moral agency. In re-imagining the “best account principle”, I expand upon the description of embodiment to include a consideration of gender, and an examination of implied “normativity”. To this thickened portrait of embodiment I apply insights from the work of Emmanuel Levinas regarding the “I” and the “other(s)”. The juxtaposition of Taylor’s theory with that of Levinas’ will help us to transform the “best account”, from an expression of authenticity, to one of accountability.
I employ aspects of Charles Taylor’s theory in a fashion which I do not believe would beget his blessing. Mine is not the story of the making of the self. It is, rather, an indictment of the self on the grounds of accountability.


identifier: Jimborean, Cosmin  (2013) New Heuristic for Message Broadcasting in Arbitrary Networks.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

type: Thesis NonPeerReviewed

abstract: Efficient information dissemination in interconnection networks is a key research area because of the major role it plays in the modern interconnected world. A vast number of topics ranging from distributed computing to Internet communication rely on efficient information dissemination. Broadcasting is one of the information dissemination primitives. The minimum broadcast time problem in arbitrary networks has been examined since the 1970s. Finding an optimal broadcasting scheme for any originator in an arbitrary network has been proved to be an NP-Hard problem. In the current thesis, a new heuristic that generates broadcast schemes in arbitrary networks is presented. The heuristic has O(|E|log|V|) time complexity, where V is the set of nodes and E is the set of the links of the network. Computer simulations in some commonly used topologies and network models show that compared to the existing heuristics the new heuristic shows better performance in some network models, and comparable performance in other network models, while having a low complexity similar to the best existing heuristics. Another advantage of the new heuristic is that approximately one half of the vertices receive the message via a shortest path from the broadcast originator, while the rest of the vertices receive the message via a path at most three hops longer.


identifier: Gresty, Katelin  (2013) Implications of a low-carbohydrate, high-protein diet on heart size in a young murine model.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Objective: The incidence of childhood obesity in North America and around the world has risen significantly over the past decade leaving clinicians constantly searching for effective weight loss strategies. Despite the growing popularity or carbohydrate restricted diets, consequences of long term use remain widely unknown. The objective of the current investigation is to evaluate the effects of LCHF diets on heart size and cardiac glycogen content in young mice. Methods: Young mice (age 21 d, n = 24) and mature mice (age 84 d, n = 18) were placed on either a LCHF diet, a WD diet or a control diet for 12 weeks. Activity levels, body weight, and glucose values were measured during the investigation.  At the competition of the dietary intervention, wet heart weights were measured to compute the heart weight-to-tibia length ratio, cross sectional area was calculated and sections of cardiac tissue were stained with periodic acid and Schiff reagent to visualize glycogen. Results: No differences in activity levels or glucose measures were noted between groups. Mice following the LCHF diet displayed a smaller heart weight-to-tibia length ratio when compared to controls. The trend was observed in both young (p = 0.012) and mature (p = 0.024) mice. No differences in cross sectional area were detected. Cardiac tissue from mice consuming the LCHF diet had a reduced percentage of total area stained positive for glycogen when compared to mice following the WD diet (p = 0.016). Conclusions: A LCHF diet can lead to the development of a smaller heart in young and mature mice. Alterations in intercellular cardiac glycogen content may contribute to differences observed in heart weight. Cardiac restricted diets should be recommended with caution as long term cardiac developmental impairments are unknown.


identifier: Fuenmayor, Eduardo  (2013) Brokering friends: Exploring social capital and online privacy of Latin American immigrants on Facebook.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: In the networked society, migrations happen simultaneously offline and online. This thesis explores how privacy, our “portable territory of the self” (Fairfield, 2005), migrates physically and virtually, and describes the negotiations that take place when different notions of privacy converge on Facebook. By observing how Latin Americans aged 25 to 34 living in Montreal use Facebook to create social capital and how privacy implications impact on the creation of social capital on Facebook, this thesis incorporates cultural, institutional, and other contextual (offline) factors into the analysis of online privacy. Finally, this thesis proposes the concepts of instrumental privacy and expressive privacy to explain how goals, strategies, and actions for successful socialization are implemented on Facebook to create social capital.


identifier: Saleh, Bassel  (2013) Performance Analysis of Network Coding based P2P Live Video Streaming Systems.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Peer-to-peer (P2P) video streaming is a scalable and cost-effective technology to stream video content to a large population of users and has attracted a lot of research for over a decade now. Recently, network coding has been
introduced to improve the efficiency of these systems and to simplify the protocol design. There are already some successful commercial applications that utilize network coding. However, previous analytical studies of
network-coding based P2P streaming systems mainly focused on fundamental properties of the system and ignored the influence of the protocol details. In this study, a unique stochastic model is developed to reveal
how segments of the video stream evolve over their lifetime in the buffer before they go into playback.  Different strategies for segment selection have been studied with the model and their performance has been compared. A new approximation of the probability of linear independency of coded blocks has been proposed to study the redundancy of network coding. Finally, extensive numerical results and simulations have been provided to validate our model. From these results, in-depth insights into how system parameters and segment selection strategies affect the performance of
the system have been obtained.


identifier: Ship, Sean  (2013) Drawing Boundaries around Airlines and Multipartner Alliances: Institutional Spectatorship and the Evolution of MPA-Related Collaboration within the Global Airline Industry.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Based on an in-depth analysis of the formation and evolution of multipartner alliances (MPAs) within the global airline industry between 1997 and 2009, I examine the role and usage of stories as meta-linguistic tools for studying changes in the way that airline and MPA collaboration was constructed within the field. The news media, in their roles as spectators and authors were engaged in the construction of shared stories, which in being tracked over time, revealed how social structures change in conjunction with the boundaries drawn around MPAs and their members. These shared stories illustrated 1) at the micro-level of analysis various periods of differentiation between entering and exiting airlines; 2) at the meso-level of analysis the processes through which MPAs developed legitimacy, via the validation of inter-MPA competition and the constitution of the MPA as an organizational form; and 3) at the macro-level of analysis the shift in institutional logics which served to frame the meaning embedded in discursive resources used to shape and reshape collaboration within the field. Collectively, this study helps outline the institutionalization of meaning related to collaboration between airline and MPAs, and the competition generated between MPAs within the field and the industry.


identifier: Perera, Paththamestrige  (2013) Syntactic Sentence Compression for Text Summarization.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Abstract

Automatic text summarization is a dynamic area in Natural Language Processing that has gained much attention in the past few decades. As a vast amount of data is accumulating
and becoming available online, providing automatic summaries of specific subjects/topics has become an important user requirement. To encourage the growth of this research area, several shared tasks are held annually and different types of benchmarks are made available. Early work on automatic text summarization focused on improving the relevance
of the summary content but now the trend is more towards generating more abstractive and coherent summaries. As a result of this, sentence simplification has become a prominent requirement in automatic summarization. This thesis presents our work on sentence compression using syntactic pruning methods in order to improve automatic text summarization. Sentence compression has several applications in Natural Language Processing such as text simplification, topic and subtitle generation, removal of redundant information and text summarization. Effective sentence
compression techniques can contribute to text summarization by simplifying texts, avoiding redundant and irrelevant information and allowing more space for useful information. In our work, we have focused on pruning individual sentences, using their phrase structure grammar representations. We have implemented several types of pruning techniques and the results were evaluated in the context of automatic summarization, using standard evaluation metrics. In addition, we have performed a series of human evaluations and a comparison with other sentence compression techniques used in automatic summarization.
Our results show that our syntactic pruning techniques achieve compression rates that are similar to previous work and also with what humans achieve. However, the automatic
evaluation using ROUGE shows that any type of sentence compression causes a decrease in content compared to the original summary and extra content addition does not show
a significant improvement in ROUGE. The human evaluation shows that our syntactic pruning techniques remove syntactic structures that are similar to what humans remove and inter-annotator content evaluation using ROUGE shows that our techniques perform well compared to other baseline techniques. However, when we evaluate our techniques with a
grammar structure based F-measure, the results show that our pruning techniques perform better and seem to approximate human techniques better than baseline techniques.


identifier: Cadrette, Ryan  (2013) Tracing Eurydice: Adaptation and Narrative Structure in the Orpheus Myth.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: The primary purpose of this thesis is to postulate a working method of critical inquiry into the processes of narrative adaptation by examining the consistencies and ruptures of a story as it moves across representational form. In order to accomplish this, I will draw upon the method of structuralist textual analysis employed by Roland Barthes in his essay S/Z to produce a comparative study of three versions of the Orpheus myth from Ovid’s Metamorphoses. By reviewing the five codes of meaning described by Barthes in S/Z through the lens of contemporary adaptation theory, I hope to discern a structural basis for the persistence of adapted narrative. By applying these theories to texts in a variety of different media, I will also assess the limitations of Barthes’ methodology, evaluating its utility as a critical tool for post-literary narrative forms.


identifier: Ghanem, Rania  (2013) Traduire l’image du dirigeant arabe : Zayni Barakat de Gamal al-Ghitani traduit en français et en anglais.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
L’image du dirigeant arabe telle que représentée dans le fameux ouvrage de l’auteur égyptien Gamal al-Ghitani intitulé Zayni Barakat et les « transformations » qu’elle a subies durant le processus de traduction sont au centre de ce mémoire. En guise de mise en contexte, les deux premiers chapitres font la lumière sur l’évolution qu’a connue la littérature arabe moderne et son état actuel. Ils mettent aussi l’accent sur le statut de l’auteur arabe qu’ils comparent à celui du traducteur de littérature arabe notamment en français et en anglais. Dans ce cadre, ils mettent en exergue les conditions difficiles dans lesquelles a lieu la production littéraire arabe et la situation relativement avantageuse qui est celle du traducteur par rapport à l’auteur même de l’ouvrage traduit, l’arabe étant une langue dominée au moment où le français et l’anglais sont des langues centrale et hyper-centrale respectivement.
L’analyse est effectuée suivant le trajet analytique que propose Antoine Berman. Elle se fonde surtout sur les trois concepts de base que sont la position traductive, le projet de traduction et l’horizon du traducteur. Ce trajet dévoile deux approches diamétralement opposées vis-à-vis de la traduction : les ouvrages français et anglais objet de l’analyse s’avèrent être des modèles de traduction ethnocentrique et exotisante respectivement. Ils sont jugés en fin de compte selon les critères de poéticité et d’éthicité proposés par Berman qui permettent notamment de corroborer la théorie bermanienne conformément à laquelle toute première traduction est imparfaite et appelle une retraduction.

The image of the Arab leader as represented in the famous novel by Egyptian writer Gamal al-Ghitani entitled Zayni Barakat and the “transformations” it underwent through the translation process are at the center of this thesis. The first two chapters set the stage for the analysis by shedding light on the evolution and current state of Arabic literature. The status of the Arabic language author is also emphasized in comparison with that of the Arabic literature translator especially into French and English. Against this backdrop, the difficult conditions of Arabic literary production are highlighted as well as the relatively advantageous situation of the translator as compared to that of the author of the translated novel, Arabic being a dominated language while French and English are central and hypercentral languages respectively.
The analysis follows the analytical method suggested by Antoine Berman. It is mainly based on three basic concepts : the translative position, the translation project and the horizon of the translator. This method reveals the existence of two diametrically opposed approaches to translation : the French and English versions prove to be models of ethnocentric and foreignizing translations respectively. They are evaluated in the end according to the criteria of poeticity and ethicality suggested by Berman that corroborate Berman’s theory according to which every first translation is imperfect and calls for a retranslation.


identifier: Kabir, Waziha  (2013) A new three-stage scheme for fingerprint enhancement and its impact on fingerprint recognition.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
In order to provide safety and security from fraudulent acts, it is necessary to use a reliable biometric identifier. Fingerprint is considered to be one of most effective biometric identifiers because of its universal characteristics. The recognition rate of identification/verification systems depends to a great extent on the quality of the fingerprint image. In a fingerprint recognition system, there are two main phases: 1) extraction of suitable features of fingerprints, and 2) fingerprint matching using those extracted features to find the correspondence and similarity between the fingerprint images. The low quality of fingerprint images provides false minutiae at the stage of feature extraction and reduces the recognition rate of minutiae-based fingerprint matching systems. Use of enhanced fingerprint images improves the recognition rate but at the expense of a substantially increased complexity. The objective of this research is to develop an efficient and cost-effective scheme for enhancing fingerprint images that can improve minutiae extraction rate as well as effectively improve the recognition rate of a minutiae-based fingerprint matching system.
In the first part of this thesis, a novel low-complexity three-stage scheme for the enhancement of fingerprint images is developed. In the first stage of the scheme, a linear diffusion filter driven by an orientation field is designed to enhance the low-quality fingerprint image. The computational complexity is reduced by using a simple gradient-based method for estimating the orientation field and by using a small number of iterations. Although some of the broken ridges in the fingerprint image are partially connected after the first stage, this stage has a limitation of not being able to connect ridges broken with wide creases, and also not being able to recover ridges in the smeared regions. To overcome the shortcomings of the first stage, the fingerprint image obtained after the first-stage enhancement is passed through a compensation filter in the second stage. Although the broken ridges in the enhanced fingerprint image after the second stage are fully connected, the ridges affected by smears are only partially recovered. Hence, the output obtained from the second stage is passed through the third-stage enhancement, which has two phases: short-time Fourier transform (STFT) analysis and enhancement by an angular filter. In the first phase, a Gaussian spectral window is used in order to perform the STFT and this window helps to reduce the blocking effect in the enhanced image. In the second phase, the image obtained from the STFT is passed through an angular filter, which significantly improves the overall quality of the fingerprint image.
In the second part of this thesis, the effectiveness and usefulness of the proposed enhancement scheme are examined in fingerprint feature extraction and matching for fingerprint recognition applications. For this purpose, a minutiae extraction algorithm is first applied to extract minutiae from fingerprint images and then a minutia-based matching algorithm is applied to the set of extracted minutiae using a hybrid shape and orientation descriptor in order to find similarity between a pair of fingerprints.
Extensive experiments are conducted throughout this thesis using a number of challenging benchmark databases chosen from FVC2000, FVC2002 and FVC2004. Simulation results demonstrate not only the effectiveness of the proposed enhancement scheme in improving the subjective and objective qualities of fingerprint images, but also a superior minutiae extraction rate and a recognition accuracy of the fingerprint images enhanced by the proposed scheme at a reduced computational complexity.


identifier: Kircanski, Aleksandar  (2013) Cryptanalysis of Symmetric Cryptographic Primitives.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Symmetric key cryptographic primitives are the essential building blocks in modern information security systems. The overall security of such systems is crucially dependent on these mathematical functions, which makes the analysis of symmetric key primitives a goal of critical importance. The security argument for the majority of such primitives in use is only a heuristic one and therefore their respective security evaluation continually remains an open question.

In this thesis, we provide cryptanalytic results for several relevant cryptographic hash functions and stream ciphers. First, we provide results concerning two hash functions: HAS-160 and SM3. In particular, we develop a new heuristic for finding compatible differential paths and apply it to the the Korean hash function standard HAS-160. Our heuristic leads to a practical second order collision attack over all of the HAS-160 function steps, which is the first practical-complexity distinguisher on this function. An example of a colliding quartet is provided. In case of SM3, which is a design that builds upon the SHA-2 hash and is published by the Chinese Commercial Cryptography Administration Office for the use in the electronic authentication service system, we study second order collision attacks over reduced-round versions and point out a structural slide-rotational property that exists in the function.

Next, we examine the security of the following three stream ciphers: Loiss, SNOW 3G and SNOW 2.0. Loiss stream cipher is designed by Dengguo Feng et al. aiming to be implemented in byte-oriented processors. By exploiting some differential properties of a particular component utilized in the cipher, we provide an attack of a practical complexity on Loiss in the related-key model. As confirmed by our experimental results, our attack recovers 92 bits of the 128-bit key in less than one hour on a PC with 3
GHz Intel Pentium 4 processor. SNOW 3G stream cipher is used in 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) and the SNOW 2.0 cipher is an ISO/IEC standard (IS 18033-4). For both of these two ciphers, we show that the initialization procedure admits a sliding property, resulting in several sets of related-key pairs. In addition to allowing related-key key recovery attacks against SNOW 2.0 with 256-bit keys, the presented properties reveal non-random behavior of the primitives, yield related-key distinguishers for the two ciphers and question the validity of the security proofs of protocols based on the assumption that these ciphers behave like perfect random functions of the key-IV.

Finally, we provide differential fault analysis attacks against two stream ciphers, namely, HC-128 and Rabbit. In this type of attacks, the attacker is assumed to have physical influence over the device that performs the encryption and is able to introduce random faults into the computational process. In case of HC-128, the fault model in which we analyze the cipher is the one in which the attacker is able to fault a random word of the inner state of the cipher but cannot control its exact location nor its new faulted value. Our attack requires about 7968 faults and recovers the complete internal state of HC-128 by solving a set of 32 systems of linear equations over Z2 in 1024 variables. In case of Rabbit stream cipher, the fault model in which the cipher is analyzed is the one in which a random bit of the internal state of the cipher is faulted,
however, without control over the location of the injected fault. Our attack requires around 128 − 256 faults,
precomputed table of size 2^41.6 bytes and recovers the complete internal state of Rabbit in about 2^38 steps.


identifier: Parks, James  (2013) The average number of amicable pairs and aliquot cycles for a family of elliptic curves.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Let E be an elliptic curve over Q. Silverman and Stange defined the set (p_1,...,p_L) of distinct primes to be an aliquot cycle of length L of E if each p_i is a prime of good reduction for E such that #E_{p_1)(F_{p_1})=p_2,...,#E_{p_{L-1}}(F_{p_{L-1}})=p_L, #E_{p_L}(F_{p_L})=p_1. Let \pi_{E,L}(X) denote the aliquot cycle counting function with p<=X. They conjectured for elliptic curves without complex multiplication that
\pi_{E,L}(X) ~ \sqrt{X}/(\log X)^{L}. Jones refined this conjecture to give an explicit constant,
namely \pi_{E,L}~C_{E,L}\sqrt{X}/(\log X)^L. In this thesis we will show that the conjectured upper bound holds for \pi_{E,L}(X) on average over the family of all elliptic curves with a short length for the average.


identifier: Wang, Min  (2013) Requirements Modeling: from Natural Language to Conceptual Models Using Recursive Object Model (ROM) Analysis.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Requirements elicitation and modeling are critical for the success of product development not only in software engineering but also in other engineering fields. Collecting the right requirements at each stage and transforming them into conceptual models are essential in delivering a successful product. In most cases, original requirements are represented by natural language in engineering. However, a key challenge faced by industries is to transform existing loosely structured legacy requirements document into the structured representations. This transformation process is extremely time-consuming and prone-to-error. Some efforts in research have been made to develop automatic or semi-automatic processes to bridge natural language and formal representation. Motivated by both the strong industrial need to automatically formalize natural language based requirements (NLR) and the research breakthrough in product requirements modeling, this present thesis proposes a new approach to transforming product requirements from their unrestricted natural language representation to structured conceptual models by using Recursive Object Model (ROM).
The proposed approach includes the following three main aspects: 1) developing criteria for the completeness and necessity of design requirements corresponding to certain design stage, 2) developing a dynamic requirements elicitation approach to refine requirements, and 3) developing algorithms for transforming design requirements from natural language to conceptual models, such as Use Case Model by Universal Modeling Language (UML) and Function-Behavior-State (FBS) model. This presented research involves Natural Language Processing (NLP) techniques, in conjunction with question asking (QA) strategy and conceptual modeling algorithms. The significant tasks include defining the scope of the right requirements, automatically question asking to elicit requirements, formulating the transformation of requirements text into conceptual models, generating the rules for the conceptual modeling, developing algorithms based on the transformation rules, and finally automating the requirements modeling process through software prototypes.
The research foundation of this thesis is the Environment Based Design (EBD) methodology which is derived from axiomatic theory of design modeling (ATDM). To bridge the gap between unrestricted natural language and formal conceptual models, an intermediate representation, ROM, is the core for representing the semantics of design requirements throughout the requirements evolution process.


identifier: Courtland Kelly, Karen  (2013) The Experience of Salvific Energy.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

title: The Experience of Salvific Energy

abstract:
ABSTRACT

The Experience of Salvific Energy

Karen Courtland Kelly

The focus of this thesis is the re-emergence of eschatology, one that speaks to modernity, specifically with the notion of salvific energy. Chapters One and Two unpack Eschatology: Death and Eternal Life, a book published in English in 1988 and originally written in German in 1977 by Joseph Ratzinger, Pope Benedict XVI. Chapter Three examines the two key themes of death and eternal life explicitly expressed within Benedict’s book. The remainder of Chapter Three explores the notion of salvific energy, as that notion seems to express itself as an experience and a three-fold carrier of meaning. Benedict alludes to the notion of salvific energy as an experience and uses the dynamics of shelter, support and communication.

This thesis draws heavily upon the Catechism of the Catholic Church to better understand Benedict’s theological position. The goal is to highlight the valuable field of eschatology and why it continues to be important in people’s lives. Eschatology fully encapsulates the dynamic human condition and this thesis hopes to communicate the urgent need for eschatology’s re-emergence combined with the emergence of salvific energy. Benedict’s experience can renew the field of eschatology with his knowledge of salvific energy. His insights stress the important dynamism in the field of eschatology for modernity and its practical and functional use within the complex dynamic of everyday life.


identifier: Sacui Catrinescu, Mona  (2013) « Écrire » une traduction.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

title: « Écrire » une traduction

abstract:
RÉSUMÉ

« Écrire » une traduction

Mona Sacui Catrinescu

Lorsqu’il traduit, l’auteur-traducteur est, selon Richard Vautour, atteint de « l’angoisse de l’écriture », affliction touchant tout écrivain. Son œuvre personnelle est relancée par le texte à traduire, ce qui crée une tension lors de la traduction. À partir de cela, on pourrait présumer que l’auteur-traducteur diffère considérablement du traducteur littéraire conventionnel à cause de son identité d’écrivain.
	Pourtant — et c’est ce que la partie critique de ce mémoire vise à démontrer —, l’auteur-traducteur se distingue en fait peu du traducteur littéraire conventionnel. C’est en explorant la relation entre écriture et traduction, ainsi que les caractéristiques du traducteur qui écrit, que nous verrons à quel point ces deux types de traducteurs sont similaires. De plus, grâce à notre propre expérience de traduction de deux nouvelles du recueil The Beggar’s Garden du jeune Canadien Michael Christie, nous verrons si notre propre identité d’auteure-traductrice a eu une incidence sur le processus et le résultat de la traduction. La première partie de ce mémoire est donc consacrée à l’analyse de la traduction en tant qu’écriture, suivie par une enquête sur les similarités entre l’auteur-traducteur du traducteur littéraire conventionnel. Nous nous penchons également sur notre propre expérience de traduction de « The Extra » et « Goodbye Porkpie Hat » afin de déterminer quels ont été les effets concrets de notre double identité sur le texte d’arrivée. La deuxième partie du mémoire consiste quant à elle en la traduction des deux nouvelles.

--

ABSTRACT

« Écrire » une traduction

Mona Sacui Catrinescu

When at work, the writer-translator suffers from what Richard Vautour calls the “anguish of writing” (l’angoisse de l’écriture), an affliction known to all writers. Indeed, the piece that must be translated stimulates the writer-translator and awakens his or her own oeuvre, thus creating tension during the translation. Taking this into account, one could easily presume that, because of his or her identity as a writer, the writer-translator is very different from the average literary translator.
	This thesis aims, however, to show that the writer-translator is in actual fact not all that different from the average literary translator. By exploring the relationship between writing and translating, as well as the characteristics of the translator who writes, we have discovered just how similar these two types of translators are. The personal experience of translating two shorts stories from The Beggar’s Garden by young Canadian author Michael Christie has also served as a means to determine if being a writer-translator has had any effect on the process and result of the translation. The first part of this thesis consists of an analysis of translation as writing, and is followed by an investigation on the similarities between the writer-translator and the literary translator. We also look at my translation of “The Extra” and “Goodbye Porkpie Hat” in order to see what effects (if any) my double identity has had on the target texts. The translations themselves are featured in the second part of the thesis.


identifier: Jaramillo Garcia, Melina  (2013) anillin mediates feedback between the cortex and microtubules to define the division plane.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Cytokinesis, the physical separation of a dividing cell into two daughter cells, is driven by the ingression of an actomyosin contractile ring. The mitotic spindle, which is composed of distinct populations of microtubules, dictates the location of the division plane. In particular, the central spindle, which forms between segregating sister chromatids recruits Ect2, the GEF leading to the activation of RhoA and the formation of the actomyosin ring in the equatorial plane. Anillin is a key regulator of cytokinesis that interacts with the core components of the division machinery including actin, myosin and their upstream regulator RhoA. Anillin also interacts with the membrane and proteins associated with the mitotic spindle. These numerous interactions stabilize the position of the ring to maintain the division plane. Consistent with this, anillin depletion causes lateral instability of the contractile ring and leads to mitotic failure. While the signalling pathway that activates RhoA from the central spindle is well understood, it is not known whether there is feedback from the cortex to the mitotic spindle to mediate changes in microtubule stability in response to cortical perturbations. Recently, C. elegans anillin was shown to directly interact with microtubules. Therefore, since anillin interacts with both cortical components and microtubules, it is a good candidate for mediating feedback from the cortex to the spindle to stabilize subsets of microtubules that position the contractile ring.
Here, we investigate anillin-microtubule interactions in human (HeLa) cells. Anillin localizes to microtubules during mitosis, and this localization is enhanced after treatments that stabilize microtubules or decrease RhoA activation. Anillin also directly interacts with taxol-stabilized microtubules in vitro. In anillin-depleted cells, there is a decrease in the proportion of centrally located spindle microtubules and a loss of bundled microtubules in monopolar cells. Live imaging of stably expressing EB1:2EGFP cells show that in the absence of anillin, a pool of long microtubules that emanate toward the equatorial cortex are missing. Together, these results suggest that anillin’s localization to microtubules could increase their stability, and supports a role for anillin in mediating feedback between the cortex and the mitotic spindle.


identifier: Choudhury, Baharul Islam  (2013) Population Genetics of Traditionally Cultivated Rice Varieties in the Eastern Himalayan Region of Northeast India.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
The Eastern Himalayan region of northeast(NE) India covers a geographical area of over 255,000 sq. km. and consists of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura states (Figure 1.1). This region encompasses wide range of eco-geographical conditions, ranging from lowland flood plains of Brhamaputra and Barak Riverto mountains as high as 4000 m above sea level in the West Kameng and Tawang region of Arunachal Pradesh. Rice (Oryza sativa) is the staple food of the local inhabitants in NE India. Traditional farmers of the region cultivate a large number of indigenous rice varieties under diverse topographic and agroclimatic conditions and different growing seasons. However, rice genetic resources in NE India are being rapidly lost due to changes in the land use and agricultural practices that favor agronomically improved varieties. A detailed understanding of the genetic structure and diversity of rice varieties in NE India is crucial for developing conservation and management strategies of rice genetic resources and use of the rice gene pool in the region for breeding and genetic improvement programs.
In this study, genetic structure and diversity of rice varieties representing several ecotypes collected from various regions of NE India were investigated using molecular tools. Chapter 1 covers a study focused on the genetic structure and diversity of 24 indigenous varieties representing Sali (12), Jum (4), Boro(3), and glutinous (5) types and five agronomically improved varieties. The results revealed that the genetic diversity among indigenous rice varieties was higher than that of the agronomically improved varieties. The Sali and Jum types showed significantly higher levels of genetic diversity as compared to agronomically improved types. Two major genetically distinct clusters were detected in this study, which corresponded to two subspecies of O. sativa, namely indica and japonica.
In Chapter 2, the results of a study on characterization of rice ecotypes into japonica or indica subspecies using insertion-deletion (indel) markers are presented. The indel markers were designed based on the genome-wide DNA polymorphism database of typical indica cv 93-11 and japonica cv Nipponbare. The result showed that the traditional method of indica and japonica rice classification based on cultivation type, morphological traits, physiological and biochemical characteristics is incongruent with the indel marker based classification. Majority of the upland (Jum) and glutinous seeded varieties, which were traditionally classified as japonica clustered with indica types. Similarly, a few lowland varieties, which were traditionally classified as indica clustered with japonica types.
Chapter 3 covers the nucleotide polymorphism and patterns of nucleotide diversity at two trait specific genes, Wx and OsC1. The Wx gene is associated with amylose content, which determines the glutinous nature of rice grains while theOsC1 gene is associated with the apiculus coloration. The polymorphism in the Wx gene among glutinous and non glutinous grain types, and the nucleotide diversity inthe OsC1 gene among colored and colorless apiculus rice varieties were investigated. The results revealed that trait specific nucleotide polymorphisms that were identified in previous studies did not necessarily correspond to the specific phenotypes in the indigenous rice varieties of NE India. The glutinous type varieties showed higher levels of nucleotide diversity as compared to the nonglutinous types at the Wx locus. The neutrality analysis did not reveal signature of selection among the glutinous and nonglutinous rice phenotypes at the Wx gene. On the other hand, the OsC1 gene revealed low level of selection among the colorless apiculus varieties as evident by lower nucleotide diversity in colorless types as compared to the colored apiculus varieties.


identifier: Romanow, Katherine  (2013) Mufleta, Zaban and Sushi: The Development of the Mimouna and its Foodways from Morocco to Montreal.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
The Mimouna is a ritual that is unique to the Moroccan Jewish community and an important part of their identity. As an integral part of this community’s Passover celebrations, its observance has been maintained through this community’s emigration to new countries. With a large number of Moroccan Jews settling in Montreal, the Mimouna has now become a part of the Passover landscape of this city. With information gathered through interviews with members of the Moroccan Jewish community in Montreal and through participant observation carried out at Mimounas being held in Montreal, this thesis examines how its practice has developed in the new Canadian environment the community has settled in.
Food is a central element in the celebration of the Mimouna and is the lens through which my study of the Mimouna has been understood and used to examine the way the Mimouna has changed and remained the same since bring brought to Canada, the meaning the ritual holds for members of the Moroccan Jewish community, the role it plays among the Moroccan Jewish community in Montreal and the way in which this celebration impacts upon their identity as Moroccan Jews. In order to frame its celebration in Montreal the historical roots of the Mimouna are examined, how it was celebrated in Morocco, how it has been presented in Moroccan Jewish cookbooks as well as in a community magazine.


identifier: Samir, Ouchani  (2013) A Security Verification Framework for SysML Activity Diagrams.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
UML and SysML play a central role in modern software and systems engineering. They are considered as the de facto standard for modeling software and systems. Today’s systems are created from a myriad of interacting parts that are combined to produce visible behavior. The main difﬁculty arises from the different ways in modeling each component and the way they interact with each other. Moreover, nowadays secure software has become an essential part in industrial development. One challenge in academia as well as in industry is to produce a secure product. Another challenge is to prove its correctness especially when the software environment is imprecise and uncertain.

The aim of this thesis is to provide a practical and formal framework that enables security risk assessment and security requirements veriﬁcation on a system modeled as a composition of UML/SysML behavioral diagrams. Our main contribution is a novel approach to automatically verify security of systems on their design models based on security requirements, probabilistic adversarial interactions between potential attackers and the system’s models. These structures are shaped to provide an elegant way to deﬁne the combination between different kinds of diagrams. We rely on stochastic security templates to specify security properties and a standard catalogue of attack patterns to build a library of attacks design patterns. The result of the interaction between selected attack scenarios and the composed diagrams with the instantiated security properties are used to quantify security risk by applying probabilistic model-checker. To handle the veriﬁcation process scalability, our approach allows the veriﬁcation of large system efﬁciently by optimizing and avoiding the global model construction. To demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach, we apply our methodology on academia as well as industrial benchmarks.


identifier: Roncero, Carlos  (2013) Understanding figurative language: Studies on the comprehension of metaphors and similes.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: At least since Aristotle, scholars have contrasted the more “literal” simile (e.g., lawyers are like sharks) with the more "figurative" metaphor (e.g., lawyers are sharks) to better understand how people deduce non-literal interpretations when comprehending figurative language such as metaphor. This thesis presents four manuscripts that investigated the comprehension of metaphors and similes to better understand this literal-figurative divide. The study reported in the first manuscript, employing off-line ratings and property-listing tasks, examined how metaphors and similes are interpreted, and how such statements are used on the Internet. Property lists generated for metaphors and similes were equivalent, although connotative properties seemed more salient for metaphors. The same study also found that similes on the Internet were used more often before an explanation. The study reported in the second manuscript examined the comprehension of metaphors and similes using self-paced reading, while the study reported in the third manuscript used eye-tracking. Results of the two studies were inconsistent: the self-paced reading study suggested similes were more difficult to process (longer reading times), while the reverse was suggested by the eye-tracking study (shorter saccade lengths for metaphors). Because first-pass reading measures such as saccade length are most immune to extra-linguistic variables, taken together results from both studies favor viewing metaphors as more difficult to comprehend than similes. Finally, the fourth manuscript presents a study that examined how people living with Alzheimer's disease interpret metaphors and similes using paraphrase and interpretation tasks. Interpretations for metaphors and similes were equivalent, but more apt statements (music is (like) medicine) were easier to interpret than less apt ones (e.g., life is (like) a bottle) highlighting the role of aptness in metaphor and simile interpretation. The final chapter presents a theoretical discussion in light of the results obtained in the four studies. In summary, the results suggest metaphors and similes activate a similar set of properties, but that connotative properties might receive increased activation when a metaphor is presented. This additional activation for connotative properties could make metaphors require more processing than similes.


identifier: Williams, Christopher  (2013) Power and Noise Configurable Phase-Locked Loop Using Multi-Oscillator Feedback Alignment.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
On-the-fly data rate changes allow for the data rate to be lowered when peak speeds are not needed. A PLL is presented that contains a plurality of sub-VCOs, each able to be enabled or disabled. The goal of this technique is having the power dissipation proportional to the data rate, in order to obtain a fixed energy per transmitted bit. The proposed architecture accomplishes data rate changes by quickly reconfiguring itself and exploiting known power / jitter trade offs in circuit design. The proposed architecture can be applied to either electrical or optical serial links that do not contain a forwarded clock.

By relaxing the jitter constraints at lower data rates, the receiver can enter a low-power mode enabling energy savings when maximum data rates are not required. A bank of sub-VCOs is introduced and can be brought up to speed and connected. An activation procedure and compensation methods have also been introduced in order to avoid arbitrary phases during start-up, which would lead to large phase excursions. Simulations show that by enabling the high-performance mode, data rates of 25 Gb/s are able to be obtained in a CDR setting. In the low power mode, the jitter increases by 1.5 times but the power reduces by 46%. In this mode, the architecture can support data rates of 12.5 Gb/s. Therefore, this system responds to the need of improving energy efficiency in receivers by allowing a dynamic reconfiguration of the circuit; varying power in response to jitter specifications.


identifier: Dhaliwal, Jamieson  (2013) A subpool of the large subunit of ribulose bisphosphate carboxylase-oxygenase has a dual function in oxidative stress tolerance in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.


identifier: Najafi Shooshtari, Seyed Mahdi  (2013) Modeling and Characterization of Protein Energy Landscape at Low Temperature using Spectral Hole Burning Spectroscopy.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Modeling and Characterization of Protein Energy Landscape at Low Temperature using Spectral Hole Burning Spectroscopy
Seyed Mahdi Najafi Shooshtari, PhD.
Concordia University, 2013.
Proteins play various important roles in living organisms. Understanding the way they can perform different tasks is a demanding goal for scientists. Since their structures are changing to certain extent in the process, and some flexibility is essential for proper functioning, knowledge about their static structures is not enough to understand the way they work. One of the tools for studying proteins is optical spectroscopy. However, proteins are almost incapable of light absorption in the visible range which makes them non reachable for direct measurements; therefore, indirect methods must be applied. Pigment embedded into (amorphous) solid can serve as a local reporter on static and dynamic properties of its environment. Using proteins with pigments embedded into them by Nature offers a good alternative to introducing local reporters by chemical or genetic manipulations. In our study we focus on pigment-protein complexes involved in photosynthesis, Thus, the results of this thesis can be used not only for understanding proteins in general (e.g. folding processes), but also have implications in the renewable energy field, ultimately helping us to produce more efficient solar cells.
In the course of this thesis spectral hole burning is applied for studying the properties of protein energy landscapes at cryogenic temperatures. This technique is very useful for (partially) removing the ensemble averaging by exciting specified systems selectively. We demonstrate that tunneling and not barrier hopping is most likely responsible for spectral diffusion-related phenomena (including hole burning) observed at low temperatures, that barrier heights most likely obey Gaussian and not square root of V^-1  distribution proposed for other amorphous solids, and discuss which structural elements might participate in small conformational changes. In addition to our experimental studies, we are developing a model that more adequately reflects the multi-well protein energy landscapes than two-level system-based approaches used so far. The results are in reasonable agreement with experiment. Importantly, we demonstrate that protein systems in typical optical low-temperature experiments (hole burning or single molecule / complex spectroscopy) are far from thermodynamic equilibrium. This has to be kept in mind when interpreting the results of any optical experiments.


identifier: Abdelkhalek, Sherif Mahmoud Mohamed  (2013) A New Approach to CNC Programming of Plunge Milling.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
ABSTRACT
A New Approach to CNC Programming of Plunge Milling
Sherif Abdelkhalek, PhD.
Concordia University, 2013.
In current industrial applications many engineering parts are made of hard materials including dies, mold cavities and aerospace parts. Manufacturing these types of parts is classified as pocket milling. By using the regular machining methods, pocket milling takes a long time accompanied by high cost. Plunge milling, is a new machining strategy that has proven to have an excellent performance in the rough machining of hard materials. In plunge milling, the cutter is fed in the direction of the spindle axis, with the highest structural rigidity which showed a very interesting performance in removing the excess material rapidly in the rough operations. Mainly, according to the previous researchers, two directions are adopted to improve the efficiency of the plunge milling process. First, to reduce the cutting forces and increase chatter stability which attracts the majority of the researchers. Second, to optimize the tool path planning which has less attention.
Therefore, in the first part of the research, a new practical approach is established in optimized procedures to generate the tool paths for plunge milling of pockets, even for these with free-form boundaries and islands. This innovative approach is proposed as follows: (1) fill a pocket with minimum number of specified radii circles which are tangent to each other and/or the pocket boundary without overlapping by building an algorithm using the maximum hole degree (MHD) theory for solving the circle packing problem. (2) cover the areas left between the non-overlapped circles by the same used specified radii. Finally, solve the travelling sales man problem (TSP) for the circles with the same radii by using the simulated annealing algorithm. According to the results, this approach significantly advances the tool path planning technique for pockets plunge milling.
In the second part of the research, a new algorithm is proposed to calculate the global solution for constraint polynomial functions by using subtractive clustering which makes the results more accurate and faster to be obtained. This part is extremely useful to calculate the depth of cut for each plunging place in case of having a polynomial surface as a bottom of the machined pocket with high accuracy, and less calculation time to avoid gauging between the tool and the bottom surface.
The polynomial function can be classified according to the number of variables. In the proposed research, the functions with one and two variables have more importance because they graphically represent curves and surfaces which are the cases under study. Since the polynomial function under study can be represented graphically according to the number of the variables, the change in the function’s shape can be detected by the feature recognition. The feature recognition is done for the function’s shape by calculating the surface or curve curvature at the data points. The main procedure is; (1) identifying the entire features of the objective function which are classified according to the curvature as convex, concave, plane, and hyperbolic, (2) applying the sub-clustering technique for convex and concave regions to find the approximated centers of these regions, and eventually, (3) the clusters’ centers are calculated and used as initial points for local optimization technique which gives the local critical point for each region. The local minima are calculated, the global minimum is the minimum of the local minima.


identifier: Elvidge, Christopher K.  (2013) Evaluating the effects of sub-lethal acidification on wild populations of juvenile Atlantic salmon.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
One of the many environmentally deleterious effects of industrialization is the acidification of freshwater, which results in part from precipitative inputs of anthropogenic pollutants. Considerable effort has been allocated to the study and remediation of severely acidified aquatic systems, with the effects of weak levels of acidification (pH 6 – pH 7) on biological communities having received less attention. One effect that has been studied is the chemical mediation of predator-prey interactions in freshwater and marine fishes. Following mechanical damage to the epidermis, as would likely occur during a predation event, many taxa release chemical alarm cues which elicit antipredator responses from conspecifics and other opportunistic receivers subject to similar levels of predation risk and potentially enhance the survival of alarm cue receivers during subsequent interactions with predators. Under weakly acidic conditions (pH < 6.6), these chemical alarm cues are rendered non-functional and do not elicit alarm responses from conspecific or heterospecific receivers. Weak acidification effectively deprives prey fishes of one source of chemosensory information on ambient risk levels.
	Here, I describe a series of field experiments designed to evaluate the effects of this environmentally-mediated loss of information on wild populations of juvenile Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) in four acidic and five neutral streams in the Miramichi River system, New Brunswick, Canada. Acid-impacted Atlantic salmon in these experiments demonstrated a loss of response to conspecific and heterospecific chemical alarm cues, as well as significantly greater responses to remaining (visual) threat cues than salmon under neutral conditions. Fish in neutral streams appeared to demonstrate additive responses to multiple risky cues consistent with dynamic threat-sensitivity and the sensory complementation hypothesis, whereas fish in acidic streams demonstrated non-threat-sensitive responses consistent with the absence of sensory complementation and greater value being assigned to information received through visual cues. Contrary to predictions, juvenile salmon do not appear to suffer increased mortality through predation as a result of this loss of information, nor do they experience negative growth effects resulting from temporal trade-offs between antipredator and foraging behaviours. Rather, acid-impacted Atlantic salmon demonstrated behavioural compensation through increased preference for complex habitats which offer greater abundance of physical refugia and limit line-of-sight for visually foraging predators, effectively mitigating the increased risk of predation associated with limited information.


identifier: McRae, Andrew  (2013) Ultra-Short Carbon Nanotube Quantum Dot Transistors: Electron-Hole Asymmetry, Bending Vibrons, and the Kondo Effect.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Using an electromigration procedure which we recently developed, we generate 10 nm-scale single-wall carbon nanotube quantum dot (SWCNT-QD) transistors.  Because these devices are so short, we can explore fundamental mesoscopic physics, engineer tuneable nanoelectromechanical systems (NEMS) and create ultra-short transistors. These dramatic effects arise from enhanced electron-vibron and QD-lead
coupling in short devices.

Contrary to what has been observed in longer SWCNT devices, we observe strong electron-hole asymmetry, due to charge doping from the metallic leads. This asymmetry manifests itself as a striking difference between electron and hole charging energies (up to a factor of 3), and their conductance (0D to 1D transport). The magnitude of this asymmetry depends on the length of the SWCNT. Suspended SWCNTs can strongly couple to their electrostatic environment through the bending mode, and act as NEMS sensors. Shorter NEMS have higher frequencies and therefore higher sensitivity. By creating very short devices, we observe self-actuated bending mode frequencies up to approximately 280 GHz, and tune this frequency by electrostatic strain. We clearly resolve the first and second harmonic of the bending resonance and extract their effective coupling lambda on the order of one.

In high conductance devices, we observe strong electron-electron interactions, with Kondo temperatures up to Tk approximately 28 K, and use these interactions to resolve the energy spectrum of the QD. In devices combining Kondo and bending oscillations, we measure a reduction in charging energy, to the point of complete suppression.
This is, to our knowledge, the first time this effect has been observed in molecular transistors.


identifier: Nguyen, Sinh  (2013) Compressive Sensing for Multi-channel and Large-scale MIMO Networks.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Compressive sensing (CS) is a revolutionary theory that has important applications in many engineering areas. Using CS, sparse or compressible signals can be recovered from incoherent measurements with far fewer samples than the conventional Nyquist rate. In wireless communication problems where the sparsity structure of the signals and the channels can be explored and utilized, CS helps to significantly reduce the number of transmissions required to have an efficient and reliable data communication. The objective of this thesis is to study new methods of CS, both from theoretical and application perspectives, in various complex, multi-channel and large-scale wireless networks. Specifically, we explore new sparse signal and channel structures, and develop low-complexity CS-based algorithms to transmit and recover data over these networks more efficiently.

Starting from the theory of sparse vector approximation based on CS, a compressive multiple-channel estimation (CMCE) method is developed to estimate multiple sparse channels simultaneously. CMCE provides a reduction in the required overhead for the estimation of multiple channels, and can be applied to estimate the composite channels of two-way relay channels (TWRCs) with sparse intersymbol interference (ISI). To improve end-to-end error performance of the networks, various iterative estimation and decoding schemes based on CS for ISI-TWRC are proposed, for both modes of cooperative relaying: Amplify-and-Forward (AF) and Decode-and-Forward (DF). Theoretical results including the Restricted Isometry Property (RIP) and low-coherent condition of the discrete pilot signaling matrix, the performance guarantees, and the convergence of the schemes are presented in this thesis. Numerical results suggest that the error performances of the system is significantly improved by the proposed CS-based methods, thanks to the awareness of the sparsity feature of the channels.

Low-rank matrix approximation, an extension of CS-based sparse vector recovery theory, is then studied in this research to address the channel estimation problem of large-scale (or massive) multiuser (MU) multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems. A low-rank channel matrix estimation method based on nuclear-norm regularization is formulated and solved via a dual quadratic semi-definite programming (SDP) problem. An explicit choice of the regularization parameter and useful upper bounds of the error are presented to show the efficacy of the CS method in this case. After that, both the uplink channel estimation and a downlink data  recoding of massive MIMO in the interference-limited multicell scenarios are considered, where a CS-based rank-q channel approximation and multicell precoding method are proposed. The results in this work suggest that the proposed method can mitigate the effects of the pilot contamination and intercell interference, hence improves the achievable rates of the users in multicell massive MIMO systems. Finally, various low-complexity greedy techniques are then presented to confirm the efficacy and feasibility of the proposed approaches in practical applications.


identifier: Herascu, Nicoleta  (2013) Effects of distribution of excitation energy transfer times and protein dynamics on spectral hole burning in pigment-protein complexes involved in photosynthesis.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Understanding the spectral properties of natural photosynthetic complexes  (the excited state lifetimes, electron-phonon couplings, distributions of “solvent shifts” of various pigments, and the interactions between them (manifestations of excitonic effects, excitation energy transfer, charge transfer) as well as pigments site energies, lowest-energy states and origin of various emission bands) is fundamental to advance the design of the artificial photosynthetic systems. Traditionally the spectral properties of natural photosynthetic complexes are explored by either time-domain or frequency-domain high-resolution spectroscopy methods, including non-photochemical spectral hole burning (NPHB).
		The main goal of this thesis was the study of various effects of the distribution of excitation energy transfer times and protein dynamics on non-photochemical hole burning processes in photosynthetic pigment-protein complexes. In the first part of this

thesis we present our results concerning the inclusion of the distributions of excitation energy transfer (EET) rates (homogeneous line widths) and charge separation rates into
treatment of the resonant and non-resonant NPHB processes in photosynthetic chlorophyll-protein complexes. Thus, the effects of the line width distributions resulting from Förster-type EET between weakly interacting pigments with uncorrelated site distribution functions, on the resonant NPHB process have been explored both theoretically and experimentally in isolated CP43 antenna from spinach. Furthermore, we have also demonstrated that inclusion of the effects of frequency-dependent EET rate distributions and burning following EET on the treatment of non-resonant NPHB spectra of trimeric Fenna-Matthews-Olson protein from Chlorobium tepidum leads to reasonable agreement between the theoretical and experimental data.
The second part of this thesis is focused on the analysis of HB spectral properties of the lowest energy states of Photosystem I (PSI) with the aims to gain better understanding of particular structural origins of these states as well as on the protein dynamics of PSI. We explored the satellite hole structures obtained after illumination at various wavelengths and the dependence of those structures on thermocycling. In order to explore the protein dynamics in PSI SHB experiments and compare it with SPCS observations special attention was devoted to the study of the influence of the P700 redox state on resonant and nonresonant NPHB spectra from cyanobacteria Thermosynechococcus elongatus.


identifier: Proulx, Anne-Marie  (2013) Raymonde April. Voyages dans l’archive et autres histoires.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Raymonde April est une photographe montréalaise qui accumule des images tirées de sa vie depuis les années 1970. Ses photos constituent des séries et corpus d’images qui les font sortir de leurs contextes originels pour participer à des agencements formels et à des trames narratives, formant un univers photographique composé tant de visages timides que de personnages flamboyants, dans d’humbles appartements ou des scènes bucoliques de campagnes éloignées.
	Imaginer l’ensemble de ses photographies comme une archive permet de prendre du recul sur plus de trente ans de pratique et de voir comment un univers personnel peut témoigner d’histoires collectives ou appeler à des liens d’appartenance. Situant la pratique de la photographe dans une tendance que de nombreux artistes contemporains internationaux ont d’explorer l’archive, puis en étudiant le contexte social, politique et culturel dans lequel son œuvre a évolué, cette recherche se penche sur la manière dont les photos participent d’un monde fabuleux, où les histoires ne sont pas dictées d’avance et où le rôle d’interprétation est transféré au public. L’avenir de l’archive dépend ainsi de l’expérience du spectateur dans le temps et dans l’espace.
	Suivant les confluents du fleuve Saint-Laurent et déroutant sur des territoires étrangers, ce mémoire prend la forme d’un voyage métaphorique au Québec, pour approcher l’archive imaginaire formée des images d’April. C’est donc par un déplacement sur le territoire, en passant par différents lieux, que cette archive et ses possibles histoires se dessinent.


identifier: Farvardin, Ehsan  (2013) Biodiesel Spray Characterization: A Combined Numerical and Experimental Analysis.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
A fundamental study on the characteristics of biodiesel spray is performed and compared with diesel spray at the same condition. In this vein, the liquid jet in cross flow problem is applied to compare the spray penetration depth, droplet size distribution, spatial flux distribution and breakup study of biodiesel, diesel and their blends. Both experimental and numerical analyses have been performed to shed more light on the physics of atomization of liquid jets in cross flow.
In the experimental part, shadowgraph technique and image processing have been used in order to capture the penetration of the spray. In addition, droplet size measurement and spatial flux distribution are found by using Phase Doppler Particle Analysis (PDPA). The experimental study shows less penetration depth for biodiesel in comparison with diesel. On the other hand, the droplets’ mass flux distribution with biodiesel is less in the vicinity of the windward side of the spray. In the numerical part of this work, the near field of the injection is simulated using Volume of Fluid (VOF) coupled with the Large Eddy Simulation (LES) turbulence model. As a result a considerable dissimilarity has been found between the breakup regime of biodiesel and diesel. Namely, at Weber numbers of above 40, where the breakup regime of most liquids including diesel occurs in atomization mode, the breakup regime of biodiesel is bag breakup. The main cause of this behavior can be attributed to the remarkably higher viscosity of biodiesel compared with many conventional fuels.
The geometry of the orifice can play an important role in controlling the atomization parameters. In this vein, elliptical jets with various aspect ratios between 1 (circular) and 3.85 is performed for several Weber numbers, ranging from 15 to 330. The elliptical jet is first characterized in free air in order to find its capillary behavior in Rayleigh instability regime. The axis-switching phenomenon and breakup length of the jets are the important parameters characterized in this research. Second, the elliptical jets in crossflow are simulated to find differences from the circular orifices in terms of penetration depth, surface waves and breakup length. The simulations of elliptical jets in crossflow were performed with relative gas–liquid Weber numbers of 11, 18 and 30, which cover the bag and multimode primary breakup regime in crossflow. The results show remarkable changes in liquid shapes before disintegration for different aspect ratios.


identifier: Chang, Kang  (2013) Loss Minimization Control of Permanent Magnet Synchronous Machine for Electric Vehicle Applications.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
With the limits of power source taken into consideration, the efficiency of the traction drive is of particular importance in the engineering of electric vehicle and plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (EV/PHEV). Thanks to its high power density, high efficiency and high torque to weight ratio, Permanent Magnet Synchronous Machine (PMSM) distinguishes itself from other traction system candidates in the EV/PHEV application market. This research sets out to explore how the control strategy of PMSM can be optimized so as to achieve a better efficiency performance of EV/PHEV.
Prior research has put forth Loss Minimization Control Strategy (LMC) and developed its algorithm by considering a certain operating point. The focus has been placed on how to approximately solve the optimal current reference from a high order expression. So far, very limited effort has been made toward a generalized form of LMC algorithm over the full machine operation region, i.e. constant torque and constant power region. In this thesis, a generalized relationship between d-q current for the LMC of PMSM is presented, and maximum torque per ampere (MTPA) and maximum torque per voltage (MTPV) can be derived as special cases of LMC. The proposed control strategy shows better response and enhancement of the machine efficiency over full speed range when compared to conventional control strategies.
In order to develop the control method, the machine operation principle is discussed first, and the machine model is built for the control purpose. Then based on the analysis of PMSM operation performance with voltage and current constrains, the boundary of the machine operating is defined. In the light of literature review, the LMC is derived from the equivalent model of PMSM by considering the core loss. And the performance of the LMC is analyzed in detail for both constant torque and constant power region. In addition, the effects of parameters variation are investigated. Thus the control strategy is improved by considering full speed range. A Simulink model of PMSM with core loss taken into consider is developed to test the proposed control method. The experiment is performed on a lab surface-mounted PMSM. The experiment results are found to be consistent with simulation results.


identifier: Godin, Derek  (2013) Buzz Bombs: The Room, Snakes on a Plane and Cult Audiences in the Internet Era.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: This thesis will chart the lives of two films released in the 21st century that had audiences identifiable as cult: The Room (Tommy Wiseau, 2003) and Snakes on a Plane (David R. Ellis, 2006). It will cover each film's conception, production history, release, reception and ongoing half-life. But special focus will be given in each case to the online activities of the fans, be it creating fan art or spreading word of these particular films. Specifically, this thesis will discuss online fan activity pertaining to both films, and how each film and fan activities related to each fit in the context of fan studies and cult studies. This thesis is not so much about cult films per se but about how cult audiences are created and maintained in the age of modern, Web-based practices and phenomena (promotional web pages, blogging, forums, memetics, and so on).


identifier: Pijet, Andrzej  (2013) Can Satire be a Means to Visual Literacy? A Studio Thesis with Group Discussion.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: This studio-based research reflects on the role that satiric imagery plays in fostering knowledge and visual literacy. In order to elaborate on this subject in a constructive manner, six satirical paintings were created. The completed artworks were presented to a group of voluntary participants. Each participant was asked to answer five questions about the content of the paintings. The comments and answers gathered during the presentation of the artworks constitute the principal data for this research. The collected results suggest that satirical art can be a way of developing visual literacy. In fact, the process of deconstructing satirical imagery exposes students to a large variety of possible interpretations and can thus generate knowledge and foster visual literacy.


identifier: Fortin, Damien  (2013) Materiality and l'art intégré Charles Daudelin's Art in the Urban Context.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
A politic of integration of art in urban spaces emerged in Quebec during the 1960s. Moving away from the art of the monument, artists in Quebec began to create contemporary art designed specifically for an urban context. Charles Daudelin was part of a new generation of artists experimenting with the possibilities of urban art, changing the relationship between art, the public and the manner both come into contact. This thesis will explore the contribution of Daudelin to the emergence of art in the urban context and to what eventually became categorized as “public art”. Inspired by Le Corbusier’s “synthèse des arts” concept, Daudelin established his own artistic practice that involved greater collaboration between artists and architects, as well as any actors involved in public projects. Using several of Daudelin’s projects as case studies, this thesis will explored how Daudelin elaborated his approach to urban art and what he referred to as “l’art intégré” – an expression he used to name the course he established and taught at L’école des beaux-arts de Montréal from 1964 to 1968.
	Following a critical analysis of Daudelin’s artistic practice, this thesis will aim to establish Daudelin’s lasting contribution to public art as well as the different shortcomings of his understanding of art in an urban context. Using theoretical writing on the nature of public space and its relation to art, I will define Daudelin’s understanding of public space in the context of emerging interventions that questioned the open and democratic discourse surrounding public space.


identifier: Abdmolaei, Shirin  (2013) (Re)Fashioning the Body Politic: Women and the Politics of Dress in the Islamic Republic of Iran.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
As dress has been acknowledged as a powerful tool to discipline the body, validate and exemplify the nation’s identity, and maintain control over the citizen-populace, the enforcement of dress codes on the citizenry by multiple governments throughout Iran’s past century has worked to undertake various political ventures. However, each regime has persistently been more focused on the clothed bodies of Iranian women, which has subjected women to extensive regulation and control.
	 In a country where women are currently subjected to the Islamic Regime’s dress codes, the enforcement of Islamic dress has been a crucial part of the regime’s policy towards women. Integral to the regime’s project and vital to the maintenance of their power, the imposition of dress codes has worked to determine women’s opportunities and privileges while preventing them from obtaining rights over their own bodies, sexualities and identities.
	As much as the state has used Islamic dress to their ideological advantage, though, women too have realized the symbolic significance of clothing. This thesis examines what I call ‘alternative dress.’ Neither Western nor conventionally Islamic, urban Iranian women have begun adorning themselves in a myriad of colours and styles as an everyday form of nonverbal resistance and subversion to the state’s excessive hold over them. Probing into the politics of dress in Iran, this thesis explores the significance of alternative dress as a critical ideological challenge to not only state-constructed discourses of femininity, but to the state’s entire political venture.
	This study, based on personal observations, library and internet research, and interviews examines how Iranian women are using the very bodies and the same aesthetic materials as the Islamic Regime to reclaim the bodies and assert the selves which the state has worked so vigorously to control and define.


identifier: Pozzi, Alice  (2013) The Kuga-Satake Construction: A Modular Interpretation.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Given a polarized complex K3 surface, one can attach to it a complex abelian variety,
called Kuga-Satake variety. The Kuga-Satake variety is determined by the singular
cohomology of the K3 surface; on the other hand, this singular cohomology can be
recovered by means of the weight 1 Hodge structure associated to the Kuga-Satake
variety. Despite the transcendental origin of this construction, Kuga-Satake varieties
have interesting arithmetic properties. Kuga-Satake varieties of K3 surfaces defined
over number fields descend to finite extension of the field of definition. This property
suggests that the Kuga-Satake construction can be interpreted as a map between
moduli spaces. More precisely, one can define a morphism, called Kuga-Satake map,
between the moduli space of K3 surfaces and the moduli space of abelian varieties
with polarization and level structure. This morphism, defined over a number field,
is obtained by regarding the classical construction as a map between an orthogonal
Shimura variety, closely related to the moduli space of K3 surfaces, and the Siegel
modular variety. The most remarkable fact is that the Kuga-Satake map extends
to positive characteristic for almost all primes, associating to K3 surfaces abelian
varieties over finite fields. This can be proven applying a result by Faltings on the
extension of abelian schemes and the good reduction property of Kuga-Satake varieties.


identifier: Dovan, Mai-Linh  (2013) Examining the Effects of Anxiety on Running Efficiency in a Cognitive-motor Dual-task.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
ABSTRACT
Examining the Effects of Anxiety on Running Efficiency in a Cognitive-motor Dual-task
Mai-Linh Dovan
Dual-tasking is commonly defined as performing two tasks simultaneously and is commonplace in simple activities of daily living such as walking across the street while talking on a cell phone.  When even simple motor tasks such as standing or walking are coupled with a mental task (cognitive-motor dual-task), performance of one or both tasks decreases because total available attention is limited. Dual-task performance has been shown to be affected by anxiety created by a physically threatening or disturbing environment.  This can be explained by the attention-consuming effect of anxiety.  Few studies have examined whether “performance anxiety” may have similar effects.  This study examined the effects of performance-related anxiety on running when performed concurrently with a math task.  Twenty-nine healthy university level students participated voluntarily in this study.  Participants ran on a treadmill at a 20% increase from their self-selected pace while simultaneously subtracting 7 continuously from a randomly assigned 3-digit number.  Each participant was subjected to the no-anxiety and anxiety conditions.  Changes in stride length and stride frequency were analyzed using a Repeated Measures ANOVA with a significance level of  = 0.05.  Results were inconclusive, as analyses on anxiety showed that it was not successfully induced.  Further studies should consider characteristics of the sample in order to create an experimental protocol capable of inducing population-specific anxiety.


identifier: Grigoryan, Hayk  (2013) Problems related to broadcasting in graphs.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
The data transmission delays become the bottleneck on modern high speed interconnection networks utilized by high performance computing or enterprise data centers. This motivates the study directed towards finding more efficient interconnection topologies as well as more efficient algorithms for information exchange between the nodes of the given network.

Broadcasting is the process of distributing a message
from a node, called the originator, to all other nodes of a communication network. Broadcasting is used as a basic communication primitive by many higher level network operations, which involve a set of nodes in distributed systems. Therefore, it is one the most important operations, which can determine the total efficiency of a given distributed system.

   We study interconnection networks via modeling them as graphs. The results described in this work can be used for efficient message routing algorithms in switch based interconnection networks as well as in the choice of the interconnection topologies of such networks.

  This thesis is divided into six chapters. Chapter 1 gives a general introduction to the research area and literature overview. Chapter 2 studies the family of graphs for which the broadcast time is equal to the diameter. Chapter 3 studies the routing and broadcasting problem in the Knodel graph. Chapter 4 studies the possible vertex degrees and the possible connections between vertices of different degrees in a broadcast graph. Using this, a new lower bound is obtained on broadcast function. Chapter 5 presents some miscellaneous results. Chapter 6 summarizes the thesis.


identifier: Ghasemzadeh, Moein  (2013) Privacy Preservation in High-dimensional Trajectory Data for Passenger Flow Analysis.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: The increasing use of location-aware devices provides many opportunities for analyzing and mining human mobility. The trajectory of a person can be represented as a sequence of visited locations with different timestamps. Storing, sharing, and analyzing personal trajectories may pose new privacy threats. Previous studies have shown that employing traditional privacy models and anonymization methods often leads to low information quality in the resulting data. In this thesis we propose a method for achieving anonymity in a trajectory database while preserving the information to support effective passenger flow analysis. Specifically, we first extract the passenger flowgraph, which is a commonly employed representation for modeling uncertain moving objects, from the raw trajectory data. We then anonymize the data with the goal of minimizing the impact on the flowgraph. Extensive experimental results on both synthetic and real-life data sets suggest that the framework is effective to overcome the special challenges in trajectory data anonymization, namely, high dimensionality, sparseness, and sequentiality.


identifier: Has, Geneviève  (2013) Le syndrome de Sisyphe dans la recherche en technologies langagières au Canada.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: L’industrie de la traduction au Canada est caractérisée par des facteurs sociolinguistiques, politiques et historiques qui l’ont longtemps mise hors d’atteinte des fluctuations internationales de la demande en traduction. Or, ici, comme dans le reste du monde, les effectifs de traduction ne peuvent répondre à la demande croissante. Pour tailler sa place sur le marché mondial, le Canada devrait pouvoir compter sur son industrie des technologies langagières. Cependant, considérant sa position de pionnier dans les années 70 (avec des succès comme TAUM-MÉTÉO et Termium), le Canada accuse aujourd’hui un retard considérable. Nous avons voulu retracer l’histoire des technologies langagières au Canada, particulièrement celle des laboratoires de recherche fondamentale, pour mettre en lumière les défis qu’ont dû relever les chercheurs canadiens. Le mémoire comprend donc une présentation du contexte sociohistorique qui a vu naître les technologies de la traduction au Canada ainsi qu’une étude centrée sur quatre laboratoires canadiens : TAUM, CITI, RALI et CNRC/CRTL. Notre analyse révèle donc que les facteurs sociologiques, politiques et linguistiques propres au Canada ont causé des tensions, des incohérences et des dissensions qui ont considérablement ralenti la recherche fondamentale en technologies langagières au pays.


identifier: Mendoza, José  (2013) Role of the medial prefrontal cortex in the extinction of conditioned appetitive behaviour in rats.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: The infralimbic medial prefrontal cortex (IL-PFC) has been posited as a common node in distinct neural circuits that mediate the extinction of appetitive and aversive conditioning. However, appetitive extinction is typically assessed using instrumental conditioning procedures, whereas the extinction of aversive conditioning is studied using Pavlovian fear-conditioning. The role of the IL-PFC in the extinction of appetitive conditioning acquired through Pavlovian learning remains largely unexplored. The present studies utilized animal models of Pavlovian- and instrumental-conditioning with sucrose to study the involvement of the IL-PFC in appetitive extinction. Based on fear-extinction we predicted that inactivating the IL-PFC before extinction would have minimal effect on within-session extinction, but would impair the storage of extinction memory. Control studies were conducted in the prelimbic prefrontal cortex (PL-PFC), which is not involved in extinction. PL-PFC inactivation did not affect the acquisition or recall of extinction memory. Counter to our predictions, inactivating the IL-PFC facilitated the extinction of conditioned Pavlovian- and instrumental sucrose-seeking, with no effect on extinction recall tested 24 hr later. In separate studies, inactivating the IL-PFC during a Pavlovian conditioning session in which cue presentations were paired with sucrose did not affect cue-elicited behaviour, but increased responding during inter-trial intervals. The same manipulation performed during instrumental conditioning did not impact lever pressing for sucrose. These findings contradict a growing body of literature suggesting that the IL-PFC is important for the acquisition and consolidation of extinction memory in appetitive conditioning tasks.


identifier: Arafati, Mahtab  (2013) Privacy Preserving Data-as-a-Service Mashups.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Data-as-a-Service (DaaS) is a paradigm that provides data on demand to consumers
across different cloud platforms over the Internet. Yet, a single DaaS provider may not be
able to fulfill a data request. Consequently, the concept of DaaS mashup was introduced to
enable DaaS providers to dynamically integrate their data on demand depending on consumers’
requests. Utilizing DaaS mashup, however, involves some challenges. Mashing
up data from multiple sources to answer a consumer’s request might reveal sensitive information
and thereby compromise the privacy of individuals. Moreover, data integration
of arbitrary DaaS providers might not always be sufficient to answer incoming requests.
In this thesis, we provide a cloud-based framework for privacy-preserving DaaS mashup
that enables secure collaboration between DaaS providers for the purpose of generating an
anonymous dataset to support data mining. We propose a greedy algorithm to determine
a suitable group of DaaS providers whose data can satisfy a given request. Furthermore,
our framework securely integrates the data from multiple DaaS providers while preserving
the privacy of the resulting mashup data. Experiments on real-life data demonstrate that
our DaaS mashup framework is scalable to large set of databases and it can efficiently and effectively satisfy the data privacy and data mining requirements specified by the DaaS
providers and the data consumers.


identifier: Karim, Mahmoud  (2013) The Sodium-Hydrogen Exchanger Nhx1 Drives Late Endosome-Vacuole Membrane Fusion.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: This dissertation reports the function of Nhx1, an endosomal Na+ (K+)/H+ exchanger, in late endosome – vacuole membrane fusion in the model eukaryote S. cerevisiae. Nhx1 is found on the late endosome (LE) where it is known to play a pivotal role in endocytosis. Specifically, loss-of-function mutations in NHX1 block delivery of internalized surface proteins and newly synthesized proteins to the vacuole, the equivalent of the metazoan lysosome in yeast. Because membrane fusion between late endosomes and vacuoles is the final event necessary for protein delivery, and because Nhx1 binds Gyp6, a Rab-GTPase activating protein that is predicted to regulate membrane fusion, I hypothesized that Nhx1 may play a role in LE – vacuole membrane fusion.  Unfortunately, there are no existing assays that directly measure this fusion event. Thus, to test this hypothesis, I first devised and optimized an in vitro LE – vacuole membrane fusion assay, which relies on the assembly of complementary β-lactamase fragments to form an active enzyme upon lumenal content mixing. I then used this biochemical assay to characterize the ions and protein machinery responsible for this fusion event. I then demonstrate that Nhx1 is important for LE-vacuole fusion, but its role in this process is independent of its interaction with Gyp6. Together, these results support a model of LE – vacuole fusion that requires H+-transport by Nhx1 upstream of SNARE mediated bilayer mixing.


identifier: ding, shiyi  (2013) The Relationship between Largest Shareholder’s Ownership and Firm Performance: Evidence from Mainland China.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: There is limited research on understanding the relation between concentrated ownership structure and firm performance in the Chinese market.  In this paper, I analyze this relationship using data from the small firm and growth enterprise markets in China.  I conduct several cross-sectional tests using Tobin’s q and ROA as measures of firm performance. I find a significant cubic relationship between Tobin’s q and the largest shareholder’s ownership level while unaffiliated block-holders consistently show a negative effect on firm value.  My results show that firm value first declines when family ownership is between 0 and 25.9 percent, then rises in the 25.9-54.2 percent range, and again falls when family ownership is greater than 54.2 percent. Furthermore, I find a non-linear relation between ROA and the largest shareholder’s ownership level.  I also examine the effect of firm age and industry.  While firm age is not related to firm performance in general, a positive relation is found for older firms.  Finally, significant results with profitability are found for firms in the service industry.


identifier: Tousignant, Zoë  (2013) Magazines and the Making of Photographic Modernism in Canada, 1925-1945.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
The history of photography in Canada in the first half of the twentieth century is a field of study that has been only too rarely explored. The current understanding of this period is that Canadian participation in the development and dissemination of the international movement of modernist photography was minor. This thesis aims to correct this understanding by showing that the visual languages of photographic modernism were being manifested in the sphere of popular culture: specifically in Canadian mass-circulation magazines.
	My approach to modernism is based on the idea that it was composed of a set of key visual conventions (or languages), which, although pre-existing their exploitation in Canadian magazines, were put to singular use in this context. The six illustrated magazines that constitute my research corpus (The Canadian Magazine, Maclean’s, Chatelaine, La Revue Moderne, La Revue populaire, and Le Samedi), studied between 1925 and 1945, all proclaimed their missions in terms of Canadianess and were addressed specifically to a Canadian readership. This nationalist rhetoric acts as a discursive frame for the magazines’ photographic content. Although many of the photographs published in these magazines were acquired from foreign sources, they were selected, published, seen, and read by Canadians.
	The first two chapters of this thesis describe, respectively, my methodological framework and the discourse of Canadianism at work in the magazines. The different languages of photographic modernism being employed in the magazines studied are discussed in the following four chapters. In each of these, I endeavour to make links between the images published in Canadian magazines, the discourses significant to the modern period, and the manifestation of these discourses within the canonical history of modernist photography. My intent in doing so is to show the porosity between the local and the international, and to expand the understanding of photographic modernism in Canada.
	This is the first wide-ranging study that closely investigates the photographic content of popular Canadian magazines and situates such content within the larger history of modernist photography. Approaching the magazine as a multi-dimensional photographic object, this thesis also aims to contribute to the growing body of knowledge on the history of vernacular photography in Canada.


identifier: Richard, Joël D.  (2013) Membrane protein degradation is intrinsic to vacuole fusion.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: In eukaryotic cells, integral membrane protein (IMP) turnover is an important contributor to cell physiology. Whereas the only known mechanism for IMP degradation is the multivesicular body (MVB) pathway, there are examples of IMPs that eschew this pathway and travel directly to the vacuole surface, suggesting that a second mechanism acts at the vacuole. Previously, it was shown that homotypic vacuole fusion yields an intralumenal membrane fragment within the fusion product, providing the cell with a unique opportunity to internalize (and thus, degrade) a portion of vacuolar membrane and its protein cargoes. Based on this result, we hypothesized that vacuole IMPs are sorted for internalization during the sub-reactions that lead to vacuole fusion. Using epifluorescence microscopy, I confirmed that Fth1-GFP and Ybt1-GFP localize exclusively to the vacuole membrane, and are sorted into, or out of, respectively, the membrane domain that is internalized upon homotypic vacuole fusion. Additionally, I demonstrated that Mup1, a surface methionine transporter, colonizes the vacuole limiting membrane upon disruption of the MVB pathway, and also becomes internalized during homotypic vacuole fusion. This study provides the first evidence of a novel selective IMP degradation mechanism, which works independently or complementarily to the MVB pathway. Further studies are required to confirm whether vacuole IMPs are sorted based on their ubiquitylation status (as in the MVB pathway), or whether the vacuole fusion protein machinery has a role within this process.


identifier: Islam, Md. Mezbahul  (2013) Thermodynamic Modeling and Experimental Investigation of the Mg-Cu-Ni-Y Quaternary System.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
In this work, a self-consistent thermodynamic database for the Mg-Cu-Ni-Y system has been constructed by combining the thermodynamic descriptions of the constituent binary and ternary sub-systems. The modified quasichemical model has been used to describe the liquid phase in this system, for the first time, which accounts for the short range ordering. Isothermal sections of the Mg-Cu-Y and Mg-Ni-Y systems at 673 K and Cu-Ni-Y system at 973 K have been constructed experimentally. Diffusion couples and key samples have been employed for establishing the phase equilibria. Microstructural characterizations using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and phase identification using x-ray diffraction (XRD) and wave dispersive x-ray spectrometer (WDS) have been carried out. Twelve ternary intermetallic compounds have been identified in the Mg-Ni-Y system. Crystallographic prototypes of two of these compounds; 1 (MgNiY4) and 2 (MgNi2Y2) have been found and their lattice parameters have been determined using Rietveld analysis of the XRD patterns. Also, ternary solubility of 3 (MgNi4Y) has been found to be from 9.2 to 25.9 at.% Mg with constant 65 at.% Ni. Ternary solubility of the binary compounds in the Mg-Cu-Y, Mg-Ni-Y and Cu-Ni-Y systems has been determined. A complete mutual solubility between CuY-NiY and Cu4Y-Ni4Y in the Cu-Ni-Y system has been identified. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) experiments have been conducted for selected key samples of the Mg-Cu-Y, Mg-Ni-Y and Cu-Ni-Y systems to determine the liquidus and other phase transformation temperatures. These results have been compared with the thermodynamic modeling which showed good agreement. Thermodynamic calculations of the Mg-Cu-Ni system also show consistency with the literature data.

Liquidus projections of the four ternary systems have been calculated based on the present thermodynamic modeling considering the current experimental results and data from the literature. All four ternary systems have been combined in one database for the Mg-Cu-Ni-Y quaternary.