identifier: ElBakry, Ola  (2013) Analysis of Gene Expression Microarray Time Series Data.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Regulatory interactions among genes and gene products are dynamic processes, and hence, modeling these processes is essential. In recent years, research efforts in the field of microarray data analysis have been constantly increasing due to the rapid growth of microarray technology, and due to the growing interest in the understanding of complex diseases. It is of vital importance to identify and characterize changes in gene expression over time. Since genes work in a cascade of networks, reconstruction of gene regulatory networks is a crucial process for a thorough understanding of the underlying biological interactions. Analysis of large scale microarray data is a challenging problem, where most of the microarray time series have only five to ten time points and the conventional time analysis techniques are not applicable.
The present study focuses on two important aspects of the microarray data analysis. The first part is concerned with the identification of the differentially expressed genes, whereas the second part with the reconstruction of the gene regulatory networks. New computational methods for time course microarray data that assist in analyzing and modeling the dynamics of the gene regulations are developed in this study.
The main challenges in the identification of differently expressed genes arise due to the availability of a very small number of replicated samples (usually two or three samples) in the face of a huge number of genes (thousands of genes). Further, most of the previous works, in this area have focused on static gene expressions, with only a limited number on methods for selecting the genes that exhibit changes with time. In the first part of this study, a general statistical method for detecting changes in microarray expression over time within a single or multiple biological groups is presented. The method is based on repeated measures (RM) ANOVA, in which, unlike the classical F-statistic, statistical significance is determined by taking into account the time dependency of the microarray data. A correction factor for this RM F-statistic that leads to higher sensitivity as well as a high specificity is introduced. The two approaches for calculating the p-values that exist in the literature, that is, those resampling techniques of gene-wise p-values and pooled p-values, are investigated. It is shown that the pooled p-values method compared to the method of the gene-wise p-values is more powerful and computationally less expensive, and hence it is applied along with the correction factor introduced to various synthetic data sets and a real data set. The results from the synthetic data sets show that the proposed technique outperforms the state-of-the-art methods, whereas those from using the real data set are found to be consistent with the existing knowledge concerning the presence of the genes.
As for the reconstruction of gene regulatory networks, challenges, such as the relatively large number of genes compared to the small number of time points, result in an underdetermined problem. Additional constraints and information are needed to be able to capture the gene regulatory dynamics. Since gene regulatory interactions involve underlying biological processes, such as transcription and translation that take place at different time points, the consideration of different delays is a very crucial, yet a demanding problem. In the second part of this study, an approach based on pair-wise correlations and lasso that take into account the different time delays between various genes, is presented to infer gene regulatory networks. The proposed method is applied to both synthetic and real data sets. The results from the synthetic data show that the proposed approach outperforms the existing methods, and the results from the real data are found to be more consistent with the existing knowledge concerning the possible gene interactions.
The study on the identification of differentially expressed genes and the reconstruction of the gene regulatory networks, undertaken in this thesis, can be regarded to be directed towards a better understanding of the cellular dynamics.


identifier: attar, shaghayegh  (2013) the hydraulics of near-boundary flow and sediment transport in river channels.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

type: Thesis NonPeerReviewed

abstract:
This research has contributed to an improved understanding of near-bed flow in rivers and the advancement of modelling flow and sediment transport in multiple dimensions. The understanding and prediction of the hydraulic behaviour of river channels are essential to water resources development and river-engineering activity planning. River flow features turbulence and complicated velocity distribution, especially near the bed. An ice cover typically presents in northern rivers during the winter and influences the flow underneath; this further complicates the velocity distribution. The problem of flow near the boundaries (the bed and ice) is notoriously difficult to tackle because of strong velocity shear, multiple length and associated time-scale motions and bed sediment movement. In spite of previous research efforts focusing on the problem, many issues are still unresolved.
This study has resolved the issue with respect to the link between near-bed flow and flow-induced bed shear stress in a computationally efficient manner. The research work consists of (a) derivation of hydraulic parameters necessary for describing and modelling the velocity field and (b) prediction of the bed shear stress τb and resultant sediment transport along the riverbed (bedload). In part (a), a large volume of winter observations of water velocity from ice-covered Canadian rivers have been obtained. Assume that the velocity distribution between the bed and ice can be described as a two-layer system. Multi-parameter regression analyses are performed on the observations, yielding a function with two exponents and one coefficient as hydraulic parameters. These parameters reveal the relative importance of the bed and ice’s influence on velocity distribution. The function describes the vertical distribution of velocity. Its practical significance includes convenient estimates of winter discharge, which is expensive and extremely difficult to measure in the field. The observations have also been analysed to produce energy and momentum coefficients. These coefficients are rarely available but are necessary input to one-dimensional flow predictions. Additionally, part (a) includes the development of a mathematical model based on the boundary layer theory and application of it to the bed-influenced layer of ice-covered river flow for determining the drag coefficient. The concept of drag coefficient is widely used to give dynamic condition at the riverbed for predicting flow in three dimensions. Part (b) deals with the key issue of τb for bedload computations. An existent multi-layer hydrodynamics model has been extended to explore methods useful to link τb to near-bed flow. Such a link will improve computational efficiency. The model is applied to flow over gravel river dunes – a case of complicated velocity distributions. The model results of velocity and τb are shown to agree well with acoustic Doppler velocimeter measurements from flume experiments. The predicted τb values are used to compute fractional transport rates of non-uniform sediments over the dunes. For bedload modelling, the logarithmic law is shown to provide an appropriate link between near-bed flow and τb; this law should be applied to velocities at a wall distance of approximately 300. When using the multi-layer modelling approach, one should allow a minimum of five layers to resolve the velocity structure from the bed to the wall distance.


identifier: Hannah, Adad  (2013) Extending the Instantaneous: Pose, Performance, Duration, and the Construction of the Photographic Image from Muybridge to the Present Day.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Extending the Instantaneous: Pose, Performance, Duration, and the Construction of the Photographic Image from Muybridge to the Present Day
Adad Hannah, Ph.D.
Concordia University Humanities Programme, 2013
This thesis reports the results of my research from 2005-2012 into the roots of photography—more specifically, the pose, performance, and duration in relation to both still and moving photographic images. Through a series of intertwined case studies, readings, observations, and explorations I show how historical works of art are reactivated through interactions with viewers as well as reinterpretations by artists. I have also made a body of artworks exploring the issues discussed in this thesis, and explore in this written component the connections between my academic research and my artistic practice.
By looking at the roots of photography, the instantaneous photography movement that followed, and the chronophotography of Englishman Eadweard J. Muybridge and the Frenchman Étienne-Jules Marey, I construct a theoretical framework within which I can discuss the uses of photography and the photographic in my own work and by artists such as Walker Evans, Yves Klein, Joseph Beuys, Dan Graham, and Gillian Wearing. I also look at contemporary practices by artists today who use new technologies to explore the history of image capture —from silver salts and zoopraxiscopes to digital cameras and online videos.
Using theorists who investigate the subject using interdisciplinary frameworks, I show overlapping points of agreement towards an understanding of the photographic as a medium-independent state. By bringing thinkers as diverse as Mieke Bal, Mikhail Bakhtin, Roland Barthes, Geoffrey Batchen, Rosalind Krauss, and Penelope Curtis into dialogue I am able to delve deeply into the meaning of photography and the pose from the middle of the nineteenth century to the present time.


identifier: Rebolledo, Felix  (2013) Becoming One with the Image.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

title: Becoming One with the Image

abstract:
The primary concern of Becoming One with the Screen is the question of how experience is integrated into the general unfolding of actuality as an imagistic process. It deals with the problem though the experience of spectatorship in cinema. We present the experience of participating in a film screening as a relational and associative process in order to undo the dualistic spectator/screen relationship reflective of the subject/object relation. And radiating outwards from this problem, memory looms large as explicatory of the integrative process. As such, we examine the concept‐cluster of words surrounding memory not only to (re)contextualize the discourse on memory but to tie it to the historical tradition and deal with the complementary concepts of Faciality and The Fold from the point of view of imagistic thought and memory. Central to the discussion will be the process of adumbration by which the Many become One as the perpetuum mobile of the eventual continuity of change in actuality as being. We shall advance that the façade of becoming actual of the world as a moving imagistic front as the perception of the integrated affirmation of being one with the image world.
Key Words: Memory, immanence, fold, faciality, spectatorship


identifier: Hinton, Richard  (2013) Shock Radio: Tracing the Roots of an Expressive Social Movement.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Since the 1980s, an important trend in talk radio has established itself in various North American cities, and has come to be known as “shock radio.”  Where they have not looked at the issues of free speech and regulation of the genre, previous studies have provided rich insights into the audience and discourse.  The present research lays out a profile of the listening audience and connects it with the themes of shock radio within the framework of a social movement perspective.  It is hypothesized that shock radio expresses the resentment of a demographic that has been denied recognition in the emerging structure of group rights.  Semi-structured interviews combined with questionnaires were administered to listeners of Quebec City’s CHOI-FM and of American shock host Howard Stern.  Respondents were mostly male and non-unionized private sector workers or self-employed.  Resentment at group claims was present among a certain segment of the audience, offering support to the hypothesis that shock radio draws its appeal from its expression of resentment.


identifier: Brierre, Dominic  (2013) Union Education for Workplace Diversity: a Case Study.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Canada’s workplaces do not reflect the population’s cultural diversity. Realizing this, a growing number of employers resort to remedial measures and diversity-sensitive policies. In Quebec, where nearly 45% of all workers are unionized, what roles do—and should—unions play in workplace diversity and, more precisely, in workplace diversification? How do unions promote more equal access to employment, considering that workplace diversity depends on it?
	This case study explores the experiences of diversity training developers and facilitators in a labour union organisation. It also examines the role of union education in promoting workplace diversity and countering hiring discrimination against visible minorities.
	Data presented are pulled from documents, interviews with diversity programme developers and facilitators, and observation of the first-ever diversity training session organised by the Fédération des travailleurs et travailleuses du Québec (FTQ), Quebec’s largest union federation. This research highlights the complexities associated with union-organised diversity training sessions. It underscores: (a) the need to measure outcomes and stop training blindly; (b) the need to leverage organisational capacity to include diversity training in long-term planning; (c) the difficulties of dealing with sensitive material and (d) the need to return to the legal definition of visible minorities.


identifier: Chowdhury, Md. Rejaul Karim  (2013) Switching Equipment Location/Allocation in hybrid PONs.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Our research goal is to investigate the FTTX (Fiber-to-the Home/Premises/Curb) passive optical network (PON) for the deployment of BISAN (Broadband Internet Subscriber Access Network) to exploit the opportunities of optical fiber enabled technologies as well as of passive switching equipment. Indeed, the deployment of FTTX PON is the most
OPEX-friendly scenario, because it allows for completely passive access networks through minimizing the number of active components in the network. Previously, most FTTX PON
architectures are designed based on the principle of either time division multiplexing (TDM) technology or wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) technology. We focus on designing the best possible architectures of FTTX PON, specifically hybrid PONs, which embraces both TDM and WDM technology. A hybrid PON architecture is very efficient as it is not limited to any specific PON technology, rather it is flexible enough to deploy TDM/WDM technology depending on the type (i.e unicast/multicast) and amount of traffic demand of the end-users. The advantages of a hybrid PON are of two folds: (i) it can offer increased data rate to each user by employing WDM technology, (ii) it can provide flexible bandwidth utilization by employing TDM technology.
In this thesis, we concentrate on determining the optimized covering of a geographical area by a set of cost-effective hybrid PONs. We also focus on the greenfield deployment of a
single hybrid PON. It should be worthy to mention that while investigating the deployment of hybrid PONs, the research community around the world considers the specifications of either the physical layer or the optical layer. But an efficient planning for PON deployment
should take into account the constraints of the physical and optical layers in order that both layers can work together harmoniously. We concentrate our research on the network dimensioning and the selection as well as the placement of the switching equipment in hybrid PONs with the intention of considering the constraints of both physical and optical layers.
We determine the layout of an optimized PON architecture while provisioning wavelengths in a hybrid PON. We also propose to select the switching equipment depending on the type (unicast/multicast) of traffic demand. Finally, we determine the best set of hybrid PONs along with their cascading architecture, type and location of their switching equipment while satisfying the network design constraints such as the number of output ports of the
switching equipment and maximum allowed signal power loss experienced at each end user’s premises.
In this thesis, we propose two novel schemes for the greenfield deployment of a single hybrid PON. The first scheme consists of two phases in which a heuristic algorithm and a novel column generation (CG) based integer linear programming (ILP) optimization model are proposed in the 1st and 2nd phase respectively. In the second scheme, a novel integrated CG based ILP cross layer optimization model is proposed for the designing of a single hybrid
PON.
We also propose two novel schemes to deal with the greenfield deployment of multiple hybrid PONs in a given geographical area. These two schemes determine the best set of cost-effective hybrid PONs in order to serve all the end users in a given neighborhood.
The first scheme executes in four phases in which two heuristic algorithms, a CG based ILP model and an ILP optimization model are proposed in the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th phase respectively. In the second scheme, an ILP model as well as a CG based ILP model, another ILP model as well as another CG based ILP model, a CG based ILP model and an ILP optimization model are proposed during four consecutive phases.
Our proposed scheme can optimize the design of a set of hybrid PONs covering a given geographic area as well as the selection of the best cascading architecture 1/2/mixedstage)
for each selected PON. It minimizes the overall network deployment cost based on the location of the OLT and the ONUs while granting all traffic demands. The scheme
emphasizes on the optimum placement of equipment in a hybrid PON infrastructure due to the critical dependency between the network performances and a proper deployment of
its equipment, which, in turn depends on the locations of the users. It is a quite powerful scheme as it can handle data instances with up to several thousands ONUs. On the basis of the computational results, the proposed scheme leads to an efficient automated tool for network design, planning, and performance evaluation which can be beneficial for the network designers.


identifier: Gorti, Indrani  (2013) A Flexible and Scalable Data Model for Multi-Tenant Databases for Software as a Service.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: We study existing data models for multi-tenant architectures for Software as a Service (SaaS) in the context of cloud computing, and compare them in terms of space utilization, query formulation and processing.  We propose a new model called, the Index table layout (ITL), which stores data column-wise, and enjoys a simple mapping process between schemas of original data of tenants and the cloud schema, thus making the model flexible.  We conducted experiments to evaluate the performance of the ITL model, for which we used three types of queries, compiled from the literature as well as new queries.  The results of our numerous experiments show significant improvement over existing models.


identifier: Nicoll, Peter-James  (2013) Constituency of Rage: Strange gods, 'realishness,' and the rise of the Hysterical Right.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: The advent of the Tea Party movement shortly after the inauguration of Barack Obama signaled the beginning of the Republican Party’s rapid shift to the far right. By exploiting the Tea Party as a ‘constituency of rage,’ and anti-Obama sentiment in general, the Republicans undertook a deliberate project of legislative obstruction for purely political and ideological reasons, resulting in an unprecedented gridlock in Congress. That a major political party should undergo such a dramatic and far-reaching change in only four years is remarkable. Meanwhile, a certain collective hysteria became more and more evident on the Right, together with a rejection of facts, science, and even reality. This paper establishes a conceptual model and an accompanying social mechanics to provide a new critical perspective through which such changes can be analyzed and understood. This model uses an extended relativistic physics analogy of ‘sociopolitical spacetime’ in order to unify hysteria with the influence of ‘strange gods’ in the political media (such as Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck, and Rush Limbaugh), the convergence of which creates ‘warps’ in which Tea Partiers and Republicans experience a collective phenomenon of ‘realishness’—the ontological and phenomenological analogue to Stephen Colbert’s ‘truthiness.’ Finally, I provide my own assessment of the state of right-wing politics in the Obama era, and what this suggests for the future of social conservatism in the twenty-first century.


identifier: El Demerdash, Osama  (2013) Mining photographic collections to enhance the precision and recall of search results using semantically controlled query expansion.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Driven by a larger and more diverse user-base and datasets, modern Information Retrieval techniques are
striving to become contextually-aware in order to provide users with a more satisfactory search experience.
While text-only retrieval methods are significantly more accurate and faster to render results than purely
visual retrieval methods, these latter provide a rich complementary medium which can be used to obtain
relevant and different results from those obtained using text-only retrieval. Moreover, the visual retrieval
methods can be used to learn the user’s context and preferences, in particular the user’s relevance feedback,
and exploit them to narrow down the search to more accurate results. Despite the overall deficiency in
precision of visual retrieval result, the top results are accurate enough to be used for query expansion, when
expanded in a controlled manner.
The method we propose overcomes the usual pitfalls of visual retrieval:
1. The hardware barrier giving rise to prohibitively slow systems.
2. Results dominated by noise.
3. A significant gap between the low-level features and the semantics of the query.
In our thesis, the first barrier is overcome by employing a simple block-based visual features which
outperforms a method based on MPEG-7 features specially at early precision (precision of the top results).
For the second obstacle, lists from words semantically weighted according to their degree of relation to
the original query or to relevance feedback from example images are formed. These lists provide filters
through which the confidence in the candidate results is assessed for inclusion in the results. This allows
for more reliable Pseudo-Relevance Feedback (PRF). This technique is then used to bridge the third barrier;
the semantic gap. It consists of a second step query, re-querying the data set with an query expanded with
weighted words obtained from the initial query, and semantically filtered (SF) without human intervention.
We developed our PRF-SF method on the IAPR TC-12 benchmark dataset of 20,000 tourist images, obtaining
promising results, and tested it on the different and much larger Belga benchmark dataset of approximately
500,000 news images originating from a different source. Our experiments confirmed the potential of
the method in improving the overall Mean Average Precision, recall, as well as the level of diversity of the
results measured using cluster recall.


identifier: Hortop, E. Gaëlle  (2013) The Why and How of Goal Pursuits: Effects of Global Autonomous Motivation and Perceived Control on Emotional Well-being.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: This study examined the effects of global autonomous motivation and global perceived control on young adults’ adaptive goal striving and emotional wellbeing. We reasoned that autonomously motivated participants who also perceive high levels of control would make accelerated progress with the pursuit of their most important goal and experience associated increases in emotional wellbeing. By contrast, we predicted that these benefits of autonomous motivation would be reduced among participants who perceive low levels of control. A 6-month longitudinal study of 125 college students was conducted, and self-reported global autonomous motivation, global perceived control, progress towards the most important goal, and emotional well-being were assessed. Regression analyses showed that the combination of high baseline levels of global autonomous motivation and global perceived control was associated with accelerated goal progress after 6 months, which mediated 6-month increases in emotional well-being. These benefits were not apparent among autonomously motivated participants who perceived low levels of control. The study’s findings suggest that global autonomous motivation and perceived control may need to work together to foster adaptive goal striving and emotional well-being.


identifier: El Osmani, Amine  (2013) Characterizing the roles of the putative Tor1p effector, Sfp1p, in growth and development of the fungal pathogen Candida albicans.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: C. albicans is one of the most common fungal pathogens of humans. Important virulence-determining traits include proper cell proliferation and the ability to develop into different cell types, including yeast, pseudohyphae and hyphae. Both of these processes are dependent on environmental cues such as availability and types of nutrients. It is thus important to understand how these cues are sensed and integrated with the machinery that control cell division and development. The TOR pathway plays an important role in mediating environmental conditions in many organisms, and accordingly, TOR kinase is required for cell division and the maintenance of hyphal growth in C. albicans (1). However, the mechanisms by which TOR regulates these processes in the pathogen are not clear. Here, we provide the first characterization of Sfp1p, an orthologue of a major downstream effector of TOR kinase in S. cerevisiae. Deletion of SFP1 in C. albicans resulted in a decrease in cell size, which could be reduced further in the presence of poor carbon source media. The sfp1D/sfp1D cells grew slowly, formed small colonies, and were more sensitive to rapamycin, suggesting that Sfp1p mediates a least part of Tor1p function in C. albicans. Transcription profiles of the deletion strain demonstrated down-regulation of genes involved in ribosome biogenesis, translation, and amino acid synthesis, consistent with a role in the TOR pathway. However, many hyphal-specific genes were upregulated, as well as some genes associated with the opaque cell fate, suggesting additional and novel links with development.


identifier: Despard, Erin  (2013) The Dream of 'la ville fleurie': A Non-Linear History and Pragmatic Criticism of Public Gardens in Montreal.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
This thesis sets out to theorize the social and political agency of public gardens, and to find a means of comprehending their potential for facilitating creative as opposed to prescriptive cultural change, as well as their (perhaps more predominant) culturally conservative tendencies. I pursue this objective in large part through a more fulsome description of effects specific to gardens, attempting to develop a criticism capable of perceiving the function of different garden forms, and a more open-ended trajectory for their evolution.

The focus is on gardens in Montreal, as seen in part through the lens of the city’s annual beautification campaigns (which ran more or less continuously between 1914 and 1989) and a variety of other horticulturally-oriented beautification initiatives undertaken by the municipal administration and in large part enabled by the staff and resources of the Montreal Botanical Garden. Culminating in the city’s hosting of the Floralies internationales in 1980, this history provides context for the evolution of a distinctly horticultural urbanism in Montreal—one which attributes to gardens an enhanced social significance and sees in them an avenue for (usually prescriptive) cultural change.

Against the background of this history, as well as in more active juxtaposition with it, I investigate the social and political functioning of two particular gardens in Montreal—one found at the site of the Botanical Garden and the other at the Jardins des Floralies in Parc Jean-Drapeau. By weaving together an experimental fieldwork, creative writing practice and archival research, I attempt to describe a much wider range of effects in and of gardens than is usual from either a social scientific or art historical point of view. Juxtaposing those descriptions in turn with analysis of a variety of (historically related) media forms, I produce a way of seeing gardens that registers a distinctive but underappreciated sociality (in other words, the basis for re-imagining their role in processes of social change).


identifier: Hamila, Chahine M.  (2013) Financial Contracting in Islamic Venture Capital: The Form-Substance Dichotomy.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Based on a series of interviews in Malaysia and the United Arab Emirates, we conduct a comprehensive exploratory study of Islamic Venture Capital focusing on the distinguishing features of its financial rights and securities and the context which affect their design. We use a qualitative methodology, the Grounded Theory approach, to generate new theory.
We find that while Islamic contractual rights and securities may have formal differences with their conventional  counterparts, they are very close in economic substance. This form-substance dichotomy is a central characteristic of Islamic Venture Capital. Market demand for an Islamic brand of venture capital based on ideals of fairness and solidarity clashes with the reality of an array of agency issues and claims venture capitalists need to address. The capacity of Islamic venture capitalists to address these conflicting forces increases with their experience. Their ability is, however, constrained by their fiscal and legal environments. In form, commitment to Islamic ideals is therefore signaled through an investment policy excluding a small number of industries and through the use of Islamic financial instruments with little economic difference, if any, with their conventional counterparts. Minor economic inefficiencies can result, although overall, they are insignificant. In substance, Islamic Venture Capital is thus operationally and economically a near-equivalent to conventional venture capital.
Following our analysis of the interviews, we position our theoretical contribution within related literature through an extensive survey. To further support our theory of form-substance dichotomy, that is the process by which the difference in form is maintained, but not in economic substance, we demonstrate the near-equivalence of Islamic financial instruments’ economic substance with their conventional counterparts’ through a systematic comparison of economic payouts for the entire Islamic venture capital asset class.
This research is unique in that it is the first to our knowledge to address the topic of financial contracting in Islamic venture capital. Previous research in Islamic finance is heavily normative, and there is generally a dearth of research publications dealing with either Islamic financial contracting or Islamic venture capital.


identifier: Olsson, Mark  (2013) “In the Name of Common Sense, Had Not Gentlemen Got Enough?” The Moral and Constitutional Objections to Manifest Destiny, 1803-1848.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: In the first half of the nineteenth century, the United States extended its territory westward from the original border along the Mississippi River until it possessed all the territory north of the Rio Grande and south of 49° N, all the way to the Pacific Ocean. The majority of Americans approved of this expansion, which came to be termed Manifest Destiny. Concerning those American citizens who opposed Manifest Destiny, historians have constructed models that generally describe the dissent as motivated by economic self-interest, sectional friction, partisan politics, or by a lack of the technological capacity necessary to efficiently govern distant regions. These models are very useful, but do not paint a complete picture. In some cases, opposition to territorial expansion was based on a conviction that the actions being taken violated the Constitution of the United States. For some, their dissent was rooted in a sense of morality and the belief that the United States was acting in a manner dangerous to republican ideals, and a stain on the nation’s character and reputation. This thesis will examine this form of opposition as it pertains to the Louisiana Purchase, the seizing of West Florida, the War of 1812, the annexation of Oregon and Texas, and the Mexican- American War. It will present the voices of those who denied that Americans had a constitutional or moral right to grasp land held by others, not because it wasn’t in their best interests, but because they believed it was fundamentally unjust.


identifier: Seybolt, Elizabeth Bailey  (2013) The Doormaker.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

title: The Doormaker

abstract:
Abstract
	Twelve-year-old Agnes Atwater and her brother Dean are sent north to spend the summer with their grandmother, a woman neither of them have ever met. They discover an enormous house nestled in a wilderness full of enchantment, mystery and a secret so enormous, it will change their world forever.
	When the Atwater children and their new friend Peat discover that a necklace is actually the missing part of a key that allows the user to open doorways between their world and others, they are thrust into an adult world of danger and intrigue. On one side is their grandmother, part of an organization responsible for mapping and guarding the doorways between worlds. On the other side is Cabil, a mysterious foe, who will stop at nothing to find the “doormaker” named in an ancient legend. As the children follow the destruction left in Cabil’s wake—oozing black puddles, toxic landscapes—they must navigate the line between good and evil.
	In Peat, Agnes finds someone she can trust with a secret—her ability to peek into other people’s memories. After a confrontation with a traitor in their midst, and a series of adventures that lead the children into another world, Agnes discovers that she has known the secret of the doormaker all along.


identifier: Karajica, Boris  (2013) Hybrid Energy Harvesting for Self Powered Human Applications.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Continuing progress in reduction of size and power consumption of semiconductors, and significant improvement in their capability to compute sense and communicate data, have enabled a new area of wearable electronics and smart garments. Mobile electronics devices such as smart phones, tablets, laptops, e-readers and GPS devices have shaped and defined the world of consumer electronics. As such those devices interact with us on every day level, keeping us connected with environment through the use of sensors, imagers, location based services and data networks.  Looking beyond typical consumer applications, there is an increasing demand for a wearable and energy efficient electronics capable of operating from human harvested energy. This study will present a solution that is capable of providing basic human bio-parametric data such as: body temperature, pressure, man down indication, impact occurrence indication as well as data on orientation and inclination. All those functions will be embedded as wearable electronics and be able to operate from the energy that was harvested from human body. The need to have this kind of data collected on the human subject in especially demanding environments and situations is greatly appreciative in applications related to search and rescue agencies, paramedics, firefighters and security and police. The solution presented in this thesis is focusing on energy harvesting from human body and the environment, together with utilization of such energy for wearable electronics


identifier: Mohebbi, Abolfazl  (2013) Real-Time Stereo Visual Servoing of a 6-DOF Robot for Tracking and Grasping Moving Objects.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Robotic systems have been increasingly employed in various industrial, urban, mili-tary and exploratory applications during last decades. To enhance the robot control per-formance, vision data are integrated into the robot control systems. Using visual feedback has a great potential for increasing the flexibility of conventional robotic and mechatronic systems to deal with changing and less-structured environments. How to use visual in-formation in control systems has always been a major research area in robotics and mechatronics. Visual servoing methods which utilize direct feedback from image features to motion control have been proposed to handle many stability and reliability issues in vision-based control systems.

This thesis introduces a stereo Image-based Visual Servoing (IBVS) (to the contrary Position-based Visual Servoing (PBVS)) with eye‐in‐hand configuration that is able to track and grasp a moving object in real time. The robustness of the control system is in-creased by the means of accurate 3-D information extracted from binocular images. At first, an image-based visual servoing (IBVS) approach based on stereo vision is proposed for 6 DOF robots. A classical proportional control strategy has been designed and the ste-reo image interaction matrix which relates the image feature velocity to the cameras’ ve-locity screw has been developed for two cases of parallel and non-parallel cameras in-stalled on the end-effector of the robot. Then, the properties of tracking a moving target and corresponding variant feature points on visual servoing system has been investigated.

Second, a method for position prediction and trajectory estimation of the moving tar-get in order to use in the proposed image-based stereo visual servoing for a real-time grasping task has been proposed and developed through the linear and nonlinear model-ing of the system dynamics. Three trajectory estimation algorithms, “Kalman Filter”, “Recursive Least Square (RLS)” and “Extended Kalman Filter (EKF)” have been applied to predict the position of moving object in image planes.

Finally, computer simulations and real implementation have been carried out to verify the effectiveness of the proposed method for the task of tracking and grasping a moving object using a 6-DOF manipulator.


identifier: Yang, Nan  (2013) Zero-Knowledge Multi-Prover Interactive Proofs.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Single-prover interactive proofs can recognize PSPACE; if certain complexity assumptions are made, they can do so in zero-knowledge. Generalizing to multiple non-communicating provers extends this class to NEXP, and at the same time removes the complexity assumption needed for zero-knowledge.

However, it was recently discovered that the non-communication condition might be insufficient to guarantee soundness. The provers can form joint randomness through non-local computation without communicating. This could break protocols that rely on the statistical independence of the provers.

In this work, we analyze multi-prover interactive proofs under the constraint of statistical isolation which prohibits non-local computation. We show that there exists perfect zero-knowledge proofs for NEXP under statistical isolation.


identifier: WEI, YAWEI  (2013) Price dynamics of the natural gas futures market: the role of market fundamentals.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: In this thesis, I examine the effect of market fundamentals upon the price of the natural gas futures contract.  The market fundamentals that I address capture the effects of the demand for natural gas, such as weather effects, and the supply of natural gas, such as inventory effects.  I also address the effect of key macroeconomic variables, such as the returns on the stock market, which is measured by the return on the S&P 500 futures contract, and the price of crude oil, which is measured by the returns on the crude oil futures contract.  I focus my analysis on the conditional mean and the conditional variance of the return on the natural gas futures contract.  My results indicate that weather and inventory shocks do not have a significant effect upon the conditional mean of the natural gas futures returns, which is, however, significantly negatively related to the return on the S&P 500 futures contract and significantly positively related to the return on the crude oil futures contract.  The conditional variance of the natural gas futures return is significantly higher in winter, on inventory announcement days and on Mondays.  Furthermore, by comparing the conditional variance of the three most liquid futures contracts, I find evidence supporting the “Samuelson effect” that the futures volatility decreases as the contract horizon increases.


identifier: Jiang, Xuejiao  (2013) Anaerobic Batch Treatment of Carbon Dioxide in Pulp and Paper Effluent.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
ABSTRACT

Anaerobic Batch Treatment of Carbon Dioxide in Pulp and Paper Effluent
Xuejiao Jiang.
Concordia University, 2013

The increasing concentration of carbon dioxide (CO2), the most dominant component of greenhouse gases (GHG) in the atmosphere, has been of growing concern for many years. Since the beginning of the industrial revolution, atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide has increased dramatically due to human activities. Many methods have been applied to reduce atmospheric CO2 concentrations, including capture, sequestration, and reduction of carbon dioxide emissions. However, these methods have proved to be not efficient or economical.

The pulp and paper industry is highly pollution and energy intensive. The pulp and paper manufacturing process contributes significant amounts of pollutants that are released to the environment. The Kraft wastewater from the pulp and paper industry has high COD levels, ranging from 1000 mg/L to 33600 mg/L, and feasible to be treated by anaerobic digestion.

Anaerobic digestion has been applied in this study. In this method, CO2 is converted to methane as a biogas during the biological treatment of industrial pulp and paper wastewater. The final step of anaerobic digestion is to use CO2 and hydrogen or acetic acid to produce methane. In order to know the feasibility of CO2 removal by this method, a series of batch tests on pulp and paper wastewater were performed. To determine the optimum conditions, the impact of different pH values (6.5, 7.0, 7.5) and temperatures (20, 30, 35ºC) on the efficiency of CO2 and COD removal and methane production was investigated. The efficiency of CO2 removal was found to be 66-90%, while the removal of COD ranged from 32% to 49%.  The optimum conditions for the removal of both COD and CO2 were established at pH 6.5 and 35ºC.  The methane generation rates ranged from 4 mL/d to 19 mL/d. The optimum conditions for the maximum generation of methane were found to be the temperature of 35ºC and pH 6.5 along with the injection of carbon dioxide. In conclusion, the applied method was shown to be applicable for CO2 removal, while producing biogas as a clean source of energy.


identifier: Colatriano, David  (2013) Linking single nucleotide polymorphisms to hardwood spent sulfite liquor tolerance in evolutionary engineered Saccharomyces cerevisiae.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: A strain of Saccharomyces cerevisiae (R57) highly tolerant to inhibitors found in the lignocellulosic substrate hardwood spent sulfite liquor (HWSSL) was created through genome shuffling. The goal of my research was to identify the mutations responsible for the tolerance phenotype. The genomes of R57 and wild type strain (CEN.PK 113-7D) were previously sequenced and compared for mutations (Dominic Pinel unpublished results). Forty-seven single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) predicted by genome sequence comparison were PCR amplified from R57 genomic DNA for confirmation by Sanger sequencing. Of the 47, 20 were confirmed affecting 17 genes. These SNP-containing regions were amplified from mixed populations of cells from the UV mutagenesis treatment and rounds 1, 3 and 5 of the evolutionary engineered pool of cells.  These amplicons were sequenced using the Ion Torrent sequencer revealing the frequencies of each SNP from each pool of cells as they progressed through the evolution. Mutated regions amplified from isolated colonies taken from the growth frontier of HWSSL gradient plates for the UV mutagenized and round 5 pools were sequenced using Sanger sequencing to reveal specific combinations of SNPs. The homozygous UBP7 c.2466T>A mutation was reconstituted in a diploid wild type background strain and tested against the diploid wild type and R57 strains. The UBP7 mutant showed increased tolerance to HWSSL. The combination of this data led to the hypothesis that of the 17 directly affected genes, 6 are more likely to play a role in the tolerance phenotype observed in R57 (UBP7, NRG1, MAL11, GDH1, GSH1 and ART5).


identifier: Rennalls, Stephen P.  (2013) Examining the Purchase Likelihood of a Brand Extension through the Lenses of Emotional and Cultural Branding.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: The emotional branding paradigm has received much attention in the literature over the years. The emergence of cultural branding as a competing paradigm to understand and explain consumers’ consumption behaviour calls for a comparison of the two paradigms to understand which more accurately describes consumers’ brand-related behaviours. This thesis examines whether emotional or cultural branding better explains consumers’ evaluation of a brand extension. American college football fans were recruited for an online survey that asked them to respond to two emotional branding scales, one cultural branding scale, and a question measuring their purchasing intentions towards a hypothetical new television channel dedicated to the broadcasting of their school’s football and varsity sports programming. Subsequent analysis examined which scales better predicted purchasing behaviour, and whether the effect was moderated by either the dedication of the fan in question or the respondent’s perception of the extension’s fit with the parent brand. Results indicate that the emotional branding scales were better predictors of purchase likelihood than the cultural branding indicators. Neither moderation hypothesis was confirmed. These results highlight the value of the emotional branding paradigm in explaining consumers’ responses to brands, but raise questions regarding the explanatory power of the cultural branding paradigm. This research also has managerial implications in that it ties emotional branding to purchase intentions.


identifier: Zhao, Yimin  (2012) Visual Servoing For Robotic Positioning And Tracking Systems.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Visual servoing is a robot control method in which camera sensors are used inside the control loop and visual feedback is introduced into the robot control loop to enhance the robot control performance in accomplishing tasks in unstructured environments. In general, visual servoing can be categorized into image-based visual servoing (IBVS), position-based visual servoing (PBVS), and hybrid approach. To improve the performance and robustness of visual servoing systems, the research on IBVS for robotic positioning and tracking systems mainly focuses on aspects of camera configuration, image features, pose estimation, and depth determination.
   In the first part of this research, two novel multiple camera configurations of visual servoing systems are proposed for robotic manufacturing systems for positioning large-scale workpieces. The main advantage of these two multiple camera configurations is that the depths of target objects or target features are constant or can be determined precisely by using computer vision. Hence the accuracy of the interaction matrix is guaranteed, and thus the positioning performances of visual servoing systems can be improved remarkably. The simulation results show that the proposed multiple camera configurations of visual servoing for large-scale manufacturing systems can satisfy the demand of high-precision positioning and assembly in the aerospace industry.
   In the second part of this research, two improved image features for planar central symmetrical-shaped objects are proposed based on image moment invariants, which can represent the pose of target objects with respect to camera frame. A visual servoing controller based on the proposed image moment features is designed and thus the control performance of the robotic tracking system is improved compared with the method based on the commonly used image moment features. Experimental results on a 6-DOF robot visual servoing system demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed method.
Lastly, to address the challenge of choosing proper image features for planar objects to get maximal decoupled structure of the interaction matrix, the neural network (NN) is applied as the estimator of target object poses with respect to camera frame based on the image moment invariants. Compared with previous methods, this scheme avoids image interaction matrix singularity and image local minima in IBVS. Furthermore, the analytical form of depth computation is given by using classical geometrical primitives and image moment invariants. A visual servoing controller is designed and the tracking performance is enhanced for robotic tracking systems. Experimental results on a 6-DOF robot system are provided to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed scheme.


identifier: Rinaldi, Remo  (2012) Inverted Shell Foundation Performance In Soil.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: The use of shells in foundation structures over traditional forms has grown steadily since their inception in the early nineteen–fifties.  Shell foundations outperform conventional flat footings and are reputable performers especially when heavy superstructural loads are to be transmitted to weak bearing soil.  The geotechnical performance of shells in an elastic continuum concerns their bearing capacities and settlement behaviour, whose study has been trailing behind that of their structural performance.  Bringing contact pressures closer to uniformity at the soil–shell structure interface is essential in developing a viable behavioural response under vertically concentric and monotonic loading conditions.  This study encapsulates the development of new shell foundation geometries employing shell inversion under such loading conditions.  Experimental investigation involves validation of the numerical phase in a comparative study following a two–dimensional analysis of shell models using commercially available geotechnical software with finite element analysis.  New inverted triangular footings embedded in sand composed of ultra–high performance iShell Mix concrete using fiber–reinforced polymeric (FRP) microfibers are analyzed.  A parametric analysis examines key sensitivity elements including shell angle and shell thickness in granular soil for both upright shells and their inverted counterpart.  Linearly–elastic behaviour of concrete material is assumed while soil media is modeled under nonlinear elastic perfectly–plastic conditions following the Mohr–Coulomb yield criterion for loose, medium and dense sand states.  Theoretical modeling was developed to generate inverted shell bearing capacity factors to predict ultimate bearing capacities of the shell footings.  Simulation efforts scrutinized reveal comparable performance with bearing capacity increase of 3 – 5% for the inverted shells over upright shell models and notable improvements of 42 – 45% over conventional flat footings.  The developed models investigated represent forefront configurations of superior performance signifying that shells in foundations be highly regarded and fully exploited whenever feasible.


identifier: Yao, Yongheng  (2012) Relationships between job stressors and individual outcomes: A study of individual differences.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
The existing two-dimensional work stressor framework predicts that challenge and hindrance stressors have differing effects on job performance and job satisfaction,
but the two stressors have a similar (positive) effect on job strain and burnout. I propose that perceived strain and burnout should be treated as two distinct concepts. Perceived strain partially mediates the relationships between challenge and hindrance stressors and burnout. After considering perceived strain as a mediator, the two stressors have differing direct relationships with burnout. I also propose that individual differences moderate the
effects of challenge and hindrance stressors. This study of full time employees (N = 518) examined the mediating effect of perceived strain, and the moderating effects of gender,
Type-A behaviour, and work locus of control on the relationship between the two stressors and burnout, in-role performance and job satisfaction.

Data were collected through an online survey with an approximately 80% response rate. The established measures were used. Multiple regressions and moderated multiple regressions were used to analyze the data. In supporting the hypotheses, both challenge and hindrance stressors had positive indirect effects on burnout through perceived strain, but challenge stressors had a negative direct effect on burnout and hindrance stressors had a positive direct effect on burnout. Type-A behavior enhanced the positive effect of challenge stressors on in-role performance. It weakened the negative effect of hindrance stressors on job satisfaction. The positive relationship between challenge stressors and in-role performance was stronger for males than for females.

At the most general level, results of this study increase our confidence about the validity of the challenge and hindrance stressors framework. After distinguishing
perceived strain and burnout as two separate concepts, we can be confident that challenge stressors may indeed have potentials to reduce rather than increase burnout. Results of this study send several fresh messages to practicing managers. Challenge stressors may not be health impairing. Organizations should keep hindrance stressors to a minimum and consider increasing levels of challenge stressors strategically as long as they have practices in place that can buffer energy-depleting effects associated with challenges. Meanwhile, managers may consider taking advantage of Type A behavior;. It may interact with challenge stressors and lead to high in-role performance, and interact with hindrance stressors and remain high job satisfaction. Type A behavior is not related to burnout either, after controlling the two stressors and perceived strain.


identifier: McCaffrey, Jessica  (2012) Burning Man: Transforming Community through Countercultural Ritual Process.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: This thesis will examine the countercultural event called Burning Man through the lens of the ritual process. Through the personal narratives of six main collaborators as well as my own ritual journey, I will outline how participation in countercultural social networks and events may lead to the creation of alternative moral practices which ultimately fuel the creation of communities. These communities do not organize according to conventional definitions of community and are often spontaneous and temporary. These spaces have been called Temporary Autonomous Zones (TAZ).  TAZs allow participants to re-imagine and re-invent the rules for collective belonging and re-constitute what community is and how it is experienced. Many of my collaborators have stressed how important their Burning Man experience has been to the development of alternative moral practices.  Burning Man, as an axis mundi of countercultural production and reproduction, can therefore be viewed as a pilgrimage which teaches initiates how to embrace countercultural moral practices in everyday life, these practices are embedded in new social movements whose aims are to revitalize cultural values through the lifeworlds of participants.


identifier: MIPOUNG, OLIVARE DZUNE  (2012) ENHANCEMENT OF FREQUENCY SUPPORT CAPABILITIES OF TYPE 1 AND TYPE 2 WIND TURBINES.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Electricity production in remote communities in northern Quebec is still largely based on diesel power supply. Environmental concerns and the cost of electricity are driving the integration of wind energy in such systems. However, due to the stochastic nature of the wind and the highly variable load characteristic in these communities, the displacement of diesel fuel is usually small. In addition to this, when the system operates with high wind penetration, the frequency tends to vary widely, thereby raising some important stability concerns. This research work investigates important technical issues related to the implementation of fixed-pitch wind turbines that present large droop factor in droop-controlled hybrid diesel mini-grids, to enhance the frequency regulation. An assessment of generators for small scale generation is first presented. Next, a concept for implementing a fixed speed (type 1) wind turbine in a hybrid system is developed, using the power-frequency characteristic of the wind turbine. Due to some limitations of the proposed concept, resulting mainly from the fact that wind turbine power-frequency characteristics present a relatively low droop factor, type 1 wind turbines cannot assist to a high extent with the network frequency regulation. Therefore an approach to implement type 2 wind turbines which present a better droop factor has been developed and used to overcome the limitations of the type 1 system. A hybrid wind diesel mini-grid model without storage has been developed and used to validate the analysis. The proposed implementation concepts provide several benefits for the electrification of remote communities, which are highlighted at different stages of the thesis.


identifier: Gontovnick, Howard A.  (2012) An Agenda of Caution: The Influence of Productivization on the Integration of East European Jews in North America During the late 19th and early 20th centuries.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Abstract

An Agenda of Caution: The Influence of Productivization on the Integration of East European Jews in North America During the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Howard A. Gontovnick, Ph.D.
Concordia University, 2012

          This dissertation begins with the premise that there was a growing sense of anxiety throughout the North American Jewish community over the increasing number of Jewish immigrants flowing in from Eastern Europe after 1880. This concern emanated from fears that these Eastern European Jews (1) will be unable to adjust to the North American way of life; (2) that the non-Jewish North American population will misunderstand the lifestyle and practices of these Jews, leading to a negative perception of all Jews; and (3) that the increasing numbers of East European Jews could result in an escalation of incidents of anti-Semitism. As a consequence of these concerns, this dissertation proposes that certain Jewish philanthropic and community groups adopted and promoted a series of responses influenced by a model of “productivization”. Productivization was a strategy of increasing the “productivity” of a group (in this case East European Jews) so as to improve how they were seen by non-Jews and Jews alike. This strategy influenced how these immigrants were relocated and depicted in public. The goal was to present this group in a better light, while discouraging any form of anti-Jewish activity that could arise from one or more of these concerns.


identifier: Moein Ziaei, Hamid  (2013) On Pāzand: Philological comparison with Pahlavi.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Perhaps sometime around the 10th century Pāzand manuscripts started to appear among the Zoroastrian communities in India even though the oldest surviving original manuscripts date back to as early as 15th century. Many philologists such as Friedrich Von Spiegel and E.W. West in the 19th century thought of them as being in a different language than Pahlavi when they first found these texts. However, later in the 20th century scholars dismissed Pāzand as being a different language.

This thesis will analyze a portion of one of these Pāzand texts and determine whether the language of this text was a later regional variety of Pahlavi, another language, or perhaps just a wrong transcription of Pahlavi. In order to do so a Pāzand text will be compared to the exact same text (word by word) in Pahlavi and try to record and analyze all philological differences. In addition I have created a glossary list for both Pāzand and Pahlavi words that occur in the text analyzed. The text chosen for this philological comparison is the Mēnōg- ī Xrad (Spirit of Wisdom), a Zoroastrian religious text.

As part of this project, it will be very important to do a brief comparison with New Persian, since it could be relevant to understand the relationship between Pāzand and Pahlavi. This comparison will try to also answer the question of whether New Persian really is a direct descendant of Pahlavi or not.
One of the most interesting and less ventured grammatical units in these languages is the Ezafe enclitic, a form of a suffix often not written. This thesis would try to also provide a new explanation about Ezafe and how stress patterns could affect the semantic value of it.

Finally, there will be an attempt to establish a rough date for the Mēnōg- ī Xrad text as well as to determine whether the Pāzand version was copied from the Pahlavi version or vice versa.


identifier: Mouheb, Djedjiga  (2012) Model-Driven Aspect-Oriented Software Security Hardening.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Security is of paramount importance in software engineering. Nevertheless, security solutions are generally fitted into existing software as an afterthought phase of the development process. However, given the complexity and the pervasiveness of today's software systems, adding security as an afterthought leads to huge cost in retrofitting security into the software and further can introduce additional vulnerabilities. Furthermore, security is a crosscutting concern that pervades the entire software. Consequently, the manual addition of security solutions may result in the scattering and the tangling of security features throughout the entire software design. Additionally, adding security manually is tedious and generally may lead to other security flaws. In this context, the need for a systematic approach to integrate security practices into the early phases of the software development process becomes crucial. In this thesis, we elaborate an aspect-oriented modeling framework for software security hardening at the UML design level. More precisely, the main contributions of our research are the following: (i) We define a UML profile for the specification of security hardening mechanisms as aspects. (ii) We design and implement a weaving framework for the systematic injection of security aspects into UML design models. (iii) We explore the theoretical foundations for aspect matching and weaving. (iv) We conduct real-life case studies to demonstrate the viability and the scalability of the proposed framework.


identifier: Grant, Jonathan  (2013) Exploring the Realm of Culture Within Instructional Design.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: This research project takes a comprehensive look at the intricate issue of multicultural instruction within the field of instructional design, and challenges faced by instructional designers on meeting the needs of learners who come from cultures different from their own. The study explores issues of cultural differences that are most likely to impact instructional situations and indirectly influence future instructional designer’s work. The implication that, instructional designers who are unaware of cultural differences and the impact it might have on learners and their beliefs regarding cultural issues, highlights the importance of examining the experiences of professionals who have been involved with such efforts. In order to gain a better understanding of the ways in which issues of culture persist in our education system, a qualitative applied approach emphasizing critical pedagogy is used to evaluate how inequitable power relations are perpetuated and how instructional designers respond to ethnic student populations. This design examines the experiences of 12 instructional designers and suggests that cultural issues and the delivery of instruction cross-culturally are far more complex than has been recognized in the literature on instructional teaching and learning. The findings from this study have implications for both students and faculty members encompassing issues such as epistemological beliefs, lack of awareness, and social relationships that suggests cultural parameters that hinder the expansion of multicultural contexts in teaching and learning. The study also provides valuable insight into exploring the cultural competence of these participants while providing several recommendations for instructional designers and future research. This analysis offers great insight into the impact instructional providers have on the outcomes of education and notes the differences that exist in making a contribution to the education of diverse learners.


identifier: Al-Haji, Ahmad  (2012) IMPLICATIONS OF TRADE AUTOMATION FOR SMALL-SIZE STOCKS.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Using a comprehensive set of liquidity measures, this study examines the impact of the NYSE Hybrid Market on various stock characteristics. In addition, we test the conjecture that trade automation results in more pronounced liquidity improvements for small stocks. The resulting change in the relationship between size and liquidity is also examined, as well as the change in the explanatory power of the SMB factor. We find evidence that the general state of liquidity improved subsequent to migration to Hybrid. However, results for the size-conditioned test are mixed and inconsistent across liquidity measures. While liquidity improvements in terms of amortized spreads are concentrated in small stocks, the pattern is less obvious when other liquidity measures are considered. Also, while the test involves a NYSE event, changes also exist in NASDAQ, probably due to a competitive spill-over effect. We find that the relationship between size and liquidity characteristics has changed post-Hybrid, particularly on NYSE, and that the SMB factor has less effect on asset pricing when the entire CRSP sample is tested but not for the NYSE and NASDAQ subsamples individually. Nevertheless, firm size seems to play an important role in differentiating the impact of changes in market design.


identifier: Wasif, Muhammad  (2012) A new approach to CNC programming for accurate multi-axis face-milling of hypoid gears.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
A pair of hypoid gears refers to a pinion and a gear with skew axes. Hypoid gears are crucial to some power transmission systems, such as those of helicopters, power generation machines and automobiles. However, the design and manufacturing of hypoid gears are quite difficult. Currently, the major parameters of hypoid gears are calculated, but the geometries of the gears are not fully defined. To machine a hypoid gear, parameters of cutting systems are determined according to the gear design, whereas, settings of CNC machine tools with the machining parameters are also computed. The existing hypoid gears machining methods use the simplified blade model of the cutting systems, resulting in large errors in the machined gears. This new work proposes an accurate approach, to determine the parameters of the cutting system blades, for the face-milling of hypoid gears. In this work, a parametric model of the blades is established; and according to the hypoid gear parameters, the pressure angle and the cutting system radius are precisely calculated.
Currently, hypoid gear engineers can use special CAD/CAM software to design the gears and to calculate machine settings. Unfortunately, these software are developed only for particular machine tools; it cannot be used for hypoid gear machine tools of different configurations. Moreover, few technical articles has been published to clearly address challenges in the CNC programming and post-processing for the multi-axis face-milling of hypoid gears, such as the parameters determination of a cutter system, its location and orientation calculation and CNC programs generation. To solve the current problems, another part of this research proposes a generic approach to CNC programming and post-processing for gear face-milling. The main contributions of this part includes (1) a new mathematical model to calculate the cutter system location and orientation and (2) a generic post-processing method to establish the machine kinematics chain and to compute the coordinates of the machine axes in face-milling. This approach provides a general and accurate methodology for the face-milling of hypoid gears on any machine tools and can be directly applied to the hypoid gear manufacturing for better quality.


identifier: Lalonde, Martin  (2013) Éducation artistique et technologie de la mobilité : des moyens d'engagement civique et académique pour les jeunes à risque.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Ce mémoire de recherche se penche sur l'impact des nouveaux médias de communication mobiles sur les mécanismes d'interaction sociale des jeunes à risque à l'intérieur des espaces d'apprentissage et d'enseignement artistique. L'utilisation grandissante des technologies mobiles par les adolescents autour du monde, et plus spécifiquement dans les pays industrialisés, entraine des bouleversements majeurs au niveau des processus de socialisation ainsi que des approches et des méthodes éducatives. Au Québec, le taux de décrochage avant l'obtention d'un diplôme d'études secondaires demeure important et cette situation témoigne de la démotivation et du désengagement socioacadémique des clientèles étudiantes actuelles. La dernière réforme du système de l'éducation a souligné l'importance d'instruire et de former, mais surtout de socialiser les nouvelles générations d'apprenants. Depuis deux décennies, l'intégration des TIC demeure l'un des principaux défis des différents milieux éducationnels. Toutefois, le véritable défi se trouve dans la conception et l'implantation de curriculums éducatifs qui abordent de façon pertinente et actuelle les enjeux inhérents à la médiatisation des enseignements et des interactions sociales. L'éducation artistique mobile représente une discipline clé à partir de laquelle les éducateurs sont en mesure d'entamer une réflexion critique et constructive des enjeux de la production et de la diffusion de contenus multimédiatiques.
Cette étude se base sur les principes méthodologiques du Design-based-Research afin d'enquêter sur le potentiel des technologies mobiles à participer à la création d'un nouvel espace pédagogique ubiquitaire entre les adolescents qui se réunissent autour d'intérêts partagés. Comment les dynamiques à l'oeuvre à l'intérieur de ces systèmes complexes génèrent-elles des modèles éducatifs et interactifs entre les utilisateurs? Quel est le nouveau rôle de l'éducateur au sein de ces nouveaux espaces d'apprentissage par les pairs et comment ces théories émergentes peuvent-elles être traduites en principe de développement et d'implantation curriculaire?  C'est auprès de 20 utilisateurs de 16 à 21 ans d'un établissement éducatif du secteur de l'éducation des adultes qu'a été implanté un curriculum d'éducation artistique mobile proposant cinq semaines d'activités photographiques en ligne sur le thème de l'engagement civique. Ces participants, de même que l'éducateur-chercheur en charge du groupe, ont agi à titre d'experts en utilisation des technologies mobiles et des applications en réseaux sociaux. Les objectifs ont été de formuler les principes théoriques et pratiques clés pour le développement d'un curriculum d'éducation artistique oeuvrant au renforcement de la motivation scolaire et de l'engagement civique des jeunes à risque.  Les recherches ont démontré que dans le contexte des espaces communicatifs médiatisés par les technologies mobiles, les principes relatifs aux apprentissages et aux enseignements tendent à se décentraliser afin que se constituent des systèmes complexes d'interactions entre les participants. Les rôles des éducateurs et des apprenants sont redéfinis et un espace coopératif est établi où la coconstruction du curriculum éducatif profite à la motivation et l'engagement des jeunes à risque. Ces derniers fonctionnent par intérêt et leur engagement est proportionnel à l'ouverture du cadre et à la considération qui leur seront accordées.


identifier: Agharazi, Hanieh  (2013) A Hybrid Approach to Fault Diagnosis in Teams of Autonomous Systems.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Discrete event systems (DES) are dynamical systems equipped with a discrete state set and an event driven state transition structure. An event in a DES occurs instantaneously causing transition from one state to another. DES models have emerged to provide a formal treatment of many man-made systems such as automated
manufacturing systems, computer systems, communication networks and air traffic control systems.
In this thesis, we study fault diagnosis in teams of autonomous systems. In particular, one consider a team of two spacecraft in deep space. The spacecraft cooperate
with each other in leader-follower formation flying. Formation flying demonstrates the capability of spacecraft to react to each other in order to maintain a desired relative distance autonomously without human intervention. In the system considered here, instruments (actuators and sensors) may fail and cause error. Because of the communication delays in deep space, each entity should be able to diagnose the failure and decide how to reconfigure itself.
Basically, fault diagnosis in such systems requires information exchange between the autonomous elements of the team. The exchanged information for example may include position and velocity data. Our goal in the thesis is to propose a method for fault diagnosis with reduced information exchange. One solution is to transmit only discrete event information between autonomous systems. Transmission of discrete event data occurs less frequently than the transmission of continuous streams of data. The discrete event data may include high level supervisory commands issued every now and then and discretized values of continuous data that are transmitted only when a continuous-variable data (such as angle or acceleration)
crosses the threshold. The fault diagnosis scheme proposed in this thesis is an adaptation of hybrid fault diagnosis for distributed autonomous systems.
This system is simulated using MATLAB/SIMULINK Software and DECK Toolbox. We examined different maneuvers for spacecraft and investigated the effect of faults on the overall system and the performance of our designed fault diagnoser.


identifier: Zhan, Jun  (2012) Audit Pricing, Accruals and Firm Value: A Legal Origins Perspective.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Audit Pricing, Accruals and Firm Value: A Legal Origins Perspective

Jun Zhan, Ph.D. in Business Administration
Concordia University, 2012

Relying on an conceptual approach that mixes economics and law, La Porta, Lopez-de-Silanes, Shleifer and Vishny (1997, 1998) and La Porta, Lopez-de-Silanes and Shleifer (2008) document that legal rules and regulations protecting investors vary systematically among legal origins and related institutions. They further argue and show that such differences do affect various economic outcomes. Relying of the ground-breaking work of LLSV, many studies find extensive evidence on how a country`s legal system affects, among other things, its capital market development, the governance of firms and the properties of accounting information. In that context, the quality of external auditing, which does encompass the pricing of such services, are widely perceived to underlie capital market development, corporate governance and accounting information. However, prior empirical research pays scant attention to the interface between country-level legal systems or macro-economic factors and audit pricing. Thus, whether and how audit pricing is influenced by a country’s legal system remain open questions.
Hence, this dissertation purports to shed further light on the pricing of audit services and on the effect of such pricing on the quality of financial reporting, as proxied by accounting accruals, across different legal regimes. I measure accruals as either total accruals or discretionary accruals. In addition, I adopt multiple measures to proxy for a country’s legal institutions, such as rules of law, strength of legal enforcement and investor protection. Using a sample of 23,398 observations on audit fees from 13 countries for the period 1996-2006, I find the following results. Firstly, I find that audit fees are associated with higher accruals across countries. Additional analysis reveals that the fees-accruals association is more likely to be driven by the “Risk pricing” argument, which argues that auditors charge higher fees to compensate for additional engagement risks that are reflected in higher accruals. Secondly, I find that a country’s legal regime plays a significant role in audit pricing. Specifically, the positive fees-accruals association is more pronounced for firms from weak legal environments.
In the next stage of analysis, I proceed to investigate the impact of large audit fees on investors’ perceived audit independence. I find a significant positive association between audit fees and a firm`s Tobin’s Q, and this association is more pronounced under weak legal environment than under strong legal environment. I further test whether excessive audit fees help to predict future profitability or not. My analyses show that audit fees are significantly and positively associated with CFO of next year. These results suggest that abnormally large audit fees are priced by the stock market because they help predict a firm’s future profitability, thus providing valuable information to investors.
Overall, my findings lead to the conclusion that auditors charge higher fees to clients with larger accruals for risk-pricing purposes. My analyses do not suggest that such large fees compromise auditor independence. Moreover, the evidence suggests that legal institutions play critical roles in terms of accrual choices and of audit pricing.


identifier: Kochuparampil, Jumey  (2013) Probing Individual Complexes of Self-Associating Autotransporters by Single Molecule Force Spectroscopy.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Self-associating autotransporters (SAAT) are proteins that play a major role in bacterial auto-aggregation. Members of this family include the adhesin involved in diffuse adherence (AIDA-I) and the enterotoxigenic invasion locus b (TibA) proteins, which represent powerful model systems to study how bacteria promote tight association leading to auto-aggregation. Herein, the homologous interactions of SAATs were systematically determined by using single molecule force spectroscopy (SMFS), which measures the force required to pull apart two interacting molecular entities at the piconewton scale. In this study, a detailed force curve evaluation and in depth histogram analyses were developed. The unbinding force of the AIDA-I/AIDA-I interaction was measured at different loading rates (ranging from 780 to 14000 pN/s). The rate of complex dissociation, koff (0.3 s-1), and the activation energy barrier distance, xb (0.4 nm) were calculated based on the rupture forces. This first single molecule study of the AIDA-I/AIDA-I interaction confirms a very strong self-association that is in line with the important role that SAATs play in the pathogenicity of bacteria. The TibA protein self-association showed a highly selective interaction similar to that of AIDA-I. These single molecule experiments are consistent with previously performed bulk measurements and indicate that self-association between the different SAAT proteins are more specific among the homo-protein pairs (AIDA-I/AIDA-I and TibA/TibA having an unbinding force of 52 ± 13 pN and 64 ± 14 pN, respectively, at a loading rate of 5020 pN/s) than in hetero-protein pairs (AIDA-I/TibA).


identifier: Liu, Tianyi  (2013) An integrated bearing prognostics method for remaining useful life prediction.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Abstract

An integrated bearing prognostics method for remaining useful life prediction

Nowadays, in order to improve the productivity and quality, more and more resources are invested in maintenance. In order to improve the reliability of an engineering system, accurate predictions of the remaining useful lifetime of the equipment and its key parts are required. Bearing plays an important role in the rotating machines. The purpose of using a bearing is to reduce rotational friction and support the load imposed on it in radial and axial directions.
The common types of bearing defects include damage in rolling elements, inner and outer races, etc. In this thesis, we focus on the spall propagation caused by rolling contact fatigue. The existing bearing prognosis methods are either model-based or data driven. In this thesis, we develop an integrated bearing prognostics method, which utilizes both physical models and condition monitoring data. In the physical model part, a Hertz contact model is used to analyze the stress developed from the contact point between two curved surfaces which are pressed together, the ball and the deep groove. Based on Paris’ law, a damage propagation model is used to describe the spall propagation process. It is difficult to measure a defect size when the machines are running. Therefore, online data is obtained and processed to transform raw signals into useful information. In this thesis, the uncertainty factors are considered, including material uncertainty, model uncertainty and measurement error. A Bayesian method is used to update the distribution of this uncertainty factor by fusing the condition monitoring data, to achieve updated predictions of remaining useful life.
Finally, two sets of data are used to verify and validate the proposed integrated bearing prognostics method. The first set of data includes a group of simulated bearing degradation histories. The second set of data were collected from lab experiments conducted using the Bearing Prognostics Simulator. These examples demonstrated the effectiveness of the proposed method.
The key contribution of this thesis is the development of an integrated bearing prognostics method, where the uncertain model parameters are updated using the collected condition monitoring data, while the existing bearing prognostics methods are either model-based or data driven. Both the development of the method and the experimental validation are significant contributions to the field of bearing prognostics.


identifier: Konica, Shabnam  (2013) Experimental Investigation of the Al-Ca-Zn system.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: In this work, the isothermal section of the Al-Ca-Zn system has been investigated at 350°C using 5 diffusion couples and 26 key alloys. The actual compositions of the alloys are measured by inductively coupled plasma technique. Phase relations and solubility limits of the binary and ternary compounds have been determined by means of electron probe microanalysis and X-ray diffraction. In the current work, five ternary compounds have been found, three of which are reported for the first time: ternary intermetallic IM1 with the formula AlxCa8.5Zny (26≤x≤29, 62≤y≤65 at 350ºC), ternary intermetallic IM3 with the formula Al3-xCaZx (2≤x≤2.2 at 350oC) and ternary intermetallic IM5 with the formula Al2Ca9Zn3. The crystal structure information of IM1 has been studied by X-ray diffraction technique. XRD data has shown that IM1 is a solid solution that crystallizes in a cubic structure with Pm3 ̅m (221) space group having BaHg11 prototype. The homogeneity ranges of IM2 and IM4 have been determined at 350oC. Binary compounds Al14Ca13, Al2Ca, Al4Ca, CaZn2, CaZn3, CaZn5, CaZn11 and CaZn13 have extended solid solubility into the ternary system. For Al14Ca13, Al2Ca and Al4Ca, Al-atom is substituted by Zn. For CaZn2, CaZn3, CaZn5, CaZn11 and CaZn13 Zn is substituted by Al.


identifier: Choné, Guénolé  (2013) L’espace de mobilité des rivières du sud du Québec : implications pour les écosystèmes et la gestion des rivières dans une perspective de changements climatiques.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
La mobilité du chenal des cours d’eau, par l’érosion des berges, est un processus naturel majeur permettant le maintien d’une diversité d’habitats aquatiques et riverains. Cependant, des interventions humaines limitent souvent cette mobilité. Les objectifs de cette recherche sont :
1) de quantifier et cartographier la mobilité passée et future de trois rivières du sud du Québec (rivières de la Roche, Yamaska Sud-Est et Matane) ;
2) d’évaluer les conséquences d’une augmentation des débits, due aux changements climatiques, sur la mobilité des rivières ;
3) de mettre en évidence les liens entre la mobilité et des habitats spécifiques sur la rivière Yamaska Sud-Est.
L’étude de la mobilité des trois cours d’eau a permis une cartographie de deux espaces de mobilité : les corridors de mobilité, espace nécessaire à long terme au maintien de l’intégrité géomorphologique et écologique des cours d’eau, ainsi que les zones où les aléas reliés à la mobilité sont importants à court terme (50 ans). Une modélisation réalisée avec un modèle d’évolution des cours d’eau (RVR Meander) a montré qu’une augmentation du débit ne viendrait pas augmenter fortement l’étendue du corridor de mobilité, mais pourrait augmenter les risques d’érosion. Finalement, l’identification de trois types d’habitat issus de la mobilité du chenal (bancs de sédiments, bras morts et embâcles de bois) a mis en évidence les processus et les caractéristiques géomorphologiques favorisant ces habitats, et a permis également une évaluation de l’impact des activités humaines sur la mobilité et les habitats qui lui sont reliés.


identifier: Vukelich, Goranka  (2012) The inter-relationship of early childhood educators' curriculum beliefs,practices, and professional identity.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
ABSTRACT
The inter-relationship of early childhood educators’ curriculum beliefs, practices and professional identity
Goranka Vukelich, Ph.D.
Concordia University, 2012

Research Problem:    The purpose of this study was to investigate the inter-relationship of early childhood educators’ curriculum beliefs, practices and professional identity.
Research questions:
1.	What are the relationships among curriculum practices, beliefs about curriculum, and professional identities in qualified early childhood educators?
2.	What are educators’ curriculum practices?
3.	What are educators’ beliefs about curriculum?
4.	How do educators describe their professional identities?
5.	What are the relations among educational and professional backgrounds of educators’ and their self-reported beliefs about curriculum, their practices of curriculum, and their descriptions of professional identity?

Literature Review: The purpose of the literature review was to examine what is known about early childhood curriculum, early childhood curriculum practices, educators’ beliefs about curriculum, and professional identity. The field of early childhood education endorses constructivist-inspired curriculum practices. However, the implementation of these practices seems to be complicated by educators’ personal experiences and beliefs about curriculum, and the views they hold of themselves as professionals.

Methodology: This study utilized a mixed method research design that combined case study and observational assessment. Five educators who were qualified to work in licensed child-care centres with preschool aged children in Southwestern Ontario participated in this study.  Data were gathered through the use of CLASS observation assessment tool (direct observation and assessment of educator curriculum practices), classroom photographs and collections of curriculum documents, as well as educator interviews. These data were triangulated and analyzed for emerging themes within each case and across all cases.

Results and Conclusions: This study uncovered a number of complex relationships including that educators hold a strong desire to contribute to children’s learning and to be valued for that contribution; that educators hold strong constructivist-inspired beliefs about curriculum while at the same time they engaged in a number of instructivist-inspired curriculum practices in supporting children’s learning; that educators’ professional identity appears to be vulnerable to the influences of others; and that educators’ professional identity appears to be a more persuasive guide to curriculum practices than educators’ beliefs about curriculum.

The implication of this study is that if educators are to strengthen their implementation of constructivist-inspired curriculum practices they will require the development of an enhanced view of self as professional through an improved understanding of the theories and principles that define a constructivist curriculum framework; an examination of personal beliefs about children, learning, and education; and by becoming more comfortable with uncertainty. In addition, those involved in the professional education of educators must re-conceptualize their approach to engaging educators in learning. They should resist the teaching of curriculum techniques without the examination of the principles that inspire those techniques and the personal beliefs that may interface with the implementation of those techniques; examine resources for the messages they may portray about images of educators, children, and learning; and engage educators to develop their own curriculum techniques by combining knowledge of learning theories with unique characteristics of programs and the children within those programs.

The limitations of this study include a limited sample size, a limited range of participants, and a limited geographical location.

Future research could replicate this investigation in other geographical locations where educators might have attended different college programs; with educators who have greater diversity in years at which they graduated (new graduates, educators who graduated ten years ago, educators who graduated twenty years ago); and with educators who work with other age groups of children (infants, toddlers, school age children). Future research could also examine the influence of centre supervisors and other colleagues’ practices and beliefs about curriculum on educators’ practices and the formation of professional identity within a context of child-care centre culture and child-care center systems


identifier: Sinha, Anup  (2013) 3-D Modeling of Piled Raft Foundation.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

title: 3-D Modeling of Piled Raft Foundation

abstract:
ABSTRACT

3-D Modeling of Piled Raft Foundation

Anup Sinha, Ph.D.
Concordia University, 2013

Piled-raft-foundation is a new concept, which has received increasing recognition in recent years. Current design practice is based on conventional group pile or block failure theory, that ignore the bearing contribution from the raft. Moreover, the pile group theory is incapable of predicting the differential settlement of the raft, which is beyond the capability of any available analytical method in the literature.

The objective of this thesis is to develop analytical models capable to predict the settlement of each individual pile in the group under the raft. Accordingly, the differential settlement within the pile raft can be estimated. In this investigation, three independent models will be developed to perform as follows; first, the load sharing model that estimates the load components of the raft and the pile group in the system, the second model is to estimate the maximum settlement of the top of the raft and the third model is to estimate the differential settlement among the pile-raft-foundation.

To develop these analytical models, the three dimensional numerical models developed in ABAQUS platform, was extensively used. The extent of stress influence zone, sensitivity analysis of the governing parameters, time increment of the analysis step were performed in advance. The modified Drucker – Pager cap plasticity was used to model the soil continuum. The influence of pile cross-sectional shape (square, octagonal and circular) on soil bearing behavior was examined to check the suitability of using the 8-noded hexahedron 3D brick element. Parametric studies were performed to observe the influence of raft and pile geometry (e.g length, size, spacing of pile and thickness of raft) on the foundation bearing behavior. The raft bearing contribution and its top deflection pattern under various loading and pile-raft configuration were also investigated. The multiple regression analysis technique, using statistical software MINITAB, along with the theory of solid mechanics was used to develop the analytical models for load sharing, maximum and differential settlement. Design theories and recommendation for future work are presented.


identifier: Abdolhosseini, Mahyar  (2012) Model Predictive Control of an Unmanned Quadrotor Helicopter: Theory and Flight Tests.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Model Predictive Control (MPC) has been well established and widely used in the
process control industry since years. However, due to dependability of its success on availability
of high computational power to handle burden of online repetitive calculations, and
existence of a precise mathematical model of the controlled plant, it has found less application
in other areas of systems and control, specifically speaking when it comes to fast
dynamics control systems featuring a highly elaborate plant.
Preceded by previous successful efforts made in the application of MPC to other
areas of systems and control rather than process control, this thesis initiates employment
of MPC in the unmanned aerial systems industry. To this end, the system of the quadrotor
UAV testbed in the Networked Autonomous Vehicles Laboratory of Concordia University
is chosen. A three dimensional autopilot control system within the framework of MPC
is developed and tested through numerous flight experiments. The overall performance
of the quadrotor helicopter is evaluated under autonomous fight for three flight scenarios
of trajectory tracking, payload drop, robustness to voltage/current drop, and fault-tolerant
control in the presence of faults induced by reduced actuator effectiveness. This has been
achieved by the proper use of a model reduction technique as well as a fast optimization
algorithm to address the issues with high computation, and incorporation of the integral
action control in the MPC formulation to meet the offset-free tracking requirement. Both
simulation and experimental results are presented to demonstrate success of the design.