identifier: Groarke, Helene-Jane  (2018) Becoming Irish: How Irish Catholic Identity Was Performed and Changed in the St. Patrick’s Day Parades of Toronto and Montreal (1858 and 1866).  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: This thesis argues that by comparing the Toronto and Montreal St. Patrick’s Day parade of 1858 and 1866, it is possible to see how traditions were invented and changed in order to create distinct Irish Catholic identities. The comparison allows us to clearly see how the Toronto parade became more and more Irish nationalistic and secular, while Montreal’s Irish Catholic community used the tradition of parades to insert themselves more and more clearly in the city’s narrative by highlighting their Catholic and loyalist affiliations. Through a performance studies and ritual studies lens, the actions and symbols of the St. Patrick’s Day parade will be analysed to demonstrate that Toronto’s parades became increasingly nationalistic in tone between 1858 and 1866 to culminate in an open debate on the existence of the parade by the influential members of the Irish Catholic community whereas Montreal’s parade used the performances of the day to insert themselves, passively in 1858 and actively in 1866, into Montreal’s and Canada’s society. Looking at the discourses of the leaders in both cities as well as the newspaper coverage demonstrates the fluidity of an immigrant Irish Catholic identity which adapted to its social, geographical and historical contexts which was as dependent on dynamics within the community as it was with outside forces. This thesis contributes to the study of the experience of Irish immigration to Canada by providing an interdisciplinary work grounded in cultural history and strengthened by performance studies.


identifier: Atkinson, Nicole  (2018) Emotion Regulation from Infancy to Toddlerhood: Individual and Group Trajectories of Full-Term and Very-Low-Birthweight Preterm Infants.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

type: Thesis NonPeerReviewed

abstract:
Adaptive emotion regulation begins with infants operating jointly with their parents to regulate their emotions, which fosters the development of independent regulation. Little is known about when or how this transition occurs, or the impact of factors such as parental availability or premature birth status. The current study examined the use of self-, parent-, and environment-reliant emotion regulation behaviours in full-term and healthy very-low-birthweight (VLBW) preterm infant-mother dyads at 5 ½, 12, and 18 months of age. At 5 ½ months, dyads participated in the Still-Face procedure (two normal interactions and one in which mothers are non-responsive and expressionless). At 12 and 18 months, dyads participated in two free-play interactions, a puzzle task, and an interference task. Emotion regulation behaviours were coded using two systematic, observational systems. Results indicated that infants used fewer self- and environment-reliant strategies as they aged, but more mother-reliant strategies. Increased use of self-reliant strategies at earlier ages predicted increased use of mother-reliant strategies at subsequent ages. Toddlers used more independent, attention-seeking, and escape behaviour during periods of maternal unavailability. There were no significant differences between full-term and VLBW/preterm toddlers’ emotion regulation behaviours. The current study contributes to the understanding of normative development of emotion regulation and the risk associated with prematurity.
Key words: emotion regulation, mother-infant interaction, VLBW and prematurity, maternal (un)availability, socioemotional development


identifier: Sharma, Shivaang  (2018) Social Innovation: towards a process-based view.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Innovative solutions to address the ‘wicked problems’ of society such as poverty, inequality and illiteracy have attracted increased attention from scholars and practitioners. Such novel solutions to social challenges are referred to as social innovations (SI). As a concept, SI has witnessed a remarkable increase in its conceptual scope as various research communities continue to examine the complex phenomenon. However, the literature on SI is also forced to negotiate with an ever-expanding breadth of what constitutes as SI. In addition, insights are fragmented across studies and there is a lack of clarity on SI as a process of change. This study attempts to address these concerns by adopting a longitudinal view which discusses the conceptual evolution of SI which is unlikely to remain static in its contemporary form. Next, the author suggests boundary conditions in order to ‘put a fence’ around the concept and distinguish it from commercial innovations. Furthermore, the literature on SI from four research communities is analysed to discuss emerging themes and directions for future research. The themes are distilled into core components of SI for conceptual clarity on our contemporary view of the phenomenon. The author also discusses the three defining features of the process-based view of SI as dynamic, negotiated and iterative. To achieve these goals, the author examined the factors and stakeholders of SI in 83 peer-reviewed articles. These factors were termed as the antecedents, enablers, limiters and consequences of social innovation. In addition, an interview study of 5 social innovators was conducted to provide preliminary empirical support for the process-based view of SI. The study also analysed the congruencies and differences amongst factors of SI with those found in existing literature.


identifier: El-Kassabi, Hadeel  (2018) End-to-End Trust Fulfillment of Big Data Workflow Provisioning over Competing Clouds.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Cloud Computing has emerged as a promising  and powerful paradigm for delivering data- intensive, high performance computation, applications and services over the Internet. Cloud Computing has enabled the implementation and success of Big Data, a relatively  recent phenomenon consisting of the generation and analysis of abundant data from various sources. Accordingly, to satisfy the growing demands of Big Data storage, processing, and analytics,  a large market has emerged for Cloud Service Providers, offering a myriad of resources, platforms, and infrastructures. The proliferation of these services often makes it difficult for consumers to select the most suitable and trustworthy provider to fulfill the requirements of building complex workflows and applications in a relatively short time.
In this thesis, we first propose a quality specification model to support dual pre- and post-cloud workflow provisioning, consisting of service provider selection and workflow quality enforcement and adaptation. This model captures key properties of the quality of work at different stages of the Big Data value chain, enabling standardized quality specification, monitoring, and adaptation.
Subsequently, we propose a two-dimensional trust-enabled framework to facilitate end-to-end Quality of Service (QoS) enforcement that: 1) automates cloud service provider selection for Big Data workflow processing, and 2) maintains the required QoS levels of Big Data workflows during runtime through dynamic orchestration using multi-model architecture-driven workflow  monitoring, prediction, and adaptation.
The trust-based automatic service provider selection scheme we propose in this thesis is comprehensive and adaptive, as it relies on a dynamic trust model to evaluate the QoS of a cloud provider prior to taking any selection decisions. It is a multi-dimensional trust model for Big Data workflows over competing clouds that assesses the trustworthiness of cloud providers based on three trust levels: (1) presence of the most up-to-date cloud resource verified capabilities, (2) reputational evidence measured by neighboring  users and (3) a recorded personal history  of experiences with the cloud provider.
The trust-based workflow orchestration scheme we propose aims to avoid performance degradation or cloud service interruption. Our workflow orchestration approach is not only based on automatic adaptation and reconfiguration  supported by monitoring, but also on predicting cloud resource shortages, thus preventing performance degradation. We formalize the cloud resource orchestration process using a state machine that efficiently  captures different  dynamic properties of the cloud execution environment. In addition, we use a model checker to validate our monitoring model in terms of reachability, liveness, and safety properties.
We evaluate both our automated service provider  selection scheme and cloud workflow orchestration, monitoring and adaptation  schemes on a workflow-enabled Big Data application.  A set of scenarios were carefully  chosen to evaluate the performance of the service provider selection, workflow monitoring and the adaptation schemes we have implemented. The results demonstrate that our service selection outperforms  other selection strategies and ensures trustworthy service provider selection. The results of evaluating automated workflow  orchestration further show that our model is self-adapting, self-configuring, reacts efficiently to changes and adapts accordingly while enforcing QoS of workflows.


identifier: Abbasipour, Mahin  (2018) A Framework for Requirements Decomposition, SLA Management and Dynamic System Reconfiguration.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
To meet user requirements, systems can be built from Commercial-Off-The-Shelf (COTS) components, potentially from different vendors. However, the gap between the requirements referring to the overall system and the components to build the system from can be large. To close the gap, it is required to decompose the requirements to a level where they can be mapped to components.
When the designed system is deployed and ready for operations, its services are sold and pro-vided to customers. One important goal for service providers is to optimize system resource utilization while ensuring the quality of service expressed in the Service Level Agreements (SLAs). For this purpose, the system can be reconfigured dynamically according to the cur-rent workload to satisfy the SLAs while using only necessary resources. To manage the re-configuration of the system at runtime, a set of previously defined patterns called elasticity rules can be used. In elasticity rules, the actions that need to be taken to reconfigure the sys-tem are specified. An elasticity rule is generally invoked by a trigger, which is generated in reaction to a monitoring event.
In this thesis, we propose a model-driven management framework which aims at user re-quirements satisfaction, SLA compliance management and enabling dynamic reconfiguration by reusing the design information at runtime.
An approach has been developed to derive automatically a valid configuration starting from low level requirements called service configurations. However, the service configurations are far from requirements a user would express. To generate a system configuration from user requirements and alleviate the work of designer, we generate service configurations by de-composing functional user requirements to the level where components can be selected and put together to satisfy the user requirements. We integrated our service configurations gen-erator with the previous configuration generator.
In our framework, we reuse the information acquired from system configuration and dimen-sioning to generate elasticity rules offline. We propose a model driven approach to check the compliance of SLAs and generate triggers for invoking applicable elasticity rules when system reconfiguration is required. For handling multiple triggers generated at the same time, we propose a solution to automatically correlate the actions of invoked elasticity rules, when re-quired. The framework consists of a number of metamodels and a set of model transfor-mations. We use the Unified Modeling Language (UML) and its profiling mechanism to de-scribe all the artifacts in the proposed framework. We implement the profiles using Eclipse Modeling Framework (EMF) and Papyrus. To implement the processes, we use the Atlas Transformation Language (ATL). We also use the APIs of the Object Constraint Language (OCL) in the Eclipse environment to develop a tool for checking constraints and generating triggers.


identifier: Gorjipoor, Alireza  (2018) Failure Analysis of Thick Composite Flexural Plates Constrained by Bolt Joints.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
This research study introduces a numerical model to predict failure in thick glass/epoxy laminated beams subjected to flexural bending moment and bolt joint loads. The accuracy of the proposed model was verified by experiments using strain gages and Digital Image Correlation (DIC) methods. During last decades, aluminum and steel have been substituted by composite materials specially in the aerospace industry where higher specific strength and stiffness are the main criteria for material selection. The yoke of the helicopter is one of the recent applications of thick composite structures. The yoke connects the main rotor blade to the hub using bolt joints and it is manufactured as a thick glass/epoxy beam. Performing the experimental tests during the design process of the yoke is highly expensive and time-consuming.
In this study, a numerical model is introduced to perform stress and failure analysis for a simplified model of the yoke. This simplified model consists of a thick composite laminate subjected to flexural bending moment and bolt joint connections. At first, a finite element model was developed to predict the structural behavior of the beam in the presence of flexural bending which is the main load in the real application. In the next step, Progressive damage modeling was added to the stress analysis code, to provide a package for failure prediction for this case study.
This model can be utilized in the design process of the yoke to reduce the number of the required iterative experiments. The results showed the agreement between strain distribution obtained from the finite element model and the experimental results from strain gages and Digital Image Correlation (DIC). Also, a good correlation was observed between experimental tests and failure prediction performed through simulation. The results of failure analysis showed a good agreement with the experimental tests about the final failure load level, crack position on the surface, pattern of failure propagation inside the plate and dominant failure mode. In addition, the failure analysis will provide information about the failure initiation load level and the position of the first failed elements inside the plate.


identifier: Scaria, Lalet ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5088-0830 <https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5088-0830>  (2018) A Framework To Evaluate Pipeline Reproducibility Across Operating Systems.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
The lack of computational reproducibility threatens data science in several domains. In particular, it has been shown that different operating systems can lead to different analysis results. This study identifies and quantifies the effect of the operating system on neuroimaging analysis pipelines. We developed a framework to evaluate the reproducibility of these neuroimaging pipelines across operating systems. The framework themselves leverages software containerization and system-call interception to record
results provenance without having to instrument the pipelines. A tool (Repro-tools) compares results obtained under different conditions. We used our framework to evaluate the effect of the operating system on results produced by pipelines from the Human Connectome Project (HCP), a large open-data initiative to study the human
brain. In particular, we focused on pre-processing pipelines for anatomical and functional data, namely PreFreeSurfer, FreeSurfer, PostFreeSurfer, and fMRIVolume. We used data from five subjects released by the HCP. Results highlight substantial differences
in the output of the HCP pipelines obtained in two versions of Linux (CentOS6 and CentOS7). Inter-OS differences corresponding to normalized root mean square errors of up to 0.27 were observed, which corresponds to visually important differences.
We provide visualizations of the most important differences for various pipeline steps. No meaningful inter-run differences were observed, which shows that the inter-OS differences do not originate from the use of pseudo-random numbers or silent crashes of the pipelines. We hypothesize that the observed inter-OS differences come from numerical instabilities in the pipelines, triggered by rounding and truncation differences that originate in the update of mathematical libraries in different systems.
An apparent solution to this issue is to freeze the execution environment using, for example, software containers. However, this would only mask instabilities while they should ultimately be corrected in the pipelines.


identifier: Amar, Anunay  (2018) Fault Prediction and Localization with Test Logs.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Software testing is an integral part of modern software development. However, test runs produce 1000’s of lines of logged output that make it difficult to find the cause of a fault in the logs. This problem is exacerbated by environmental failures that distract from product faults. In this thesis, we present techniques that reduce the number of log lines that testers manually investigate while still finding a maximal number of faults.

We observe that the location of a fault should be contained in the lines of a failing log. In contrast, a passing log should not contain the lines related to a failure. Lines that occur in both a passing and
failing log introduce noise when attempting to find the fault in a failing log. We introduce a novel approach where we remove the lines that occur in the passing log from the failing log.

After removing these lines, we use information retrieval techniques to flag the most probable lines for investigation. We modify TF-IDF to identify the most relevant log lines related to past product failures. We then vectorize the logs and develop an exclusive version of KNN to identify which logs are likely to lead to product faults and which lines are the most probable indication of the failure.

Our best approach, FaultFlagger finds 89% of the total faults and flags only 0.5% of lines for inspection. FaultFlagger drastically outperforms the previous work CAM. We implemented
FaultFlagger as a tool at Ericsson where it presents daily fault prediction summaries to testers.


identifier: Maletto, Simone  (2018) p-adic modular forms.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

title: p-adic modular forms

abstract:
The aim of this thesis will be introducing an analogue of the classical modular
forms that can work in the p-adic environment.
To do so, we will first try to make sense of a modulo-p concept of modular
forms. As the classical object is defined over the complex number there is not an
immediate way to make this reduction. In order to do so, we have to utilize the
q-expansion principle to obtain an “integral" object (we use the quote-on-quote
to remind that the q -expansion of a modular from lives in the localization of ℤ
at a prime). So the first idea will be to work with those object, to do so we will
follow [8].
Once speaking of modular forms modulo p , and modulo pn makes sense,
we will start talking about the p-adic theory as described in [6]. This first
construction will be quite easy, but it will have important consequences on the
notion of weight of a modular form.
While the approach described above is quite natural and efficient in order
to have something to work with (we will end up with q -expansion of modular
forms automatically), to retrive the geometrical nature of those object will be
much harder if we proceed on this path. Therefore we look at the theory of
modular forms as section of the sheaf of invariant differentials on the modular
curve, following [3].
In the end we will end up with two different definitions, one which gives us
objects that are easier to grasp (and to compute), the other which has a more
clear geometric nature (which is the reason why we study modular forms in
first place). The last section of this thesis show the relation between those two,
proving that we can recover one object in the first form by object defined in the
second way and vice-versa.


identifier: Ghazal, Mohammadi  (2018) Influence of Sympathetic Nervous System Activation on Secretory Immunoglobulin-A During Cold Pressor Test.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
I investigated the response of secretory immunoglobin-A (SIg-A) to a cold pressor test (CPT). Acute physical stressors trigger the activation of the sympathetic nervous system, which may influence an immune response. Inter-individual differences in autonomic responses to acute stressors make it difficult to draw conclusions on immune system responses. My primary hypothesis was that the CPT causes an increase in SIg-A in saliva. My secondary hypothesis was that the increase in SIg-A has a direct correlation to the increase in salivary α-amylase (SαA) concentrations, cardiovascular and hemodynamic parameters indicative of sympathetic activity.
Twenty participants completed a 5-min CPT, with cardiovascular parameters measured and saliva samples collected. The effect of CPT on SIg-A had a decreasing trend that was variable in individuals. The CPT caused the SαA, HR, BP to increase (p< 0.05). There were no correlations between SIg-A and SαA concentrations, cardiovascular and hemodynamic changes during and post CPT. Our analysis showed an inverse correlation between the SIg-A magnitude of change and its baseline value (r = -0.60, p= 0.01). Therefore, the CPT increased SIg-A in participants with a low baseline and decreased SIg-A in participants with a high baseline. Our results suggest that the sympathetic nervous system does not affect the SIg-A concentrations and SIg-A changes according to its baseline in accordance with the law of initial values. These results will help interpret SIg-A studies, and to understand the interindividual variations in SIg-A responses.


identifier: Kavousifard, Amir Hossein  (2018) Influence of Transverse Reinforcement on Bridge Column Resistance against Blast Loads.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
After the terrorist attacks of September 11th, 2001, blast load resistance of infrastructure has been of great concern to structural engineers, and government institutions in the United States have provided guidelines to mitigate these risks. The focus of these guidelines has been on buildings, and measures to protect infrastructure such as bridges have not received similar
attention. However, data on terrorist attacks show that bridges are often targeted, and the majority of these attacks are on non-landmark bridges, such as highway bridges.

With the threat of global terrorism, it is required to understand the behavior of bridges in Canada under blast loads. Specifically, bridge columns are often targeted and they represent a critical structural function as their failure can lead to collapse of the entire bridge. Transverse reinforcement is the key element in design of reinforced concrete (RC) bridge columns against blast, and it is also the key element in design for seismic loads. A generic two-span bridge located in Toronto, Ontario; Vancouver, British Columbia; and Victoria, British Columbia, is designed using the Canadian Highway Bridge Design Code (CHBDC). The three cities are chosen to represent low, high, and extremely high seismic hazard levels, respectively. The bridge columns are designed according to the required seismic detailing of the different hazard levels with a focus on spacing, bar size, and type of transverse reinforcement. The finite element software LS-DYNA is used to model the bridge columns and simulate the application of blast loads at different charge heights for various charge weights and standoff distances.

Analysis of the simulation results concentrates on the performance of columns with respect to concrete failure mechanisms, behavior and stress patterns of steel reinforcement, and displacement curves. The results of this study indicate that for equivalent blast loads, a charge
closer to the base of the column is more critical than a charge at mid-height. Moreover, charge weight has more of an impact than standoff distance in a columns ability to resist blast. The results also indicate that seismic detailing is extremely important in blast load resistance of columns. Specifically, columns with smaller spacing of transverse reinforcement, as well as bigger bar size, demonstrate an ability to successfully resist blast and allow a column to carry the required structural loads. Moreover, columns with spiral transverse reinforcement perform better than columns with tied transverse reinforcement.


identifier: Engelhardt, Shany  (2018) The Spornosexual: Representation, Sports, and Masculinity.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Society continuously changes the parameters of what constitutes the ideal male form and thus the preferred notion of masculinity. The definition of masculinity itself is simultaneously a place in gender relations, practices through which men and women express their position in said gender relations, and the effects those practices have on culture, bodily experiences, and personality. The prevailing image of hegemonic masculinity disseminated by the contemporary visual culture is one of athleticism, virility, and dominance. Coined the ‘spornosexual’ by journalist Mark Simpson, the term refers to a second-generation metrosexual: a man who previously aimed to be admired for his well-groomed appearance and fashion sense now seeks adoration for a muscular body often modeled after athletes from others while simultaneously self-fetishizing said body. Taking a formalist, semiotic, and social constructivist approach to my research, I demonstrate that the spornosexual persona is the latest iteration of a recurring male archetype meant to reaffirm the dominance of white heterosexual men at times when their position is threatened. I posit that contemporary popular culture has re-appropriated past iterations of masculinity, archetypes if you will, that have proven to be successful in the reaffirmation of male heterosexual dominance. Visual representations range from Eugen Sandow (1867-1925), Bob Mizer’s 1950’s Beefcake, to fashion advertisement campaigns by Calvin Klein, Tommy Hilfiger, D. Hedral, Dolce & Gabbana, Giorgio Armani, and Dirk Bikkembergs.


identifier: Yousefi, Mina  (2018) Computer-aided Detection of Breast Cancer in Digital Tomosynthesis Imaging Using Deep and Multiple Instance Learning.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Breast cancer is the most common cancer among women in the world. Nevertheless, early detection of breast cancer improves the chance of successful treatment. Digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT) as a new tomographic technique was developed to minimize the limitations of conventional digital mammography screening. A DBT is a quasi-three-dimensional image that is reconstructed from a small number of two-dimensional (2D) low-dose X-ray images. The 2D X-ray images are acquired over a limited angular around the breast.
Our research aims to introduce computer-aided detection (CAD) frameworks to detect early signs of breast cancer in DBTs. In this thesis, we propose three CAD frameworks for detection of breast cancer in DBTs. The first CAD framework is based on hand-crafted feature extraction. Concerning early signs of breast cancer: mass, micro-calcifications, and bilateral asymmetry between left and right breast, the system includes three separate channels to detect each sign. Next two CAD frameworks automatically learn complex patterns of 2D slices using the deep convolutional neural network and the deep cardinality-restricted Boltzmann machines. Finally, the CAD frameworks employ a multiple-instance learning approach with randomized trees algorithm to classify DBT images based on extracted information from 2D slices. The frameworks operate on 2D slices which are generated from DBT volumes. These frameworks are developed and evaluated using 5,040 2D image slices obtained from 87 DBT volumes. We demonstrate the validation and usefulness of the proposed CAD frameworks within empirical experiments for detecting breast cancer in DBTs.


identifier: Iuhas, Laura C.  (2018) Home-school partnerships from the perspectives of mothers and pre-service teachers participating in a parent-teacher communication course.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Correlational studies have consistently shown a significant, positive relationship between parental engagement in school and academic achievement. The literature further evidenced the important role of parent-teacher communication in promoting parental engagement. However, most Canadian universities do not offer undergraduate pre-service teacher education courses focusing on parents.
This qualitative study investigated the impact of continuous, weekly interactions between parents and pre-service teachers, within the context of a parental communication course for pre- service teachers. Focus groups, interviews, and questionnaires were used to track the evolution of parents’ and pre-service teachers’ perspectives on parent-teacher partnerships.
By the end of the course, pre-service teachers had gained a deeper understanding of the importance of parent-teacher partnerships, as evidenced by their ability to engage in self- reflection and problem-solving when discussing and interacting with parents. Moreover, the parents in this course gained knowledge about the educational system and felt empowered to play an active role in their children’s education.
Overall, the findings showed that the parental communication course for pre-service teachers had a positive impact on both pre-service teachers’ and parents’ understanding of parent-teacher partnerships. Educating pre-service teachers about the importance of the parental- teacher partnership can promote increased engagement opportunities for parents in schools. This study provides evidence for the importance of including parental communication courses in all Canadian teacher education programs.


identifier: Colò, Leonardo  (2018) p-adic Abelian Integrals: from Theory to Practice.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Let K be a complete subfield of Cp. Consider a rigid space X over K with good reduction and a differential of the second kind w over X. Coleman theory of p-adic integration tells us how to give a meaning to an expression of the form:
integral from P to Q of w,        P,Q in X(K)-(w)_poles
The work of Coleman relies on using the Dwork principle of continuation along Frobenius to overcome the topological problems coming from the ultrametric nature of K.
Between 2006 and 2011, K.S. Kedlaya and J. Balakrishnan have constructed algorithms to compute explicitly Coleman’s integrals on hyperelliptic curves and, together with R. Bradshaw, they have implemented these methods in SAGE.
In this thesis, I study the theory of Coleman both from the theoretical and the algorithmic point of view and I provide the results of some explicit computations.
After a review of some fundamental ideas in rigid geometry, I present the theory of Coleman as it appears in his original articles. The second part of this work is devoted to the computational approach: I describe the ideas of Kedlaya and Balakrishnan and I produce
some concrete examples. Finally, the last Chapter deals with one application of Coleman’s integrals: I study the method of Chabauty and Coleman and I show how it can be used to effectively detect rational points on curves.


identifier: Adegoke, Akolade  (2018) Benchmarking Sustainability Performance of Ports.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Sustainable development agendas are challenging the world and ports, in particular, to find ways to become more efficient while meeting economic, social and environmental objectives. Although there has been a considerable body of documentation on green port practices and performance in Europe and America, there is limited synthesis about evaluation of sustainable practices in the Canadian ports context. This research aims to provide a modeling framework for benchmarking the sustainability performance of ports and to identify targets for improvement.

A two-step approach is proposed. First, a review of literature and initiatives employed by global port authorities is conducted to identify major sustainability performance indicators. Second, data envelopment analysis (DEA) is applied to evaluate port performance while taking into account the dimensions of sustainable development. The DEA models evaluate both undesirable and desirable outputs for ports. Three categories of models are proposed namely; ignoring undesirable output, treating undesirable output as input, and directional distance function under variable and constant returns to scale. A case study for 13 North American ports is conducted. The results indicate that performance evaluations vary with economic and social criteria. The indicators and methodology undertaken can be used by ports and other industrial service sectors for improving green performance.


identifier: Nguyen, Thanh  (2018) Barriers to become a fashion influencer.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

title: Barriers to become a fashion influencer

abstract: It has been argued that the participatory Web has democratized markets such as fashion. Consumers have been theorized to be able to acquire a “megaphone” and become influencers. Such consumer influencers have been increasingly used for marketing purposes because of their persuasive power. Various studies have focused on the existence of these influencers, how to manage their influence and the impact of their influence. Despite claims of democratization, it is unlikely that all consumers can become influencers. Little research has examined the struggles everyday consumers face during their journey to become an influencer. Consequently, I intend to answer the following question through my study: What are the barriers to become a fashion influencer? Employing a qualitative approach and combining in-depth interviews of six wannabe-fashion influencers, a netnography and archival data, I find that in their quest to acquire a megaphone, wannabe-influencers face four main struggles. These struggles emerge as they are leaving their role as everyday consumers and starting to acquire some influence. I conceptualize this as being “stuck-in-between”. I find four ways consumers are stuck in-between these two roles: between different fields; between celebrity status and non-celebrity status; between amateur and professional; and between geographical periphery and center. I apply concepts from Bourdieu’s field theory to inform how being stuck in-between results in the incapacity of everyday consumers to accumulate enough capital to fully become an influencer. My study benefits existing research on field theory and influencers. It also has managerial implications, as the barriers faced by consumers lead to strategic recommendations for fashion marketers, brand managers, and designers to better develop their influencer marketing campaign, letting them work more efficiently with influencers, and producing better results.


identifier: Juras, Lara  (2018) Concurrent Dual Band Radio-over-Fiber Transmission Using 1-bit Envelope Delta-Sigma Modulation.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
With the growing demand for bandwidth and transmission speed, mobile communication network designs must stay adaptable, efficient and cost-effective.  A key integration has been Radio-over-Fiber (RoF) transmission systems that provide a cheaper option and low loss for high frequency signal transfer.  For the optical transmitter, delta-sigma modulation (DSM) can be a beneficial addition.  The partnership simplifies the Digital-Radio-over-Fiber setup by removing the need for additional converters and prompts adjustments based on system need.  Main factors in delta-sigma modulators are the amount of quantization bits and the order of the modulator.  Changing quantization bits to a single bit allows the system to use less processing bandwidth and less error experienced from optical transmission.  High order structures provide more noise shaping to shift noise away from the band of interest.  Still, such setups are prone to linearity problems due to clock jitter from multiple feedback loops.

Different adaptations of delta-sigma modulation have been designed to combat the problems, but a key standout is the implementation of an envelope delta-sigma modulation (EDSM).  Envelope delta-sigma modulation’s separate processing of envelope and phase delivers time alignment and noise shaping counter the negative implications from high order DSMs.  Combining envelope delta-sigma modulation with RoF transmission is an attractive option, but research has yet to delve into carrier aggregation with these setups.

This thesis explores concurrent dual band 64-QAM 20 MHz LTE Radio-over-Fiber using 1-bit envelope delta-sigma modulation. It expands transmitter functionality by concurrent signal integration. Inside the EDSM is a 4th order bandpass delta-sigma modulator custom tailored one of two carrier frequencies.  The two frequencies come from two different LTE bands to show interband compatibility. The carrier frequencies are 2.112 GHz from LTE band 1 and 2.64 GHz from LTE band 7.

Simulation and experimental results confirm the functionality of the proposed envelope delta-sigma modulation RoF system in single and dual band for LTE standards (error vector magnitude < 8%).  Experimental results confirm that EDSM is more resilient to RoF transmission than BP-DSM.  However, the EVM values for BP-DSM are better for carrier aggregated transmission.


identifier: Fischer, Ivan  (2018) A Gospel of Flies.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

title: A Gospel of Flies

abstract:
This story follows a family’s journey through a post apocalyptic western United States. A father, his wife, their teenage daughter and young son are heading inland from a crowded and dangerous coast. Though the nature of what caused the apocalyptic changes remains enigmatic, the effects on humans are sickness and ultimately death. Early in the novel, the family is captured by a group of former prison inmates who were freed after the apocalyptic events. The former convicts possess a compound, that when mixed with urine and water, can signify if the water is clean and safe to drink. These three convicts, along with their new prisoners, continue heading inland in search of food, shelter, and most importantly, clean water. Flies, which are unaffected by sickness, thrive in this environment, plaguing every step of the group’s journey.
 A Gospel of Flies intends to explore themes of survival, specifically through adaptation and elements of Stockholm syndrome. The story aims to explore what it takes to survive in the face of rapid change, and what the characters in the story must contend with both internally and externally. The drastic changes to the world and society that the family must contend with seem more easily navigated by former criminals whose previous life of chaos seems to condition them to this harsh new reality.


identifier: Hua, Chaorong  (2018) World-Horizon Expanded: Astronautics, Earth-ground, and The Space Exploration Science Fiction Film.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: This thesis explores the issue of world-horizon, as well as its essential role in the interaction and interfusion of film experience and everyday perception. By examining the images of Earth and Space in the science fiction films belonging to the subgenre of Space exploration and those in non-fictional footage produced in the context of live television broadcast and scientific astronautics, I attempt to show how the perceptual and the imaginary worlds infiltrate and influence each other. I argue that Fritz Lang’s 1929 Frau im Mond (Women in Moon) played a crucial role in the history of this subgenre and in the broader horizon of real astronautics, for it blazed the trail of the embodied tradition that served as an alternative to the speculative methods used in many other science fiction films, expanded the horizon of the general public by treating science and astronautics seriously, and even contributed directly to modern rocketry and Space programs through its sponsorship of research in real rocket and its use of visual codes and syntagmas that later became the standard visual syntax and semantics for live television broadcasts. In turn, live television broadcast later established the standard for the audiovisual experience of real astronautics, whose visual codes and syntagmas then went back into more contemporary Space exploration films, such as Gravity and Interstellar. The latter films made full use of those established audiovisual codes and created a kinaesthetically affective and emotionally immersive world-horizon by pushing further the embodied tradition that had started with Lang’s film. Although I find in this particular subgenre the inherent logic of the world-picture that tends to turn Earth and Space into mere objects, an alternative way can be found through close analyses of these two contemporary Space exploration SF films. These films also reveal a possibility for us to reconnect with the earth as ground instead of Earth as the object.


identifier: Zhao, Lianying  (2018) Authentication and Data Protection under Strong Adversarial Model.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
We are interested in addressing a series of existing and plausible threats to cybersecurity where the adversary possesses unconventional attack capabilities. Such unconventionality includes, in our exploration but not limited to, crowd-sourcing, physical/juridical coercion, substantial (but bounded) computational resources, malicious insiders, etc. Our studies show that unconventional adversaries can be counteracted with a special anchor of trust and/or a paradigm shift on a case-specific basis.

Complementing cryptography, hardware security primitives are the last defense in the face of co-located (physical) and privileged (software) adversaries, hence serving as the special trust anchor. Examples of hardware primitives are architecture-shipped features (e.g., with CPU or chipsets), security chips or tokens, and certain features on peripheral/storage devices. We also propose changes of paradigm in conjunction with hardware primitives, such as containing attacks instead of counteracting, pretended compliance, and immunization instead of detection/prevention.

In this thesis, we demonstrate how our philosophy is applied to cope with several exemplary scenarios of unconventional threats, and elaborate on the prototype systems we have implemented. Specifically, Gracewipe is designed for stealthy and verifiable secure deletion of on-disk user secrets under coercion; Hypnoguard protects in-RAM data when a computer is in sleep (ACPI S3) in case of various memory/guessing attacks; Uvauth mitigates large-scale human-assisted guessing attacks by receiving all login attempts in an indistinguishable manner, i.e., correct credentials in a legitimate session and incorrect ones in a plausible fake session; Inuksuk is proposed to protect user files against ransomware or other authorized tampering. It augments the hardware access control on self-encrypting drives with trusted execution to achieve data immunization. We have also extended the Gracewipe scenario to a network-based enterprise environment, aiming to address slightly different threats, e.g., malicious insiders.

We believe the high-level methodology of these research topics can contribute to advancing the security research under strong adversarial assumptions, and the promotion of software-hardware orchestration in protecting execution integrity therein.


identifier: Ashourianjozdani, Mohammadhossein ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1082-8744 <https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1082-8744>  (2018) Modeling and Control of Diesel-Hydrokinetic Microgrids.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
A large number of decentralized communities in Canada and particularly in Québec rely on diesel power generation. The cost of electricity and environmental concerns suggest that hydrokinetic energy is a potential for power generation. Hydrokinetic energy conversion systems (HKECSs) are clean, reliable alternatives, and more beneficial than other renewable energy sources and conventional hydropower generation. However, due to the stochastic nature of river speed and variable load patterns of decentralized communities, the use of a hybrid diesel- hydrokinetic (D-HK) microgrid system has advantages. A large or medium penetration level has a negative effect on the short-term (transient) and long-term (steady-state) performance of such a hybrid system if the HKECS is controlled based on conventional control schemes. The conventional control scheme of the HKECS is the maximum power point tracking (MPPT). In the long-term conditions, the diesel generator set (genset) can operate at a reduced load where the role of the HKECS is to reduce the electrical load on the diesel genset (light loading). In the short-term, the frequency of the microgrid can vary due to the variable nature of water speed and load patterns. This can lead to power quality problems like a high rate of change of frequency or power, frequency fluctuations, etc. Moreover, these problems are magnified in storage-less DHK microgrids where a conventional energy storage system is not available to mitigate power as well as frequency deviations by controlling active power. Therefore, developing sophisticated control strategies for the HKECS to mitigate problems as mentioned above are necessary. Another challenging issue is a hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) platform for testing and developing a D-HK microgrid.
A dispatchable power controller for a fixed-pitch cross-flow turbine-based HKECS operating in the low rotational speed (stall) region is presented in this thesis. It delivers a given power requested by an operator provided that the water speed is high enough. If not, it delivers as much as possible, operating with an MPPT algorithm while meeting the basic operating limits (i.e., generator voltage and rotor speed, rated power, and maximum water speed), shutting down automatically if necessary. A supervisory control scheme provides a smooth transition between modes of operation as the water speed and reference power from the operator vary. The performance of the proposed dispatchable power controller and supervisory control algorithm is verified experimentally with an electromechanical-based hydrokinetic turbine (HKT) emulator.
The permanent magnet synchronous generator (PMSG) is preferred in small HKECSs. So, a converter-based PMSG emulator as a testbed for designing, analyzing, and testing of the generator’s power electronic interface and its control system is developed. A 6-switch voltage source converter (VSC) is used as a power amplifier to mimic the behaviour of the PMSG supplying linear and non-linear loads. Technical challenges of the PMSG emulator are considered, and proper solutions are suggested.
Finally, an active power sharing control strategy for a storage-less D-HK microgrid with medium and high penetration of hydrokinetic power to mitigate: 1) the effect of the grid frequency fluctuation due to instantaneous variation in the water speed/load, and 2) light loading operation of the diesel engine is proposed. A supplementary control loop that includes virtual inertia and frequency droop control is added to the conventional control system of HKECS in order to provide load power sharing and frequency support control. The proposed strategy is experimentally verified with diesel engine and HKT emulators controlled via a dSPACE® rapid control prototyping system. The transient and steady-state performance of the system including grid frequency and power balancing control are presented.


identifier: Alfred raju, Alan victor  (2018) Effect of environmental conditions on deformation of thin composite laminate made by 4D printing.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

format: text text

abstract:
The process of 4D printing of composites (4DPC) can make curved laminates without the need for curved molds. This is due to the use of unsymmetric laminates. Stacks of laminates with specified layup sequence (for thin composite laminates) are deposited on to flat molds using an automated fiber placement machine (AFP). On curing, the laminate takes a curved shape which can be determined by laminate theory. The factors that contribute to the curvature of the samples are the difference in coefficients of thermal contraction and shrinkage of the resin during curing.
When a thin composite laminate made by 4DPC is placed in room conditions, it is observed to open up and changes its radius of curvature over time. This is due to the absorption of moisture from the surroundings through diffusion.
This research aims to find the effect of the contribution of temperature, resin shrinkage and moisture absorption on the radius of curvature of the samples.
To analyze the contribution of difference in coefficients of thermal contraction and resin shrinkage on the curvature of the samples, the samples were first completely desorbed of moisture by desorption test and then a temperature cycling test is carried out. The results obtained from temperature cycling test are compared with the theoretical results generated using the MATLAB program. To study the effect of moisture on the thin composite samples, moisture absorption tests were performed to determine the change in radius and weight of samples over the course of time.


identifier: Al Garni, Hassan Zuhair ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2337-5847 <https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2337-5847>  (2018) Optimal Design and Analysis of Grid-Connected Solar Photovoltaic Systems.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Many countries consider utilizing renewable energy sources such as solar photovoltaic (PV), wind, and biomass to boost their potential for more clean and sustainable development and to gain revenues by export. In this thesis, a top-down approach of solar PV planning and optimization methodology is developed to enable high-performance at minimum costs. The first problem evaluates renewable resources and prioritizes their importance towards sustainable power generation. In the second problem, possible sites for solar PV potential are examined. In the third problem, optimal design of a grid-connected solar PV system is performed using HOMER software. A techno-economic feasibility of different system configurations including seven designs of tracking systems is conducted. In the fourth and the final problem, the optimal tilt and azimuth angles for maximum solar power generation are found. Using a detailed estimation model coded in MATLAB software, the solar irradiation on a tilted angle was estimated using a ground measurement of solar irradiation on a horizontal surface. A case study for Saudi Arabia is conducted.
The results of our prioritization study show solar PV followed by concentrated solar power are the most favorable technologies followed by wind energy. Using a real climatology and legislation data, such as roads, mountains, and protected areas, land suitability is determined via AHP-GIS model. The overlaid result suitability map shows that 16% (300,000 km2) of the study area is promising for deploying utility-size PV power plants in the north and northwest of Saudi Arabia. The optimal PV system design for Makkah, Saudi Arabia shows that the two-axis tracker can produce 34% more power than the fixed system. Horizontal tracker with continuous adjustment shows the highest net present cost (NPC) and the highest levelized cost of energy (LCOE), with a high penetration of solar energy to the grid. At different tilt and azimuth angles, the solar irradiation, potential power, and system revenue were calculated for 18 cities in Saudi Arabia. For Riyadh city (high suitable site), the monthly adjustment increases the harvested solar energy by 4%. It is recommended to adjust the tilt angle five times per year to achieve near-optimal results and minimize the cost associated with workforce or solar trackers for monthly adjustments. The proposed work can be exploited by decision-makers in the solar energy area for optimal design and analysis of grid-connected solar photovoltaic systems.


identifier: Majumdar, Suryadipta ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6501-4214 <https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6501-4214>  (2018) Proactive Security Auditing for Clouds.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

title: Proactive Security Auditing for Clouds

abstract:
Cloud computing is emerging as a promising IT solution for enabling ubiquitous, convenient, and on-demand accesses to a shared pool of configurable computing resources. However, the widespread adoption of cloud is still being hindered by the lack of transparency and accountability, which has traditionally been ensured through security auditing techniques. Security auditing in the cloud poses many unique challenges in data collection and processing (e.g., data format inconsistency and lack of correlation due to the heterogeneity of cloud infrastructures), and in verification (e.g., prohibitive performance overhead due to the sheer scale of cloud infrastructures and need of runtime verification for the dynamic nature of cloud). To this extent, existing security auditing solutions can mainly be categorized into three types: retroactive, intercept-and-check and proactive. The retroactive auditing approach is the traditional auditing technique, which audits after the fact and cannot prevent irreversible damages (e.g., leakage of sensitive information and denial of service attacks). The intercept-and-check approach offers runtime auditing and performs all the auditing steps after the occurrence of a critical event (i.e., which may potentially violate a security property). However, this approach results significant delay in responding each critical event. On the other hand, the existing proactive approach requires the changes (in the cloud configurations) planned for the future in advance to verify its compliance; however, this approach is not practical, because the future change plan is not always available due to cloud’s dynamic and ad-hoc nature. In this thesis, we address all the above-mentioned limitations of the existing works by proposing a proactive security auditing system, which potentially can prevent irreversible damages, respond in significantly less time and offer a practical approach without requiring any future change plan. To this purpose, we conduct our work into three main phases. During the first phase, we propose a runtime security
auditing system for the user-level of the cloud; where our proposed system audits wide range of security properties relevant to different authentication and authorization mechanisms, such as role-based access control (RBAC), attribute-based access control (ABAC) and single sign-on (SSO), and enhances the existing intercept-and-check solutions by adopting an incremental approach to improve the efficiency. In the second phase of our work, we propose a novel approach of proactive security auditing; which leverages the dependency relationship among cloud events and pre-computes the most expensive parts of the auditing process to keep the response time of the solution to a practical level. In our final phase, we utilize learning techniques to automatically capture these probabilistic dependency relationships, and propose an automated log processing approach to prepare the raw logs collected from cloud deployments for these learning methods to significantly enhance the practicality of our proactive security auditing system. Also, to demonstrate the applicability, scalability and efficiency of our proposed system, we integrate it to OpenStack, a major cloud platform, and evaluate it using both synthetic and real data. In summary, this thesis contributes towards enhancing security, efficiency and practicality of security auditing in the cloud environment.


identifier: Thelakkat, Harikrishna Menon  (2018) Performance and Energy Evaluation of Parallelization Strategies for Network on Chip Communication Architectures: Case Study of Canny Edge Detector Application.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
The substantial amount of research pertaining to the usage of optical networks for communication between cores in a multicore processor underlines the need for effective communication schemes. This necessitates the exploration of the efficiency of an optical network with a suitable benchmark which compares the different features essential for having an effective communication between the cores. As far as communication in a network is considered, the parameters that are most crucial are the delays and energy consumption. This thesis focuses on an industrial-sized application from the image processing field, Canny Edge Detector, to compare the performance in terms of network parameters which are the contention delay, latency and the energy consumption with the different settings on the network on chip simulator. The Canny Edge Detector application is implemented with various software parallelization schemes for better performance as compared to the normal serialized application. Also, to analyze the effectiveness of multicore processors, a comparison among sequential and parallelized coding techniques is performed in this thesis.
Software parallelization schemes applied to the algorithm executed on optical network architectures improve the latency and delay of the network up to 60% in the best case, while the total energy consumption values have a worst case overhead of around 50%. For almost all the configuration parameters, the parallelized schemes provide much better results for the outputs than the sequential implementation. The design parameters help determine the optimal amount of resources required for efficient execution of an image processing algorithm using a moderate to heavy workload on an NoC based on the minimal delay and energy consumption values.


identifier: Hums, Florian  (2018) Understanding Factors that Influence Identification as an Entrepreneur: On Behavioral Misalignments and Over-Identification.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Entrepreneurship research tends to take entrepreneurial status for granted and ignores the fact that “entrepreneur” is actually a more malleable social identity. This research examines the influence of a diverse set of factors and behaviors on individual’s likelihood to identify as an entrepreneur even if they bear no recognizable objective indicator of entrepreneurial action. I refer to the phenomenon of identifying as an entrepreneur without owning a business as “over-identified.” Using data from the National Longitudinal Youth Survey, which covers a period of 35 years, I test hypotheses of factors that will lead individuals to over-identify. Logistic regression reveals several factors including innovation-related activities and involvement in a family business, which significantly influence the likelihood for individuals to over-identify as entrepreneurs compared to the baseline definition. The paper makes several contributions to extant literature including advancing the cause of defining entrepreneurship and further integrating identity and entrepreneurship literature.


identifier: Leblanc, David  (2018) The Only Game in Town: Simulators and the Circuits of Capitalism.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: This thesis theorizes the simulator as the paradigmatic video game text reifying the systemic logic and structuring principles of rationalization, abstraction, and productivity at the core of contemporary capitalism. Deploying the systems-analysis methods of games studies alongside theoretical frameworks of Autonomist Marxism, this intervention proposes a means of working through the entanglements of labor and leisure reified in games that simulate work. This thesis therefore asks, in what ways must we revise the notions of ‘productive’ games when confronted with unremunerated forms of play that nonetheless reproduce, sustain, or calcify the logics of capital? In short, why do we play hard work? Tracing the circuits of capitalism through simulation, this thesis first examine ‘Games of Production’ such as Stardew Valley and Factorio – simulators that crystallize the logic of scientific management and Fordist organizational regimes of totalizing managerial control in the perennially privileged sites of production, the farm and factory. This thesis then follows the flows of capital by interrogating truck simulators as ‘Games of Circulation,’ which simulate a ground-up view of the networks of logistics that sustain the movements and flows of global capitalism. Ultimately, this project aims to show that through the simulation of capitalism’s vast matrix of systems and logics, simulators not only reify the structuring principles of capital, but also serve as optics to chart insurgencies that resist them.


identifier: Sáenz, Daniel Santiago ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4362-2304 <https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4362-2304>  (2018) “A Christian image causes in us desire for virtue and horror of vice”: Persuasion, Masculinities, and Visual Culture in the Context of Spanish Colonial Expansion.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: This thesis examines the discursive role that portrayals of masculinities, both hegemonic and deviant, played in the colonization and christianization of Indigenous peoples in New Spain, as well as the perpetuation of European imperialism in the years following the conquest. The thesis takes as case studies the portrayal of sodomy in the Historia general de las cosas de Nueva España (1558–1585) and of heteronormative masculinity in Los desposorios de la Virgen (1645–1652) by Spanish-born painter Sebastián López de Arteaga (1610–1652). Drawing from artistic theory of the period, this work contextualizes both case studies within larger discussions of (homo)sexuality and the nature of religious images to argue that European colonizers sought to extend the influence of Euro-Catholic colonialism into the intimate lives of Indigenous people.�


identifier: Ma, Xiao  (2018) Semantic Mapping of Security Events to Known Attack Patterns.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: In order to provide cyber environment security, analysts need to analyze a large number of security events on a daily basis and take proper actions to alert their clients of potential threats. The increasing cyber traffic drives a need for a system to assist security analysts to relate security events to known attack patterns. This thesis describes the enhancement of an existing Intrusion Detection System (IDS) with the automatic mapping of snort alert messages to known attack patterns. Our system relies on three approaches: supplementing snort messages by adding related Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) entities, pre-clustering similar snort messages before mapping them to attack patterns in Common Attack Pattern Enumeration and Classification (CAPEC) and using Latent Semantic Analysis (LSA) to reduce the dimension of the feature space. The module has been deployed in our partner company and when evaluated against the recommendations of two security analysts, it improved the F-measure of their system from 51.81% to 64.84%.


identifier: Aback, Zahra  (2018) Optimization of Random Forest Based Methods Applying the Genetic Algorithms.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: In this century access to large and complex datasets is much easier. These datasets are large in dimension and volume, and researchers are interested in methods that are able to handle this type of data and at the same time produce accurate results. Machine learning methods are particularly efficient for this type of data, where the emphasis is on data analysis, and not on fitting a statistical model. A very popular method from this group is Random Forests which have been applied in different areas of study on two types of problems: classification and regression. The former is more popular, while the latter can be applied for data analysis. Moreover, many efficient techniques for missing value imputation were added to Random Forest over time. One of these methods which can handle all types of variables is MissForest. There are several studies that applied different approaches to improve the performance of classification type of Random Forests, but there are not many studies available for regression type. In the present study, it is evaluated if the performance of regression type of Random Forests and MissForests could be improved by applying Genetic Algorithms as an optimization method. The experiments were conducted on five datasets to minimize the mean square error (MSE) of the Random Forest and imputation errors of the MissForest. The results showed the superiority of the proposed method in comparison to the classical Random Forest methods.


identifier: Oqaily, Momen  (2018) Protecting Audit Data using Segmentation-Based Anonymization for Multi-Tenant Cloud Auditing (SEGGUARD).  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: With the rise of security concerns regarding cloud computing, the importance of security auditing, conducted either in-house or by a third party, has become evident more than ever. However, the input data required for auditing a multi-tenant cloud environment typically contains sensitive information, such as the topology of the underlying cloud infrastructure. Additionally, audit results intended for one tenant may unexpectedly reveal private information, such as unpatched security flaws, about other tenants. How to anonymize audit data and results in order to prevent such information leakage is a novel challenge that has received little attention. Directly applying most existing anonymization techniques to such a context would either lead to insufficient protection or render the data unsuitable for auditing. In this thesis, we propose SegGuard, a novel anonymization approach that protects the sensitive information in both the audit data and auditing results, while assuring the data utility for effective auditing. Specifically, SegGuard prevents cross-tenant information leakage through per-tenant encryption, and it prevents information leakage to auditors through an innovative way of applying property-preserving anonymization. We apply SegGuard on audit data collected from an OpenStack cloud, and evaluate its effectiveness and efficiency using both synthetic and real data. Our experimental results demonstrate that SegGuard can reduce information leakage to a negligible level (e.g., less than 1% for an adversary with 50% pre-knowledge) with a practical response time (e.g., 62 seconds to anonymize a cloud virtual infrastructure with 25,000 virtual machines).


identifier: Samareh Abolhassani, Soroush  (2018) Climate Change Impacts on Thermal Performance of Residential Buildings.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Climate change has altered regular temperature patterns and various climate variables on a global scale, causing growing concerns about future food, water and energy security. Immediate action should be taken to understand the extent of climate change while also proposing adaptation strategies to cope with the projected future climate conditions. From the energy security perspective, particularly in consideration of the ever-increasing human population, an important aspect to understand is the impact of climate change on the energy consumption of residential buildings. Understanding the impact of climate change on building energy consumption is not only beneficial for advising efficient energy-saving measures, but also for understanding future energy requirements. Various studies have already shown that climate change effects heating and cooling loads of buildings in various climates around the world. However, there is a lack of comprehension of the effects of climate change on energy consumption in Quebec. In addition, some of the methodologies employed to address the impact of climate change in buildings may be not be accurate or accessible to practitioners. The present study tries to fill this gap by advising a simple procedure that can be implemented in day-to-day engineering practice for a detailed understanding of the effects of climate change on building energy consumption. The methodology is applied to a residential building in Montreal, Quebec (Canada), using the state-of-the-art climate model projections for the periods of 2011-2040 (short-term future), 2041-2070 (midterm future), and 2071-2100 (long-term future) and under low and high greenhouse gas concentration scenarios. In brief, the available projections of five global climate models was studied for two particular weather parameters, namely dry-bulb temperature and shortwave radiation. The projections were downscaled at the point location and at an hourly resolution using a cascade model based on a quantile mapping bias correction method and a modified quantile-based k-nearest neighbor method. The downscaled projections were used as inputs to TRNSYS, an energy simulation software, in order to quantify the heating and cooling loads as well as judge the overall performance of the residential building in Montreal. This methodology can provide a basis for detailed understanding of the impacts of climate change on building energy consumption. Considering the applied case study, it is understood that climate change will not only change the intensity of the heating and cooling loads but can also change the empirical distribution of hourly energy consumption, particularly during peak loads.


identifier: Panarello, Bianca  (2018) Adolescent Experiences with the Intolerance of Uncertainty, Worry, and Anxious Arousal in Social and Academic Contexts.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Objective: The present study assessed the functional associations between the intolerance of uncertainty (IU), worry, and arousal as components of anxiety in preadolescents, as well as the longitudinal effects of friendship security and intimacy on anxiety. It was expected that IU and worry would be most strongly related to each other at both times and that friendship security, rather than intimacy, would have a protective effect on anxiety by inhibiting IU. Method: Preadolescents (N = 216) in grades 5 and 6 (Mage = 11.35) completed self-report questionnaires at two times across a two-month period. Participants rated newly developed items designed to assess anxiety (IU, Worry and Arousal) in social and test situations, and rated items of depressed affect, friendship security, and intimacy. Results: Confirmatory factor analyses demonstrated that this new tool proved to be a valid and reliable measure of the anxiety constructs. Further, analyses revealed that (1) worry and arousal demonstrated the strongest association among the 3 anxiety components, (2) IU was a more powerful antecedent to worry than it was to arousal at both times, (3) IU was indirectly related to depressed affect, and (4) friendship security was negatively related to IU over time. Conclusions: Overall, these findings provide important insights into the organizational and hierarchical structure of anxiety in preadolescence and lend further empirical support to the importance of friendships on reducing internalizing symptoms. These results have important implications for enhancing the treatment of anxiety and depressed affect, by including a focus on the intolerance of uncertainty.


identifier: Farshchian, Shahrzad  (2018) Optimization Model for Sustainable Renovations in Buildings.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Buildings consume a substantial amount of energy and adversely affect the global climate and environment. According to the US Department of Energy (DOE), buildings account for 39% of total primary energy consumption and 71% of the electricity consumption. The construction and operation phases constitute the largest proportion of the total energy end-use worldwide (Ma et al. 2012).

An innovative and comprehensive set of sustainable materials aiming at the envelope of buildings excluding the roofs is employed to define the renovation alternatives in order to ameliorate the sustainability status of the buildings. The model is comprised of a NSGA-II multi-objective optimization algorithm integrated into a simulation engine. Simulation runs are performed to compute the objective function values and transfer them to the optimization algorithm.

A hybrid fuzzy simulation-based optimization model is developed to select the optimum renovation alternatives. The model simultaneously minimizes annual energy consumption and capital cost of an existing office building based on a multi-objective optimization problem. Fuzzy set theory is assigned to the objective functions to address the uncertainty associated with calculation of energy consumption and capital cost values. Conclusively, the model is implemented on a sample case to substantiate the capabilities of the developed model. The case study is a one-story office building with a double skin facade on the south facing facade in Montreal. The results illustrate nine Pareto optimal points and demonstrate that the generated optimum solutions are capable of causing an average of 35% decrease in the annual energy consumption compared to the conventional building scenario.


identifier: Karamzadeh, Vahid  (2018) Additive Manufacturing of Polymer-based Microfluidic Devices.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Microfluidics is a multidisciplinary area comprising several disciplines such as biology, chemistry and tissue engineering, which leads to manipulation and analysis of liquid through micro channels. Microfluidic devices provide numerous advantages for economical point-of-care diagnosis compared to conventional testing devices. In addition, more recently organ-on-a-chip which is a 3D microfluidic network for cell culturing has offered a microfluidic chip that stimulates the response of an organ system which can significantly reduce the costs of developing new pharmaceutical drugs. In spite of multiple advantages of microfluidic devices, barriers exist in current microfabrication methods. Fabrication of microfluidic molds requires cleanroom facilities and is a costly and tedious process which hindered the commercialization of microfluidic chips. Although, using 3D printed molds has been suggested to simplify fabrication of chips, their resolution is limited to 100 μm. In addition to these factors, molding process is challenging to fully automate which means that it is in contrast to the vision of cost-effective and mass production of these devices.  Therefore, a fully automated, rapid process is required to guide microfluidics towards the development of low-cost more commercially devices.
In this thesis, different additive manufacturing methods for fabrication of polymeric microfluidic devices are presented. First, a commercial stereolithography (SLA) 3D printer was used to fabricate 3D printed molds. Limitations and accuracy of using 3D printed templates for microfluidic applications were investigated. Then, the thesis presents a promising additive manufacturing method toward printing a polymer-based device by using an acoustic assisted printing method. This method can significantly simplify and improve fabrication of microfluidic devices. Simulation of the acoustic wave and the heat induced by that were obtained in order to optimize the printing process prior to the experiment. The model provided a good understanding and estimation of acoustic field, temperature rise and focal region size. Time and cost required for fabricating a part by this method is considerably low and no additional post processing is required to turn the printed part to a functional part. The proposed method was finally applied to fabricate a fluidic channel. A fluidic channel can be printed in less than 10 minutes without adding additional components.


identifier: Neriya Hegade, Keshava Praveena  (2018) Studies on droplet-microcantilever platform under fluid flow in mini wind tunnel.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Fluid interaction of micro structures find numerous applications in bio medical field. This thesis consists of experimental studies on fluid interaction of micro structures under laminar flow using a mini wind tunnel. The interaction of microstructures such as micro cantilever and oil coated water droplet with fluid flow were tested and the experimental results are reported. A mini wind tunnel to test microstructures is designed and built. Design of the mini wind tunnel is validated by performing tip deflection studies of micro cantilever beams of different sizes in millimeter range. The interaction of micro cantilever beam with fluid flow is recorded using a recording camera. An image processing method is developed to extract results from recordings. Results from micro cantilever experiments suggest that tip deflection is highly influenced by beam length and beam thickness.
Deformation of oil coated water droplets are tested under fluid flow. The micro structure is placed over a partially wetting surface and the deformation of the oil-droplet samples are tested using the mini wind tunnel. Effects of fluid velocity, droplet volume and oil concentration over droplet deformation are studied. Larger droplets deform more as compared to their smaller counterparts. Oil layer covers the water droplet entirely and reduces the influence of fluid force. Higher oil coating induces lesser deformation in droplets
Oil coated droplets are subjected to fluid velocities greater than critical air velocity of the droplets to study the droplet shedding phenomena. Oil coated droplet slip easily as compared to the droplet with no oil coatings for a given fluid velocity. Also, oil coating improve the droplet shedding phenomena. However much higher oil coating slows down droplet shedding and the water droplet floats over pool of oil.
Tip deflection of a microcantilever beam with a point load near the free end under the fluid flow is studied to develop fluid load augmented micro balance. Water droplets of various sizes are used to provide point load. The water droplet is placed over micro cantilever beam at dimensionless length ξ =0.8. An additional fluid load is provided using a mini wind tunnel. Tip deflection of the beam is tested for different fluid velocities. Results suggest that fluid load augments the tip deflection of micro cantilever beam. This thesis also develops fluid load augmented micro balance.


identifier: Shaw, Emory ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4099-7365 <https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4099-7365>  (2017) Parsing Perceptions of Place: Locative and Textual Representations of Place Émilie-Gamelin on Twitter.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: We increasingly engage in geographies mediated by social media, which is changing how we experience and produce places. This raises questions about how ‘place’ is conceived and received in networked virtual spaces. Place has remained difficult to grasp in both geography and communications studies that utilize social media data. To attend to this, I first develop a conceptual framework that bridges the phenomenology of spatiality with the communication of place. I then present a case study of Place Émilie-Gamelin in Montreal: a plaza located atop the city’s busiest transit hub. Despite its geographic centrality, it is a liminal space appropriated by marginalized groups and contentious political movements. Since 2015, it has been subject to a city-led revitalization program with intentions of attracting party-goers and tourists. Using a communications geography framework, I collected a year’s worth of tweets, first, employing a filter to capture georeferenced tweets in and around the study site, and second, using the site’s toponyms to retrieve tweets through textual queries. To understand these representations, I coded them by relevance, theme and communicative function. Results showed a place evolving in scope, name and meaning, reflecting diverging flows and uses. I found that there were more textual connotations of the study site than there were geotweets, and that the former were more diverse in their representation of place. The thesis demonstrates how promotional content on Twitter should be more critically analyzed in concert with expressive and descriptive tweets and geotweets, and that this implies spatial ontologies and data collection methods that consider a place on social media as a discursive construction. This is especially so since Twitter has become increasingly ‘platial’ through internal changes and its entwinement with other social media platforms: changes which require consideration in all Twitter-based spatial and textual analyses. The study provides an updated perspective on Twitter’s use in the spatial humanities, GIScience and geography and contributes to those interested in applying more nuanced cartographies of places.


identifier: Palani, Dharani Kumar ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7454-6028 <https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7454-6028>  (2018) Statistical Machine Translation of English Text to API Code Usages: A comparison of Word Map, Contextual Graph Ordering, Phrase-based, and Neural Network Translations.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Statistical Machine Translation (SMT) has gained enormous popularity in recent years as natural
language translations have become increasingly accurate. In this thesis we apply SMT techniques in
the context of translating English descriptions of programming tasks to source code. We evaluate
four existing approaches: maximum likelihood word maps, ContextualExpansion, phrase-based, and
neural network translation. As a training and test (i.e. reference translation) data set we clean and
align the popular developer discussion forum StackOverflow.
Our baseline approach, WordMapK, uses a simple maximum likelihood word map model which
is then ordered using existing code usage graphs. The approach is quite effective, with a precision
and recall of 20 and 50, respectively. Adding context to the word map model, ContextualExpansion,
is able to increase the precision to 25 with a recall of 40. The traditional phrase-based translation
model, Moses, achieves a similar precision and recall also incorporating the context of the input text
by mapping English sequences to code sequences. The final approach is neural network translation,
OpenNMT. While the median precision is 100 the recall is only 20. When manually examining the
output of the neural translation, the code usages are very small and obvious. Our results represent
an application of existing natural language strategies in the context of software engineering. We
make our scripts, corpus, and reference translations in the hope that future work will adapt these
techniques to further increase the quality of English to code statistical machine translation.


identifier: Ehsani Chombeli, Azadeh  (2018) Historical, Mythical and Religious Narratives of the Babylonian Talmud in their Middle Persian Context.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
This dissertation offers a comparative study between a number of Talmudic and Middle Persian narratives. The present work seeks first and foremost to examine Talmudic narratives in their Iranian context, and secondly to examine the Talmudic background of Iranian narratives where applicable.
The first and second chapters will offer an analysis of the alteration of historical and Biblical figures in the Bavli (the Babylonian Talmud) based on the influence of Iranian mythical and historical figures, while the third chapter will provide an account of how Iranists can learn from Talmudic Studies. Here we suggest that a Talmudic narrative may have encouraged Zoroastrian priests to compose an extensive work of religious literature, namely the Ardā-Virāz Nāmag, an idea which will be further explored in the appendix.
The relationship between Iranian and Jewish materials in the Talmudic era is merely a piece of a larger puzzle, a piece that a number of scholars—such as Elman, Secunda, Mokhtarian, Herman, Kiel, Kalmin etc.—have recently begun to focus on.
By focusing on Talmudic narratives that have not yet been sufficiently examined for Iranian themes and ideas, this dissertation represents a contribution towards piecing this puzzle together.


identifier: Maclean, Andrew  (2018) Welcome to the Front Page: An Ethnographic Exploration of Free Speech within Reddit.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Reddit, the self-described Font Page of the Internet, presents a front row seat to the commodification of the internet’s earliest aspiration into a marketable good. Yet unlike other platforms in the web 2.0 era, Reddit’s users resist, finding means to counter the prevailing trend. The platform with its long, and often tortured relationship to free speech suggests the means towards locating the root of such resistance. Expressing a desire for autonomy, free speech within Reddit highlights the clash between competing directions for Reddit. Like much of the internet, Reddit’s future can be distilled to a single question, does it exist as a private property, or a public good? Welcome to the front page is an ethnographic exploration of the role that free speech plays within Reddit. Addressing how free speech is understood and deployed by users, moderators, and administrators, the following thesis contends that to understand Reddit’s successes and failures, one must first begin by understanding the importance of free speech, and the direction such an attachment portends.


identifier: Ruel, Alexa  (2018) Does mutual exclusivity guide infants’ interpretation of novel labels during categorization?  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Labeling objects during categorization tasks has been repeatedly shown to help infants categorize
objects by highlighting their commonalities. Although much work supports this label-as
category-marker hypothesis, other findings support a label-as-feature hypothesis. According to
this view, labels start as object features, and only become category markers later in childhood.
Developing in parallel, infants appear to rely on specific word learning principles based on their
linguistic experience. That is, monolingual infants have been repeatedly shown to use a
disambiguation heuristic to map novel words to novel objects. The aim of the current study was
therefore to examine how monolingual infants categorize objects in an interactive categorization
task when presented with one or two labels. Based on previous work, we hypothesized that 18
month-old monolinguals would perform significantly worse when objects were given two labels,
than when they were given a single label. We also administered a mutual exclusivity task to
examine if toddlers’ expectation of a one-to-one mapping between words and object kinds is
related to their performance on the categorization task. Unexpectedly, toddlers’ categorization
was enhanced both when objects were given one or two labels. We discuss these findings and
suggest that future work should examine the manner in which monolingual infants process a
second novel label during category formation, and if it relates to their ability for disambiguation,
through the use of eye-tracking.


identifier: Shahriar, Taheri  (2018) Investigation of Assessment Methods for Measuring the Effectiveness of Student Design Learning.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Deep learning approach in educational context is focused on analyzing ideas, and creating a strong connection between the ideas and prior knowledge. A Problem-Based Learning (PBL), considered as students' deep learning approach, is a widely-adopted educational strategy designed to teach students to use their engineering knowledge to solve the real-life engineering problems. The goal of this thesis is to investigate of assessment methods for measuring the effectiveness of students' learning under a flying house design session which is a PBL teaching method. To do so, the Environment Based Design (EBD) approach is used to  determine assessment criteria. Two assessment methods (i.e., Study Process Questionnaire (SPQ), Logos Comparison Task (LCT)) have been applied to two groups of students with and without EBD knowledge. Through the investigation and analysis, the results indicate a significant effect of EBD knowledge and skills on the LCT grades. However, no major effect of students' learning approach (SLA) and interaction between EBD and SLA has been detected. Similarly, no linear relationship between students' deep learning approach and higher LCT grades has been found.


identifier: Oelberg, Emily  (2018) A Hybrid Optimal Control Approach to Maximum Endurance of Aircraft.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Aircraft performance optimization is a ﬁeld of increasing interest, especially with the prevalent use of ﬂight management systems (FMS) on commercial aircraft, as well as the growing ﬁeld of autonomous aircraft. This thesis addresses the maximum endurance performance mode. Maximizing the endurance of an aircraft has several applications in data collection, surveillance, and commercial ﬂights. Each of these applications may be best suited for different aircraft such as ﬁxed-wing or quad-rotor vehicles, with power plants being either fuel-burning or electric.

The objectives of this thesis are to solve the maximum endurance problem using an optimal control framework for ﬁxed-wing aircraft while developing a uniﬁed model of energy-depletion which encompasses both fuel-burning and all-electric aircraft. The uniﬁed energy-depletion model allows the results to be applied to turbojet, turbofan, turboprop, and all-electric aircraft. The problem of maximum endurance in cruise will be solved for a three-phase model of ﬂight including climb, cruise, and descent. This problem is solved using a hybrid optimal control framework using a uniﬁed energy-depletion model.

One of the advantages of using an optimal control framework is the possibility to develop analytical solutions. The results of this thesis include a general solution for maximizing the endurance of ﬁxed-wing aircraft, as well as speciﬁc analytical solutions for each aircraft conﬁguration wherever possible. Some beneﬁts of analytical solutions are that they require the least amount of computation time and provide insight into the problem including sensitivities and physical dependencies. Simulations are provided to validate the results in the case of speciﬁc aircraft conﬁgurations (turbojet, turbofan, turboprop, and all-electric).


identifier: Bahrami, Mousa  (2018) Many-Body Effects in Novel Nanostructures : Optical and Transport Properties.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
This work explores many-body effects in novel nanostructures specifically on transport and optical properties.   As an introduction, we  investigate these properties by employing the Drude model in the classical regime. In quantum regime, these properties are related to the density-density response function  known as polarization function. To evaluate  the polarization function of a system, we employ  Linear Response Theory in the absence of many-body effects. Two such effects are the Coulomb potential and local field factor; we present the random-phase and Hubbard approximations considering the former and latter respectively.  Impurity effects have profound influence on a system properties.  We  develop the Linear Response Theory     in the Van Hove limit to consider the impurity effects. As examples of quantum wells and wires, we treat graphene and armchair graphene nanoribbons (AGNRs). The single-body wave function of a system is required to evaluate its polarization function.  We introduce the tight-binding approach to evaluate the eigenvalues and eigenfunctions analytically. Within the  k. p method we obtain the energy spectrum and eigenvalues of those systems at Dirac points in the low energy limit. We present the dynamical conductivity of AGNRs by considering many-body effects. In addition, we show  reflection and transmission coefficients in the absence and presence of electron-electron interaction and scattering for AGNRs. As an example of collective coherent phenomena,  we obtain surface plasmons in AGNRs. To investigate the impurity effects on collective coherent phenomena, we evaluate plasmons and surface plasmons in graphene and two-dimensional free electron gas. We show  how impurity modifies the dispersion domain of these coherent phenomena. We have also show that  there is a critical value for the impurity strength    below which there are no collective coherent phenomena. In addition, we obtain an analytic expression for quality factor of surface plasmons for intra-level and inter-level.
Finally, we show the effects of   two-body collisions on  dc transport in  a homogeneous system by employing a  quantum Boltzmann equation (QBE). As an application of the QBE, we study the effect of screening, temperature,  and  electron density on the dc conductivity of graphene.


identifier: Khavari, Parviz  (2018) A Coherent Method for Denoising Ultrasound Data with Applications in Super Resolution and Elastography.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Ultrasound (US) imaging is a widely used medical modality since it is inexpensive non-invasive and portable. However, the quality of US is limited by physical constraints (e.g. thermal noise) and hardware restrictions (e.g. the number of sensors in a US probe). To increase the quality and improve the resolution of US images, I proposed two novel algorithms, namely COherent Denoising for Elastography (CODE), for removing noise of RF data for elastography technique and coherent ultrasound super-resolution to perform a novel super-resolution technique.
I first propose CODE to improve the estimation of tissue displacement in ultrasound elastography. Ultrasound elastography computes the mechanical properties of tissues affected by an internal of external force. The radio frequency data acquired from ultrasound is usually corrupted with noise that leads ultrasound elastography techniques for fail. To remove this noise I proposed CODE that despite the local denoising algorithms, keeps the information of the RF data for elastography. I investigate two state-of-the-art elastography methods,  GLobal Ultrasound Elastography (GLUE), and; (ii) Dynamic Programming Analytic Minimization elastography, and results shows the improvement of the strain maps on both patient and phantom data.
I then introduce a super-resolution technique for improving the quality of ultrasound B-mode images. The resolution of ultrasound images is limited by hardware constraints and physical restrictions. Conventionally, ultrasound machines use interpolation techniques for improving the resolution of the B-mode images. However, I propose a new method for coherent ultrasound super-resolution that overcomes conventional approaches in both qualitative and quantitative measures.
In both cases, I proposed a mathematical framework that justified the behavior of the algorithms and tested the methods on both in-vivo, and phantom data, and discussed qualitatively and quantitatively.


identifier: AskariHemmat, Mohammad Ali  (2018) Path Planning Algorithms for Autonomous Mobile Robots.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
This thesis work proposes the development and implementation of multiple different
path planning algorithms for autonomous mobile robots, with a focus on differentially
driven robots. Then, it continues to propose a real-time path planner that is capable of finding
the optimal, collision-free path for a nonholonomic Unmanned Ground Vehicle (UGV)
in an unstructured environment. First, a hybrid A* path planner is designed and implemented
to find the optimal path; connecting the current position of the UGV to the target
in real-time while avoiding any obstacles in the vicinity of the UGV. The advantages of
this path planner are that, using the potential field techniques and by excluding the nodes
surrounding every obstacles, it significantly reduces the search space of the traditional A*
approach; it is also capable of distinguishing different types of obstacles by giving them
distinct priorities based on their natures and safety concerns. Such an approach is essential
to guarantee a safe navigation in the environment where humans are in close contact with
autonomous vehicles. Then, with consideration of the kinematic constraints of the UGV,
a smooth and drivable geometric path is generated. Throughout the whole thesis, extensive
practical experiments are conducted to verify the effectiveness of the proposed path
planning methodologies.


identifier: Barcant, Aaron  (2018) The Republic of Trinidad and Tobago: From Crown Colony to National Security State.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
This thesis examines the manifestation of a national security state in Trinidad and Tobago (T&T) that emerged in the context of decolonization, during the period between 1946 and 1978, when the country achieved internal self-government, independence, and, finally, became a republic. The T&T national security state developed from its roots in British Crown Colony rule, however the concept of the “national security state” was originally derived from an analysis of Unites States (US) in the immediate post-WWII period.
US “national security” rested on an ideological dogma of anti-communism and the forceful, interventionist, US-led promotion of Western capitalism as the universal measure of freedom. This thesis extends the concept of the “national security state” to the case of T&T, in the Southern Caribbean. From this circumstance an appropriate redefinition is derived, where the “national security state” is rooted in the aftermath of plantation slavery and British Crown Colony rule, coupled with the rise of the US as the unquestioned imperial power of the Western Hemisphere and the world in the 20th Century.
The core aspects of T&T’s Crown Colony constitution remained fundamentally intact despite the proclamation of independence in 1962 and republic status in 1976. Eric Williams, author of Capitalism and Slavery (1944), became T&T’s first Prime Minister and oversaw the consolidation of the national security state that targeted the efforts of the New World Group in their work to foster decolonization and sovereignty of the in the Caribbean.