identifier: Brodeur, Nathalie Nancy  (2006) Dispersion patterns of kin in young-of-the-year Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar L.) in Catamaran Brook, New Brunswick.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Movement allows organisms to respond to heterogeneity in physical and biological conditions both at the individual and population level. Studying the movement of young stream fishes has proven to be problematic because of the difficulty of tagging small fishes using traditional techniques. In this study, recently developed microsatellite markers were used as a method of tagging individual young-of-the-year (YOY) Atlantic salmon ( Salmo salar L.). First, the association between the local-scale distribution patterns of 81 territorial YOY salmon and their degree of relatedness in a natural stream was tested. No significant association between relatedness and distance at the local scale was found. Focal fish were not more related to their nearest-neighbour (mean r x,y = -0.004) than to randomly selected fish (mean r x,y = 0.005), nor were they more related to their four nearest-neighbours (mean r x,y = -0.01) than to non-neighbours (mean r x,y = -0.007). Second, 97 anadromous adults moving into the stream to spawn, four redd locations, as well as 313 of their offspring were sampled in a 1.6 km reach of Catamaran Brook. The initial dispersal of offspring from the four redd locations and resulting long-range dispersion patterns of families were mapped. The average dispersal distance of 69 YOY salmon from the sampled redd locations ranged from 50--955m downstream, and 9--154m upstream. Five maternal and nine paternal half-sibling families were recaptured over an average dispersion distance (linear distance between the most upstream and most downstream sites of capture) of 1340m and 1018m, respectively. Four full-sibling families were identified with an average dispersion distance of 945m. The redd location (for sampled redds) and the most upstream location of a family (linear distance of the most upstream location of capture to the mouth of the brook) were combined and analysed as one variable. Dispersion distance was significantly, and positively correlated with redd or upstream location, with most families dispersing to the mouth of the brook. Third, alternative mating strategies take place in Atlantic salmon males, whereby both anadromous adults and precocious parr compete for fertilization opportunities with anadromous females. The present study suggests that precocious male parr may have fertilized up to 53% of the 313 sampled YOY salmon. This intensive field sampling allowed for the detection of the initial dispersal from redds and the large-scale dispersion of YOY salmon, which would not have been possible using alternative tagging methods. The results of the present study contributes to the understanding of dispersal and dispersion patterns of YOY salmon in freshwater habitats, and are applicable to the conservation and management of salmonid populations.


identifier: Duyulmus, Cem Utku  (2006) The impact of the European Union : democratization of Turkey.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

type: Thesis NonPeerReviewed

abstract: Turkey has introduced crucial legal reforms since 1999 for satisfying the membership conditions of the European Union (EU). The Turkey-EU relationship has evolved to an unprecedented level with opening of the accession negotiations with Turkey in 2005. The EU anchor is a major factor for understanding the democratization of Turkey since 1999. In this study, I examine the research question "Under which conditions have EU had a positive impact on compliance with liberal democratic norms in Turkey?"  I have used the explanations of the external incentives and the social learning models for answering the research question. The analysis of the variables of the two models has been done in two time periods (1999-2002, 2002-2004) and according to three issue areas (human rights, minority rights and civil-military relations). It has been observed through this research that the identification of the Turkish government and the size and credibility of the EU rewards have been the most important factors that influence the compliance. Legitimacy and resonance variables of the social learning model and the size of adoption costs of the external incentives model have failed to explain the compliance.  This research has revealed that the impact of the EU is dependent of different domestic and EU level factors. Although I could not reach a definitive conclusion on the validity of the two theoretical models, I have been able to determine which factors are important in explaining the compliance of Turkey with the EU's conditions


identifier: Dilworth, Chris  (2006) Frankenstein revisited.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

title: Frankenstein revisited

abstract: The overarching objective of this thesis is to examine the reasons why Frankenstein is transhistorically stable---to discover what is common to both the early-nineteenth and early-twenty-first centuries which gives Frankenstein its present-day relevance as a modern myth. I examine the 1818 edition of Frankenstein from an Ecocritical perspective and resituate it within its cultural context which I treat as a textual ecology. This resituation requires that Frankenstein be considered alongside the prose, poetry and philosophy of Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822). To this end I construct a rich Shelleyan paradigm within which I resituate the novel and through which I perform close-readings of key points in the text within a Shelleyan context. Among other conclusions, I show that there is connection between Frankenstein , Alastor , and Plato's Phaedo which indicates that Frankenstein should not be read literally as a Gothic novel any more than The Phaedo should be read literally as a the last words of a condemned man. Both works are profound allegories which require minute examination. Other conclusions are that Shelley was neither an atheist nor a materialist but a Necessarian very much concerned with the cultural transformation from the pre-industrial ethos to Industrialism. I show how the ecocentrism of Necessarianism is opposed to the anthropocentrism of Industrialism and how this conflict is incorporated into Frankenstein . Popular eighteenth-century readings of the mythology surrounding Prometheus and Nemesis are also examined in detail and compared to Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus as a modern myth with a modern aetiology.


identifier: Glasgow, Stephen D  (2006) Mechanisms mediating local generation of theta-frequency EEG activity in the superficial layers of the parasubiculum.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: The parasubiculum is a major component of the subicular complex, and plays an integral role in the retrohippocampal circuitry. It receives numerous inputs from the hippocampus, medial septum, thalamus, and other subcortical areas, and sends its major output projection to the layer II of the medial entorhinal cortex. Theta-frequency EEG activity (4-12 Hz) is a sinusoidal-like waveform, and has been correlated with numerous cognitive processes. The present studies were aimed at determining whether the superficial layers of the parasubiculum generate theta-frequency EEG activity locally, and whether membrane potential oscillations in parasubicular neurons may contribute to the generation of theta activity in this area. In the urethane-anaesthetized rat, cholinergically-mediated theta activity was recorded as a bipolar electrode passed through the superficial layers of the parasubiculum, and the theta activity was phase-locked to theta activity recorded in the stratum radiatum/lacunosum-moleculare of the hippocampal CA1 region. Using whole-cell current-clamp recordings in acute brain slices, voltage-dependent theta-frequency membrane potential oscillations were observed in the majority of layer II parasubicular neurons when the cells were held near threshold voltages using steady current injection. The frequency of oscillations increased when the cells were heated from 22{493}C to 32{493}C, and persisted in the presence of blockers of fast ionotropic glutamatergic and GABAergic synaptic transmission. The oscillations are therefore likely generated intrinsically by voltage-dependent ionic conductances. These results suggest that the superficial layers of the parasubiculum locally generate theta-frequency EEG activity, and that voltage-dependent membrane potential oscillations may contribute to the generation of this activity in vivo


identifier: Drouin, Marc  (2006) To the last seed : atrocity crimes and the genocidal continuum in Guatemala, 1978-1984.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Approximately 132,000 people were killed in Guatemala between 1978 and 1984 in an armed conflict which displaced as much as 20 percent of the country's total population. Of the 626 massacres documented by the Guatemalan Truth Commission and imputed to government security forces, 415 were committed in an 18-month period between June 1981 and December 1982. Based on over one hundred first-person accounts of twenty-one massacres perpetrated during that time, as well as reports from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights concerning violations to the American Convention on Human Rights in Guatemala, this study analyses and contextualises what David Scheffer has termed atrocity crimes . Referring to international humanitarian law, including the Geneva Conventions and the United Nations Genocide Convention, and the growing jurisprudence emanating from the International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, crimes committed in Guatemala have been placed on what scholars have called a genocide continuum . Tracing the evolution of consecutive military campaigns from 1981 to 1983, which deliberately made no distinction between armed insurgents and civilian non-combatants, this study demonstrates how war crimes and crimes against humanity in Guatemala in the late 1970s evolved into full-blown genocide by 1982, decimating an entire generation of non-Indigenous urban professionals and intellectuals, as well as entire Indigenous populations in the Guatemalan highlands. Relying on Indigenous survivor's accounts, this thesis attempts to shed light on a genocide which, in Samuel Totten's words, the twentieth century chose to ignore.


identifier: Gu, Hao  (2006) A performance analysis of wireless sensor networks.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) are expected to be the next technology to have a huge impact on society. WSNs consist of a large number of tiny sensors which integrate sensing, processing and wireless communication capabilities. Research on all aspects of WSN has been gaining momentum very rapidly in the last few years. An important issue is the choice of MAC protocol for WSN. The proposed MAC protocols may be divided into two major categories: contention and scheduling based. Contention based protocols consume more energy than scheduling based protocols because of retransmission of messages caused by collisions. However, scheduling based protocols, i.e. TDMA requires a large amount of resources because each customer is assigned a timeslot. In order to save both resources and energy, a TDMA media access protocol with slot reuse had been proposed in this work, we consider modeling of such a wireless sensor network. It is assumed that the nodes have two modes of operation, active and sleep modes. We model the sensor network as a Jackson network with node breakdowns. We determine the joint distribution of the queue lengths in the sensor network. From this result, we derive the probability distribution of the number of active nodes and blocking probability of node activation. Then, we present the mean packet delay, average sleep period of a node as well as the network throughput. The model also captures reduction in the traffic load due to elimination of redundant information in the collected data. Finally, we discuss how the derived results may be used in the design of sensor networks.


identifier: Gürtuna, Özgür  (2006) Application of tabu search to deterministic and stochastic optimization problems.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: During the past two decades, advances in computer science and operations research have resulted in many new optimization methods for tackling complex decision-making problems. One such method, tabu search, forms the basis of this thesis. Tabu search is a very versatile optimization heuristic that can be used for solving many different types of optimization problems.  Another research area, real options, has also gained considerable momentum during the last two decades. Real options analysis is emerging as a robust and powerful method for tackling decision-making problems under uncertainty. Although the theoretical foundations of real options are well-established and significant progress has been made in the theory side, applications are lagging behind.  A strong emphasis on practical applications and a multidisciplinary approach form the basic rationale of this thesis. The fundamental concepts and ideas behind tabu search and real options are investigated in order to provide a concise overview of the theory supporting both of these two fields. This theoretical overview feeds into the design and development of algorithms that are used to solve three different problems.  The first problem examined is a deterministic one: finding the optimal servicing tours that minimize energy and/or duration of missions for servicing satellites around Earth's orbit. Due to the nature of the space environment, this problem is modeled as a time-dependent, moving-target optimization problem. Two solution methods are developed: an exhaustive method for smaller problem instances, and a method based on tabu search for larger ones.  The second and third problems are related to decision-making under uncertainty. In the second problem, tabu search and real options are investigated together within the context of a stochastic optimization problem: option valuation. By merging tabu search and Monte Carlo simulation, a new method for studying options, Tabu Search Monte Carlo (TSMC) method, is developed. The theoretical underpinnings of the TSMC method and the flow of the algorithm are explained. Its performance is compared to other existing methods for financial option valuation.  In the third, and final, problem, TSMC method is used to determine the conditions of feasibility for hybrid electric vehicles and fuel cell vehicles. There are many uncertainties related to the technologies and markets associated with new generation passenger vehicles. These uncertainties are analyzed in order to determine the conditions in which new generation vehicles can compete with established technologies


identifier: Shakeri, Amid  (2006) A comparative study of occupant thermal modeling.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: In North America, the ventilation system in indoor environments have been almost exclusively associated with the use of conventional ceiling air distribution systems, where the air is moved via ducts through ceiling diffusers. However, in the past years there has been a growing interest in the application of localized ventilation systems for which numerous studies have been conducted looking at different aspects such as enhanced thermal comfort, improved indoor air quality and lower energy consumption. It has also been determined that a typical localized ventilation system creates a non-uniform thermal environment, which might cause thermal discomfort due to excessive vertical temperature difference, draft, and asymmetric thermal conditions. As an alternative to the experimental measurments, the Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) methods have been used to predict the airflow field around the occupant. The correct prediction of the flow field is dependent upon the proper modeling of the occupant body since the actual shape of human body is complicated and its heat distribution is known to be non-uniform. However, past CFD studies on the subject were mainly performed by modeling the occupant as a block with uniform heat distribution, in order to simplify the problem and decrease the computational cost. In the present study, commercially available CFD software, Airpak from Fluent Inc., is used to simulate the occupant body by using a variety of modeling techniques in order to quantify the impact of occupant modeling assumptions on the bouyancy and inertia in induced flow fields


identifier: Barbara, Michael  (2006) Determining the critical success factors of an effective business continuity : disaster recovery program in a post 9/11 World : a multi-method approach.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: In a society where individuals and corporations have become increasingly reliant upon information technology (IT), many have experienced or witnessed the devastation that occurs when an IT disaster strikes. As businesses increasingly rely on data, information and technology, new threats are constantly emerging that affect all corporations. Several authors agree that being well prepared is more than conforming, it is also necessary (Hawkins, Yen et al. , 2000; Williams, 2002; Botha and Von Solms, 2004).  Business continuity and disaster recovery (BC/DR) are strategies implemented to increase the likelihood of effectively recovering business functions from major disaster. This research project aims to fulfill two key objectives. First, this project will examine whether the ranking of critical success factors (CSFs) for implementing a BC/DR program have changed from previous research, specifically subsequent to the events of September 11th, 2001 (9/11). Second, this study will attempt to further increase contribution to the academic and practitioner communities by outlining several CSFs not referenced within previous research.  Using a multi-method approach, a qualitative analysis of 11 interviews was conducted and contrasted to results carried out through a quantitative analysis of 52 respondents through a survey questionnaire. After careful analysis of quantitative and qualitative results, four sets of CSFs were proposed and supported: BC/DR intrinsic factors, personnel requirements, analysis process and managerial issues. Surprisingly, extrinsic factors, although still required in a BC/DR initiative, have lost the lustre of the days when storage, applications and data dominated over people and processes. In essence, it was shown that the propositions formulated were confirmed, partially or fully, regarding such issues as impacts stemming from 9/11, new CSFs emanating since previous research and the aforementioned existence of a reduced set of CSFs. In addition, analyses comprised a quantitative review of the interviews, descriptive statistics and exploratory analysis using SPSS. Consequently, conclusions were derived between and within results from these types of analyses, implications to academics and practitioners suggested and future research proposed


identifier: Guloy, Sheryl G.A  (2006) A call to ownership : three volunteer experiences within a religious nongovernmental organization (RNGO).  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: This qualitative research study explores the transition from member to leader made by three volunteers of the same religious nongovernmental organization (RNGO), which is characterized by a community-based, grassroots structure, but is also part of a global organization. Three different volunteers, from diverse backgrounds within this group, underwent this leadership transition process within either the Montreal or Ottawa area. This study explored how each volunteer perceived and constructed meaning from his or her leadership experiences. Multiple case studies were used to uncover these perspectives.  Over the course of the study, the question of how a new leader decides to commit to his or her new role emerged. A grounded theory was constructed from the cross-case analysis that revealed the phenomenon of a new leader's decision to take ownership of the RNGO's mission. While each participant was a member of the same religious nongovernmental organization, their individual experiences were studied from their own personal viewpoints within a naturalistic context. Through studying the individual experiences of new volunteer leaders, insight was gained on how religious organizations can enhance their leadership selection and development to increase the likelihood of leader commitment beyond the period of transition.


identifier: Hidalgo, Santiago  (2006) The emergence of film criticism in North American film trade journals, 1907-1912.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: This thesis traces the emergence of film criticism discourse in American film trade publications between the years 1906 and 1913, giving particular attention to the most prolific of these journals, Moving Picture World . Early film criticism is a discourse of complex determinations, influenced in part by progressive ideology, film as art discourse, industry objectives, and individual creativity. Film scholars so far have concentrated on the differences between early and later criticism but this has led them to erroneously conclude that early film criticism is in fact not "criticism" proper. In the first instance, my research shows that early film criticism shares an interpretive gesture with contemporary film criticism, and should therefore not be excluded from the history of this discursive practice. Moreover, a close analysis of early film criticism within its own historical, cultural and institutional context shows that it also followed its own standards and discursive logics, making the modern concept of "film criticism" an unnecessary standard for judging the value of these early texts.


identifier: Giaber, Reem Ben  (2006) Blurring boundaries : a critical qualitative exploration of the political values of some former international baccalaureate organization students.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: The International Baccalaureate Organization (IBO) is an international education system managing 1,844 schools in 124 countries. According to its mission statement, the IBO aims to develop "active learners, well-rounded individuals and engaged world citizens" (IBO, 2006). This thesis presupposes that school experiences play a life-long role in the lives of students. Although this research project is not a study of causality, I set out to explore the political values of former IBO students.  Driven by the principles of critical qualitative theory, which ultimately views social research as a vehicle for social change approached through active citizenship, I am interested in whether the political values of former IBO students lean more towards passive or active, national or cosmopolitan manifestations. To this effect, ten former IBO students filled in an online questionnaire measuring political tendencies. In order to explore more directly the participants' definitions and understandings of the issues, I invited them to an online message board where they answered eight questions inspired by the preliminary coding of the questionnaire data. I found that the group exhibited predominantly passive and cosmopolitan political tendencies.  Situating my field research in a democratic cosmopolitan citizenship matrix, I argue that the most effective approach for IBO privileged adults to contribute to a more just and equitable world, as held in their cosmopolitan worldview, must be active cosmopolitan citizenship. Therefore, I suggest that the IBO do all it can to contribute to their students' future sense of political agency by supplying them with the faith and tools for active cosmopolitan citizenship


identifier: Kravitz, Samantha A  (2006) The business of selling the Soviet Union : intourist and the wooing of American travelers, 1929-1939.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Created by the Soviet government in 1929, the all-union, joint stock company, Intourist (Foreign Tourist) was created to facilitate tourist travel to a land in transition. It was designed as a modern, full-service travel agency offering inclusive and individual tours to the Soviet Union, while at the same time selling a vision of the Soviet state to foreigners. The USSR was a country of the future, a "Land of Color and Progress" (according to one 1939 Intourist advertisement) and this was especially appealing to Americans during the tumultuous 1930s.  This work explores the dynamics behind how Intourist sold the Soviet Union as a travel destination to Americans in the interwar years (specifically 1929-1939). It highlights the political and economic power of tourism using traditional primary source documents in combination with visual and material history items, specifically Intourist ephemera. It also brings to the forefront the intricate and fruitful relationships between the Soviets and American advertisers, the mass media, banks, law firms and major names in the tourism industry. Intourist could not have survived, let alone succeeded, without support.  American tourism to the Soviet Union influenced opinion on multiple levels of society and government during the 1930s. Intourist helped the Soviets garner legitimacy on the world stage and reshaped the American public's image of the USSR, thus furthering Soviet policy objectives


identifier: King, Kayla Christina  (2006) Parasite communities of leopard frogs (rana pipiens) from wetland habitants impacted by agriculture.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Mounting empirical evidence links environmental disturbance with changes in parasitism. Agricultural run-off in wetland habitats and surrounding land use can greatly impact parasite acquisition by affecting hosts or the parasites themselves. Thus, the aim of this thesis was to determine if agricultural impacts were detectable in the parasite communities of frogs. Parasite communities of metamorphic Rana pipiens from five reference wetlands and four wetlands receiving agricultural run-off in Quebec's St. Lawrence River basin were examined in 2004 and 2005. Parc Le Rocher, a reference wetland within a managed park, and Rivière Chibouet, an agricultural wetland with heavy pesticide contamination, differed from the other wetlands perhaps because of surrounding agriculture.  The component and infracommunities in frogs from these wetlands were characterised by low species richness and diversity. Spearman-rank correlations and a multivariate analysis revealed that the landscape variables, particularly agricultural area, surrounding the wetland, and concentrations of dissolved organic carbon were positively related to parasite community structure. Landscape effects may hinder parasite transmission by limiting the access of definitive hosts to particular wetlands. Echinostoma sp. was the only parasite found at all localities in both years of collection. Abundance of this parasite was positively associated with agricultural area, as well as with Parc Le Rocher and Rivière Chibouet, suggesting that generalist parasites persist in impacted environments compared to more host-specific species. At Rivière Chibouet, pesticide contamination may have contributed to reduced parasitism, possibly through negative effects on intermediate hosts and free-living stages. This study suggests that the parasite communities of leopard frogs reflect environmental disturbance, and may be appropriate sentinel organisms for the ecological condition of wetland habitats


identifier: Guo, Tong  (2006) Molecular mechanism of peroxisome division.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: The peroxisome is an organelle known for its essential role in lipid metabolism and hydrogen peroxide detoxification. In the yeast Yarrowia lipolytica , six subforms of peroxisomes, termed P1 to P6, are organized into a multistep peroxisome assembly pathway. The pathway operates by conversion of the subforms in a temporally ordered manner from P1 to P6. The pathway leads to the formation of mature peroxisomes, P6, carrying the complete set of matrix and membrane proteins. The stepwise import of distinct subsets of matrix proteins into immature peroxisomal vesicles P1 to P5 provides them with an increasing fraction of the matrix proteins present in mature peroxisomes P6. This increase in the total mass of matrix proteins above a critical level causes the redistribution of a peroxisomal protein, acyl-CoA oxidase (Aox), from the matrix to the membrane. A significant redistribution of Aox occurs only in mature peroxisomes. Inside mature peroxisomes, the membrane-bound pool of Aox interacts with Pex16p. Pex16p is a membrane-associated protein that negatively regulates the membrane bending, scission and fission events required for the division of immature peroxisomal vesicles, thereby preventing their excessive proliferation. In the inner (lumenal) membrane leaflet of these vesicles, Pex16p binds lysophosphosphatidic acid (LPA). The binding of Pex 16p to LPA prevents the formation of phosphatidic acid (PA) and diacylglycerol (DAG), the two cone-shaped membrane lipids known for their ability to promote the destabilization of the membrane bilayer and to induce strong membrane bending. Only inside mature peroxisomes Pex16p interacts with Aox. This interaction between Aox and Pex16p greatly decreases the affinity between Pex16p and LPA, thereby allowing LPA to enter a two-step biosynthetic pathway leading to the formation of PA and DAG. The resulting accumulation of PA and DAG in the inner (lumenal) leaflet of the membrane of mature peroxisomes and the subsequent transbilayer movement of DAG and the glycerophospholipid phosphatidylserine destabilize and curve the membrane. A complex between the peroxins Pex10p and Pex 19p, the dynamin-like GTPase Vps1p, and several actin cytoskeletal proteins is then assembled on the peroxisomal surface. This protein team promotes membrane scission and fission, thereby executing the terminal steps of peroxisome division.


identifier: Barrington, Janette M  (2006) Learning teams : a communities-of-practice approach to faculty development and university course design.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Success or failure in teaching and learning is often associated with the level of expertise in individual faculty or motivation and abilities in students. Rarely do departments or the university as a whole share responsibility (Biggs, 2001). A potential gateway to change is learning teams, an abridged title for learning-oriented course design teams (McAlpine, 2002a). Learning teams are intentionally organized around course design projects that evolve over time to foster learning from experience. They provide an opportunity to deliberate on course decisions with a strategic group of people---faculty, pedagogical experts, instructional technologists, librarians, and students---for the purpose of initiating change. Learning teams represent a systematic process for linking people to new communities of practice, crossing boundaries we may not even know exist.  The research context is McGill University in Montreal, Canada. Internal funding was provided to increase access to a core faculty development workshop on Course Design and Teaching (CDT). The CDT workshop is a five-day intensive experience that provides a framework for helping professors think intentionally about their instructional decisions (Saroyan & Amundsen, 2004). A major challenge in the workshop over the years has been how to model and make explicit issues around the role of technology in instruction, and more recently information resources, while preserving the theoretical integrity of the workshop. The redesign of the CDT workshop with these goals in mind presented an opportunity to experiment formally with the learning team strategy.  A learning team met for one year, generating and reflecting on the results of three design iterations. Grounded theory analysis of interviews with participants proceeded through an initial searching phase looking for variation in perspectives and dominant themes followed by focused coding and the seeking of patterns. Findings were validated through triangulation of different data sources (interviews, observations, documents, products) and two credibility checks (one with a colloquium of the learning team and another with an external consultant). Only findings validated with participants are cited.  A conceptual model of learning teams emerged with a core concept captured in the phrase "a systematic way of talking to each other" and seven related concepts: context sensitivity, mutual goals, diversity, design framework, dialogue, collective self-reflection, and momentum. The model integrates literature from the fields of faculty development, university course design, and educational technology.  What fundamentally happened in the learning team? A WebCT environment now houses a dynamic record of the CDT workshop. People in the Libraries are cued to how they can best inform the course design process. Team members have a deepened awareness and shared commitment to multidisciplinary collaboration. However, in concentrating on achieving explicit goals the team failed to reflect collectively on their own learning that occurred. Focusing attention on team processes provides a way forward on this research agenda. The real problem will lie in scaling out the learning team strategy. A new reality is needed in the professoriate to move people from individual responsibility to collective responsibility in university course design, not as groups of experts but as multidisciplinary teams.


identifier: Dickens, Risa  (2006) No one knows everything : open source and "the crisis is public opinion".  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: By looking at some lesser known writings of Harold Adams Innis - in particular an unpublished speech from 1943 entitled "The Crisis in Public Opinion" - this thesis hopes to bring a few good tools and frameworks to the study of open source, and vice versa. This thesis looks at open source in terms of the tactics and systems - technical and interpersonal - involved, and is premised on the idea that software is a media and communication system.  This thesis argues that, according to the open source process, and the writings of political economist and communication theorist Harold Innis, the creative commons is capable of constructing alternatives to "monopolies of knowledge" by protecting conditions for the freedom of thought. Innis spent his academic career mapping economic, political, and communication networks, and throughout his work he makes suggestions about systems (technical and interpersonal) that might intercede against monopoly formation. The communication and collaboration system that is open source is a contemporary manifestation, I think, of the tactics Innis suggests (with his words and actions) for surviving and redirecting our networks' historical tendency toward monopoly and cascading crisis.  No One Knows Everything addresses the methods Innis describes for balancing out against monopolies of knowledge, and maps those mechanisms against some of the mechanisms of open source


identifier: Dechief, Diane Yvonne  (2006) Recent immigrants as an "alternate civic core" : providing internet services, gaining "Canadian experiences".  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: How are Canada's most recent immigrants coping with our workforce's need for "Canadian experience?" And how do community networks and federal initiatives impact newcomers during their periods of settlement? Through an examination of volunteer interactions at Vancouver Community Network (VCN), this thesis responds to both of these questions. It demonstrates how this charitable internet service provider offers opportunities for individual newcomers to broaden their technical and communication skills as well as their social networks, while contributing to the enhancement of social inclusion at VCN. Recent immigrants are established as a technically savvy "alternate civic core," and indeed major contributors to VCN's volunteer program.  Based on research conducted in Vancouver during the Spring and Summer of 2005, this thesis incorporates both ethnographic and quantitative methodologies. Findings are analyzed and contextualized by theories from the fields of community informatics (e.g. Gurstein, 2004; Warschauer, 2003), and immigration studies (e.g. Kunz, 2003; Mwarigha, 2002). Further support is drawn from recent scholarship examining relationships between social capital, social inclusion and the use of ICTs (Caidi & Allard, 2005; Scott-Dixon, 2004). Studying the volunteer contributions of recent immigrants to VCN is valuable because it amplifies volunteers' reflections on gaining "Canadian experience" and broadens awareness of their contributions through civic participation.  This thesis concludes that in Canada, a country where immigration and the economy are functionally intertwined, placing the onus of becoming employable on individual immigrants is increasingly ineffective. Recommendations for further efforts to combine the needs of individuals and their communities with federal policies are proposed


identifier: Conradi, Alexa  (2006) Revisiting the legacy of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal peoples : a rhetorical analysis of healing.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: This thesis offers a re-reading of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples (RCAP) designed to bring reconciliation to Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal relations in Canada. Most critics argue that the RCAP failed to address a radical critique of the colonial relations between non-Aboriginal and Aboriginal Canadians or that its conclusions were largely ignored. Instead, this thesis shows that these conclusions need to be revisited. Using rhetorical analysis of the Commission's work, I discuss how the RCAP fostered a process by which Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Canadians could generate change.  This thesis argues that the Commission adopted the language of healing as a way to frame discussions regarding the past, present and future situation of Aboriginal people and their relations with the Canadian government. I show that the RCAP had three functions. First, shaped by Aboriginal people's presentations, the hearings turned into a ritual of transformation, a rhetorical process of empowerment that strengthened Aboriginal discourse communities and revalorised Aboriginal traditional knowledge. Second, the entire process centred on the metaphor of healing as an unthreatening way to engage non-Aboriginal Canadians in a dialogue with Aboriginal peoples. Third, healing as defined by Aboriginal people stood as a radical alternative to Euro-Canadian epistemology as the (sole) philosophy with which to redefine the relationship between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people in Canada.  As such, the RCAP should be understood as a significant, critical and positive contribution to shifts in the relationship between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal peoples in Canada. These shifts may foster the reconciliation process


identifier: Caron, André  (2005) La "xénopsie" : l'acte de voir à travers les yeux de "l'autre" dans certains films de science-fiction américains.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: La ±xénopsie», c'est l'acte de voir à travers les yeux de ±l'Autre» dans certains films de science-fiction américains. Il s'agit d'un type de point de vue, spécifique au genre science-fiction, dans lequel le plan subjectif associé aux robots, aux cyborgs, aux ordinateurs ou aux extraterrestres de ces films est nécessairement médiatisé par le filtre technologique que représente l'effet optique spécial avec lequel il est fabriqué.  Ce dispositif ±xénopsien» devient une tentative plus ou moins préméditée, un outil formel employé dans ces films, pour mettre le spectateur en contact avec une conscience non humaine (extraterrestre, robotique ou cybernétique) par le truchement d'une vision autre qu'humaine filtrée par un effet spécial double (le cinéma lui-même et le filtre technologique employé pour créer la xénopsie). Ce contact le confronte à une perception autre et, par ricochet (ou par comparaison), peut déclencher chez lui une réflexion sur l'humain, sa nature, son identité et son devenir.  La phénoménologie de la perception du philosophe Maurice Merleau-Ponty s'avère un outil fort utile pour bien saisir la xénopsie, à travers les concepts d'intentionnalité et d'intersubjectivité que la théoricienne du cinéma Vivian Sobchack transpose dans l'expérience de voir un film en salle. Sa notion originale du ±corps-film», qui agit comme une conscience virtuelle interpellant le spectateur dans la salle, permet d'analyser l'impact de la xénopsie dans une douzaine de films de science-fiction américains, en particulier Blade Runner (Ridley Scott, 1982) qui offre l'expression ultime de la xénopsie.


identifier: Du, Xiaojun  (2006) A new hierarchical method for image segmentation and inpainting using Mumford-Shah model.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Image segmentation is a popular topic in computer vision and image processing. As a region-based (global) approach, the Mumford and Shah (MS) model is a powerful and robust segmentation technique as compared to edge-based (local) methods. However, there are some difficulties with the MS model. One difficulty is the detection of roof edges. In this thesis, we first modify the MS model to include second order derivative term and use linear approximation to implement the solution. In this way, we can detect not only step edges but also creases and roof edges. The most important difficulty of MS model is that the segmentation results depend on the initial curves. To overcome this problem, we present in this thesis a hierarchical strategy that takes into account both the local information at the pixel level and the global information of the MS model. With this hierarchical segmentation scheme, we can segment an image into regions until each region is smooth enough and need no additional segmentation. Compared with previous works, our approach can automatically detect both main structure and details in an image with multi-level-set functions, and it can stop automatically when the boundaries are detected. In our approach, the final segmentation does not depend on the initial condition. Many experimental results indicate that our approach is effective in many applications. Especially, we apply the new approach to the image inpainting problem. Compared with previous work, because the new approach can detect all the edges in an image, it can preserve more edges and details in the inpainting process.


identifier: Yang, Zhigang  (2006) Assessing stock price volatility study of G-7 and West European markets with extreme measures.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: An alternative approach to examine stock market volatility based on the percentages of extreme days, weeks, and months out of a year period is applied to the G-7 group of seven countries and three other western European countries. Compared with the traditional standard deviation method, we find a similar volatility pattern for both measures. 1n addition, the extreme measure has three benefits: dividing volatility into positive and negative parts; classifying volatility as different levels and allowing researchers evidently to recognize the length of the volatile period for each level during a specified period; and having flexibility to self define extreme measures depending on various research requirements. When we apply the extreme-day measure to examine investor behaviors in Canada, the U.S. and the U.K., we find that the extreme-day measure more efficiently explains Canadian investor behavior than the standard deviation does.


identifier: Colasurdo, Nadia  (2006) Larval performance, adult reproductive traits and pattern of feeding of the forest tent caterpillar (Malacosoma disstria) on artificial and natural diets.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Forest tent caterpillars are an outbreaking forest pest native to North America, whose population cycles have been linked to variations in larval survivorship, adult fecundity and nutrition. These insects only feed as larvae, therefore the acquisition of appropriate nutrients during the larval stage for survival and reproduction of adults is essential.  The present work focuses on the nutritional performance and behaviour of this caterpillar based on diets of varying nutritional quality: their preferred tree host (aspen), or artificial food. Caterpillars performed best on their preferred food source. Protein deficiency did have negative fitness consequences, both in larval survivorship, and quality of offspring. Adult body composition was regulated despite variation in food nutrient ratios.  Feeding patterns demonstrated that on diets high in protein content, feeding bouts and pauses between feedings were longer than on low protein diets, on which the caterpillars were more active. This difference might be related to post-ingestive effects via haemolymph trehalose levels. There was no difference in the total time spent feeding or in exploratory behaviour between the artificial diets. When faced with aspen, the caterpillars were also active, had short feeding durations and interfeed pauses. Caterpillars on aspen were more likely to leave the trail and discover a new food source, and they preferred balanced artificial diet to aspen foliage.  It is suggested that forest tent caterpillars are inefficient at making initial choices, but in the long run they are capable of post-ingestively regulating their body content.


identifier: Cleveland, Mark  (2006) The local, the global, and the creole : ethnic identification, acculturation to global consumer culture, and consumptionscapes.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: The globalization of the marketplace and how this process is shaping the cultural characteristics of people around the world is arguably the most critical issue facing international marketing managers today. Powerful forces such as capitalism, global communications, marketing, and transnational cosmopolitanism are interacting to dissolve the boundaries across national cultures and economies, and in the eyes of many, accelerating the emergence of a homogeneous 'global consumer culture'. Others have countered that globalization serves to reactivate and strengthen national and ethnic identities; in other words, rather than suppressing cultural differences, globalization may actually promote them. Still others have argued that globalization is reducing the homogeneity of consumer behaviors within countries, while increasing communalities across countries. Despite the widespread discourse on this topic, there is a scarcity of studies that have simultaneously considered both global and local cultural influences on consumer behavior, and a complete lacking of a way for measuring how individuals acquire and become a part of this emerging global consumer culture. This absence is all the more glaring, given that culture exerts the broadest and deepest influence on consumer behavior. The extant acculturation studies have generally focused on culture change occurring within the narrow context of minority-culture ethnic groups (usually immigrants) adapting to the alternative host cultures, and not from the broader perspective of how a deterritorialized, global culture shapes local cultures, consumers, and their behaviors, around the world.  The first major contribution of this dissertation concerns the development and validation of a multidimensional scale for the measurement of acculturation to global consumer culture, via a series of qualitative and quantitative studies. The second major contribution is the articulation of theoretical framework for assessing the selective, contextual nature of both global and local cultural influences on an array of consumer values and behaviors. Survey data was gathered from respondents in eight countries to test the proposed model and associated hypotheses. The findings demonstrate that both ethnic identification and global-culture acculturation are multidimensional, selective, and contextual processes, in that the acquisition of new cultural characteristics and the maintenance or loss of traditional ones varies from trait to trait and from situation to situation


identifier: Huang, Yanfen  (2006) Management characteristics and performance of small & mid cap mutual funds.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: This study examines whether small & mid cap fund performance is related to the characteristics of fund managers, such as gender, tenure, investment experience, education (MBA) and professional training (CFA). Applying statistical tests which consider fund performance, risk and expenses simultaneously, we find that some systematic cross-sectional differences in fund performance can be attributed to differences in manager characteristics.  Female managers are less willing to take risks in making investment decisions, while mid cap funds managed by men have low turnover and expense ratios, thereby delivering greater performance. Interestingly, MBAs can't out-perform those without. Better risk-adjusted performance can be expected from funds that are of small asset size. Hence, we also obtain the optimal size of managed mutual funds, which is US$1.43 billion from single index alpha equation, and US$3.89 billion from multi-index alpha equation. There are 88 percent of funds in our sample smaller than the optimal size of US$1.43 billion and 96 percent smaller than the optimal size of US $3.89 billion. Investors can avoid high risk by selecting low turnover, and small capitalization funds managed by fund managers who are female with less investment experience and with CFA degree, all else equal. In terms of expense and turnover, managers with MBAs and CFAs have lower rates of expenses. However, those with longer tenure and investment experience generate higher expense ratio. High turnover ratios are associated with female manager of shorter investment experience and CFA designation.


identifier: Nathan, Michel  (2006) A multiple site predictor for subcellular localization of fungal proteins.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: In this work, we build a system that uses a decision tree to predict fungal protein localization based on physiochemical properties of proteins calculable from their primary sequences. The training examples that serve as basis for learning are obtained from experimentally validated localizations. Although there is clear evidence of presence of the same protein in more than one sub-cellular compartment, almost all existing automated systems restrict their predictions to single-site localization. Here, we attempt to address this issue and for proteins that are reported to target more than one sub-cellular location, our system predicts as many localization sites as possible.  When localizing among 17 sub-cellular compartments, in 64% of the cases our system successfully predicts at least one of the experimentally reported localizations. In addition, our results indicate that all the reported localizations are correctly predicted in 49% of the cases. We also report 76 fungal protein features implicated in localization and indicate those with the highest relative discriminatory power. Finally, we report on necessary conditions for localization to specific sub-cellular sites


identifier: Roy, Kaushik  (2006) Iris recognition using support vector machines.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: In this thesis, an iris recognition system is presented as a biometrically based technology for person identification using support vector machines (SVM). We propose two approaches for iris recognition, namely: The approach I, which is based on the whole information of iris region and the approach II, where only the zigzag collarette region is used for recognition. In approach I, Canny edge detection and Hough transform are used to find the iris/pupil boundary from eye's digital image. The rubber sheet model is applied to normalize the segmented iris image, Gabor wavelet technique is deployed to extract the deterministic features and the traditional SVM is used for iris patterns classification. In approach II, an iris recognition method is proposed using a novel iris segmentation scheme based on chain code and zigzag collarette area. The Multi-Objectives Genetic Algorithm (MOGA) is employed to select features extracted from the normalized collarette region by log-Gabor filters to increase the overall recognition accuracy. The traditional SVM is modified to asymmetrical SVM to treat False Accept and False Reject differently. Our experimental results indicate that the performance of SVM as a classifier is better than the performance of classifiers based on feed-forward neural network using backpropagation and Levenberg-Marquardt rule, K-nearest neighbor, and Hamming distance.


identifier: Monette, Anne  (2006) The effects of cpx genes on the regulation of L-serine metabolism in Escherichia coli K-12.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: The E. coli ssd mutant is so "sick" that it accumulates suppressor mutations that only partially restore the parental strain phenotype. Based on map location and phenotypic similarities, the ssd was annotated as a cpxA mutation despite unique phenotypes of its own. Here, the ssd mutation and one suppressor mutation are shown located within the cpx regulon, and each strain carrying a cpxR , cpxP or cpxA deletion demonstrates part of the ssd phenotype. The cpxA * gain-of-function and cpxA deletion mutants are shown to have similar phenotypes likely because they both lack the phosphatase responsible for inactivating CpxR. Many deletion mutants are screened from the glycolytic, serine metabolism and Cpx pathways to reveal previously unknown gene products regulating growth on serine. A mucoid phenotype can arise in ssd , cpxR and cpxP mutants, whereas the cpxA mutants alone can have an effect on L-serine deaminase activity---indicating that the Cpx proteins have roles outside of the Cpx two-component regulatory system. RNA expression analysis reveals that the cpxP transcript is increased in ssd mutants, constitutive in the parent strain, and differentially regulated in cpxR and cpxA deletion mutants. Fluorescence microscopy techniques show that ssd mutant filaments do not have a damaged membrane despite a lack of proper DNA segregation, and merodiploid parental and ssd strains having an extra copy of ZipA have improper DNA segregation in cells that make filaments and lyse extensively.


identifier: Phutthavong, Patricia  (2006) Numerical investigation of the unsteady aerodynamics of blade tip leakage flow inside gas turbine engines.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: In today's modern gas turbine engines, the region between the rotor and the stationary shroud has the most extreme fluid-thermal conditions in the entire turbine, and is characterized by a periodically unsteady three-dimensional flow field. Due to the pressure difference across the blade tip, leakage flow enters the gap region from the pressure side and exits from the suction side. Tip leakage flow consists of hot mainstream gas and is highly undesirable since it does not turn, and so does not produce any work. Also, high heat transfer rates in the tip gap region occur as a result of leakage flow due to the formation of very thin boundary layers, which may lead to over-heating of the stationary shrouds. The purpose of the present work is to conduct an unsteady study of the tip leakage flow adjacent to the shroud in real gas turbine engines using an in-house industrial computational fluid dynamics (CFD) code. A turbine stage consisting of the nozzle guide vane (NGV) and rotor was modeled. The effect of tip clearance height, inlet turbulence intensity, inlet total temperature, and rotor angular velocity on the tip leakage aerodynamics will be investigated. To the best of the author's knowledge, time-accurate simulations have not been performed in order to study the effects of flow parameters on tip leakage flow aerodynamics. In addition, the trials of using a commercial CFD package to obtain heat transfer calculations on the shroud will be presented. It was found that the size of the separation bubble on the pressure side of the blade tip is dependent on the inlet total temperature and rotor angular velocity. Also, when the relative height of the separation bubble is large, a small re-circulation zone was found at the suction side of the blade tip. In all cases, flow re-circulation was found near the trailing edge and was due to the combined effect of the shroud relative motion with the secondary cross-flow from the adjacent blade passage


identifier: Liu, Feng  (2006) High quality rendering for point sampled geometry.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: In recent years, point sampled geometry models have received growing attention in computer graphics. Compared with polygon based models, the quality of rendered images for point sampled geometry is much lower, so far. This is primarily due to the discrete form of representing a 3D surface just by sample points. Clearly more effort is needed in rendering techniques for point sampled models. In this thesis, we describe the results of our efforts towards producing high quality images for point based geometry. We adapt a number of advanced mesh rendering techniques for discrete surfaces represented as point clouds. These techniques include self shadowing effects using ambient occlusion, diffuse lighting estimation using spherical harmonic representations of irradiance environment maps and specular lighting estimation by casting a reflected ray at each point into a pre-blurred version of the environment map. Ambient occlusion computations are improved by using octree hierarchy based on feature analysis of the point cloud data. Other lighting calculations are performed directly on the Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) using vertex and fragment shaders. We improve the overall rendering quality and speed by combining pre-computed ambient occlusion results with environment lighting and procedural textures directly on the GPU. The adapted techniques have been implemented as a plug in for the Pointshop3D public domain software system.


identifier: Tadayoni, Seyyed Alireza  (2006) Adaptive control of harmonic drive motors with parameter varying friction using structurally dynamic wavelet networks.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: The many advantages of harmonic drives motors such as compactness, high gear ratio, low backlash, light weight, and high torque capacity has resulted in their wide spread usage in precision control applications. However, the nonlinearities of harmonic drives including hysteresis, kinematic error, position dependent friction, and flexibility make it difficult to develop control systems that achieve precise tracking performance. In this thesis, a new approach for adaptive control of harmonic drive motors is developed using a structurally dynamic wavelet neural network to achieve accurate tracking in the presence of parameter varying friction. Furthermore, a new fuzzy logic approach is proposed for dynamic addition and removal of wavelet nodes that achieves accurate tracking using a minimum number of nodes. Experimental verification of the proposed method indicates that it can achieve precise tracking performance with a significantly smaller number of nodes than existing approaches.


identifier: Wang, Guangyi  (2006) Using motif databases to help improve multiple sequence alignment.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Current progress in genome research projects has generated huge amount of data. As a result, the analysis of these data is now a bottleneck in bioinformatics. Multiple sequence alignment is an important step in this kind of analysis. It compares unknown sequences with well studied ones, and thus infers functional and structural information of the unknown sequences.  However, due to the NP-completeness nature of the multiple sequence alignment, exhaustive searching method is unrealistic. Current algorithms use heuristic approach to get a nearly global optimal result. As a consequence, any specific program may encounter certain cases that it is not good at.  In this work, we use protein motif databases to improve the alignment. The basic idea is to detect possible occurrences of motifs on the sequences, and force those parts to be aligned together. Unlike existing programs, this method uses biological information instead of treating it as purely an optimization problem. It also reduces the searching space. Experiments show that using motif databases could generate good results


identifier: Yuryev, Yury  (2006) Application of atomic force microscopy for the study of crystallization kinetics and morphology of L- and D- polylactide blends in solution cast thin films.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: The purpose of this research was to explore the possibility of studying crystallization behavior and morphology of thin solution cast polylactide films using Atomic Force Microscopy. The crystallization of L-/D-polylactide blends was studied and precise measurements of the spherulite growth rates were performed. The changes of crystalline morphology over crystallization temperature was observed and analyzed from the point of view of modern crystallization theory. Also a variety of different experimental techniques was used for the polylactide blends characterization including DSC and FT-IR. Since the crystallization rate of polylactide is very high, a custom superfast cyclic heating and cooling technique was developed to ensure isothermal annealing conditions. The validity of this technique was successfully verified.  DSC analysis showed that L-/D-polylactide blends form a triclinic stereocomplex during casting with a high melting point which suppresses cold crystallization. In this study, a custom technique for the measurement of the isothermal glass transition temperature using elongational measurements was performed on a miniature uniaxial stretching device. It was found that small amounts of residual solvent can significantly decrease the glass transition temperature of polylactide. Significantly higher nucleation in the solution cast polylactide as compared to bulk polymer was also observed.  Crystallization behavior and morphology of solution cast polylactides containing different amounts of D-polylactide content were studied. It was experimentally proven that while blends of L-/D-polylactide copolymer with D-polylactide demonstrate typical "bell" shaped crystallization temperature dependence, blends of pure L-polylactide with the same D-polylactide have unusually high spherulite growth rates at high temperatures. For all blends, addition of D-polylactide significantly decreased the spherulite growth rate. An extensive kinetic analysis was performed on the experimental data, crystallization regimes were identified and critical nuclei formation energies were determined for the different blends.  Moreover, despite having a higher molecular weight, the pure poly(L-lactide) demonstrates almost twice higher spherulite growth rate than copolymer probably caused by the absence of D-polylactide units in chain thus absence of the steric difficulties for the crystallization. This, in turn, leads to the significantly lower Kg values for the Purasorb PL and its blends with Purasorb PD as compared to those of the copolymer in regimes II and III and, respectively, to higher spherulite growth rates. The addition of the D-polylactide not only suppresses the overall crystallization of the blend due to stereocomplexation but also shifts the crystallization maximum to the lower temperature region. From the kinetics analysis, it was found that this is caused by the lowering of the regime II transition temperature


identifier: Burger, Lauren  (2006) Striving for integrated commemoration : the presentation of the Holocaust and the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, Berlin.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: This thesis investigates Holocaust commemoration at the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe in Berlin, Germany. Completed in Mitte in May 2005, the Mahnmal has come to be understood as Germany's central Holocaust Memorial. It is, however, dedicated exclusively to the Jewish victims of Nazi crimes. During the Memorial's 17 year-long genesis, many criticized those responsible for the project for institutionalizing a hierarchy of the victims of National Socialism. Discontent about how a new memorial to the murdered Jews of Europe would centralize a diverse landscape of memory---both physically, by eclipsing numerous memorial institutions and historical sites in Germany, and interpretively, by establishing that the Nazi persecution of Jews overshadows that of other victim groups---fuelled the long debate over the Mahnmal .  Pointing to aspects of the Mahnmal 's history, its current tourist literature, the presentation at its attached Information Centre and the programme of its governing body, this study counters such criticism. I contend that the Mahnmal is a site where a determined attempt to integrate the memorialization of European Jews murdered during the Holocaust---into the landscape of the capital, into the network of historical and memorial sites pertaining to National Socialism and the Third Reich, and into other histories of suffering during that period---emerged as a predominant theme, and a clear goal of the memorial-Makers. The project, I demonstrate, engenders such integrated commemoration, and fosters dynamic opportunities for ongoing Holocaust commemoration in Germany.


identifier: Patra, Suresh Kumar  (2006) Evaluation of passive anthropodynamic manikins intended for laboratory seat testing under vehicular excitations.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: The vibration attenuation performance of suspension seats employed in heavy vehicles are influenced by energy dissipation property of the seated body. Owing to complexities associated with biodynamic response behavior of the human body, the performance assessments of suspension seats are invariably accomplished through laboratory or field experimentation. Such laboratory experiments involve certain safety and ethical concerns, while field measurements yield difficulties in interpretation of the results due to lack of controlled conditions. In this dissertation, two prototype anthropodynamic manikins, designed to replace human subjects in assessments of seat, are evaluated through laboratory experiments and analyses of the biodynamic responses.  The apparent mass (APMS) responses of manikins are characterized under different levels of vibration excitations and three body masses (55 kg, 75 kg and 98 kg). The measured responses are compared with the standardized values to assess the APMS prediction abilities of the manikins. The results suggest the need for deriving more reliable APMS responses of seated humans of particular masses. The applicability of the manikins for seating dynamics is then assessed for a range of seats and vibration spectra of different vehicles. The seat effective acceleration transmissibility (S.E.A.T) of five different seats are measured using human subjects, equivalent inert mass and the prototype manikins. The results suggest that equivalent inert mass could provide reasonably good prediction of seat performance, when excitations dominate in the low frequency range. Under high frequency excitations, the inert mass yields poor estimate of the seat-human system performance, while the manikins provide better estimations.  The need for tuning of the manikins was identified to improve their biodynamic response prediction abilities. An analytical model of one of the manikin was thus formulated and analyzed to perform the necessary design refinements. System identification technique was applied to derive uncertain parameters of the model so as to satisfy the measured APMS responses for three body masses. Additional parameter identification was performed to realize desirable parameters that would satisfy the standardized biodynamic response. The results suggested that only minor refinements of the prototype would be needed to enhance the biodynamic response prediction ability of the manikin, which may translate into improved applicability of the manikin for assessment of suspension seats.


identifier: Zhu, Yuqing  (2006) Nonlinear system identification using a genetic algorithm and recurrent artificial neural networks.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: In this study, the application of Recurrent Artificial Neural Network (RANN) in nonlinear system identification has been extensively explored. Three RANN-based identification models have been presented to describe the behavior of the nonlinear systems. The approximation accuracy of RANN-based models relies on two key factors: architecture and weights. Due to its inherent property of parallelism and evolutionary mechanism, a Genetic Algorithm (GA) becomes a promising technique to obtain good neural network architecture. A GA is developed to approach the optimal architecture of a RANN with multiple hidden layers in this study. In order to approach the optimal architecture of Neural Networks in the sense of minimizing the identification error, an effective encoding scheme is in demand. A new Direct Matrix Mapping Encoding (DMME) method is proposed to represent the architecture of a neural network. A modified Back-propagation (BP) algorithm, in the sense of not only tuning NN weights but tuning other adjustable parameters as well, is utilized to tune the weights of RANNs and other parameters. The RANN with optimized or approximately optimized architecture and trained weights have been applied to the identification of nonlinear dynamic systems with unknown nonlinearities, which is a challenge in the control community. The effectiveness of these models and identification algorithms are extensively verified in the identification of several complex nonlinear systems such as a "smart" actuator preceded by hysteresis and friction-plague harmonic drive.


identifier: Xi, Hao  (2006) Contributions to the JML project : safe arithmetic and non-null-by-default.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: The MultiJava Compiler (MJC) is an extension to the Java programming language that adds open classes and symmetric multiple dispatch. The Java Modeling Language (JML) is a Behavioral Interface Specification Language (BISL) that can be used to specify both simple DBC and full behavioral interface specifications. The JML toolset is based on MJC and contains tools such as the JML (type) checker and the JML Runtime Assertion Checker (RAC). JMLb, is a new version of JML that supports arbitrary precision integers and safe-arithmetic. In this thesis we present the implementation of (bytecode level) support for safe-math integral arithmetic in MJC as well as a performance evaluation of this new version of MJC, in comparison with other Java compilers. Another main enhancement presented in this thesis is the implementation of a non-null statistics gathering tool in the JML checker. An overview of the desugaring process for various kinds of JML method specifications is given. In addition, rules for judging non-null usage are described by presenting examples of different scenarios.


identifier: Pilkington, Richard D  (2006) A "time when principles make best politics"? : the United States' response to the genocide in East Pakistan.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: On 25 March 1971, fearing the secession of East Pakistan, the military dictator, President Yahya Khan unleashed his country's West-Pakistani-dominated armed forces in a brutal campaign of massacre and repression in the East. During nine months of operations, the army butchered at least one million people. Though very much aware of the nature of the atrocities in East Pakistan, and despite vociferous public criticism at home, the US Government not only refused to intervene militarily and economically, but also failed to publicly condemn the actions of the Islamabad authorities.  President Richard Nixon and his National Security Adviser, Henry Kissinger, dominated the formulation of US foreign policy at the time of the crisis. In his memoirs, Kissinger argued that US inaction throughout the emergency was justified on the grounds that Yahya was acting as the main channel for secret communications in a major strategic initiative aimed at securing rapprochement between the US and China. In the absence of much important primary-source material, secondary works have perpetuated this view.  In contrast, using evidence from recently declassified documents, this thesis argues that the initial US reaction was divided into two phases. Only after 27 April 1971, when it sprang fully into life, did the secret China initiative come to dominate Nixon and Kissinger's policy. Up until this watershed event, however, a complex mixture of more mundane motives drove the US response. This revisionist posture, therefore, directly contradicts Kissinger's contention


identifier: Wang, Yu Feng  (2006) Methods for modeling and control of systems with hysteresis of shape memory alloy actuators.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Hysteresis widely exists in smart materials such as shape memory alloys (SMAs), piezoelectrics, magnetorheological (MR) fluids, electrorheological (ER) fluids and so on. It severely affects the applicability of such materials in actuators and sensors. In this thesis, problems of modeling and control of systems with hysteresic SMAs actuators are studied. The approaches are also applicable to control of a wide class of smart actuators.  Hysteresis exhibited by SMAs actuators is rate-independent when the input frequency is low, and can be modeled by a classical Preisach model or a KP model. The classical Preisach hysteresis model is a foundation of other hysteresis models. In this thesis, traditional methods are explained in advance to identify and implement the classical Preisach model. Due to the extremely large amount of computation involved in the methods, a new form of the Preisach model, linearly parameterized Preisach model, is introduced, and then an effective method to implement the model is presented. The KP model is a more effective operator to describe the Preisach class of hysteresis than the Preisach model. The relationship between the two models is revealed to verify the effectiveness of the KP model. Also, a linearly parameterized KP model is proposed. For both of the Preisach hysteresis model and the KP hysteresis model, algorithms of inverse hysteresis operators are developed, and simulations for modeling and inverse compensation are conducted.  Since the Preisach model and the KP model can only describe hysteresis which has saturation states and reverse curves with zero initial slopes, a novel hysteresis model is defined to overcome these shortcomings. The newly defined hysteresis model is a low dimensional hysteresis model and can describe hysteresis which has revertible linear parts and reverse curves with non-zero initial slopes.  The problems for controlling systems with input hysteresis have been pursued along three different paths: inverse compensation, gradient adaptive control and robust adaptive control for linear and nonlinear systems.  Control schemes of open-loop inverse compensation and gradient adaptive inverse compensation for the Preisach hysteresis model are explored to eliminate the effects of the hysteresis when the output of the hysteretic actuator is measurable.  Usually hysteresis of smart actuator in systems is not exactly known, but it can be approximately modeled via the linearly parameterized KP model. For a known linear system preceded by an unknown actuator hysteresis, a model reference control scheme combining with an adaptive inverse compensation is designed for tracking control of the systems. While an unknown linear system preceded by an unknown actuator hysteresis, a model reference adaptive control scheme together with an adaptive inverse compensation is developed for tracking control of the system. Simulations for both cases have been performed to illustrate the control methods.  Finally, when hysteresis of smart actuator in systems has a non-measurable output and is modeled via the KP model or the newly defined model, a novel robust adaptive control configuration is presented for tracking control of systems. The analysis for the stability and the convergence of the control systems is conducted. Simulations are performed to verify the effectiveness of the novel control method.


identifier: Vineet, Vibhor  (2006) Modeling and comparative analysis of a stochastic production planning system with demand uncertainty.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Effective planning strategies are essential to minimize high costs of production and inventory. Uncertainty and seasonal variation in product demand is a major issue that contributes to a substantial share of production planning costs. Hence, it is important to consider the uncertain information while designing a production planning model. This thesis is aimed at presenting a comparative analysis of deterministic and stochastic approaches towards finding optimal solutions for demand uncertainty problems. The first model is a generic mixed-integer programming model to maximize total profit. Decision variables are identified and random values are substituted by their expected values considering uncertainty to obtain the expected value solutions. Second model is formulated as a stochastic programming model by adding scenarios and probabilities in the deterministic model to explicitly account for the uncertainties in the product demand. The models are programmed and solved by LINGO optimization solver based on data collected from a brewing company. Several test problems are solved by varying the input parameters, product demand and probability of existence of scenarios to study the sensitivity of the models. A statistical comparative analysis is conducted on all the example problems by measuring the Expected Value of Perfect Information (EVPI), Value of Stochastic Solution (VSS) and the results are discussed.


identifier: Chelin, Jacques  (2006) Using natural language processing to assist the visually handicapped in writing compositions.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Over the last decades, the visually handicapped have consistently progressed in their efforts towards inclusion in the mainstream. Integration in education and professional life in particular has become possible due to computers without which it would not have been possible to the same degree. In the wake of this integration, more and more blind students are attempting CEGEP and University studies.  This situation has created new problems and new needs. One of them is the need to study text and electronic documents in depth and in a reasonable time. Blind students cannot flip through the pages of a book, skim through the text or use a highlighter. Natural Language Processing (NLP) is about understanding and processing language as used by humans and includes a subdomain called Information Retrieval. In this thesis, we will describe this problem in detail and review how it has been addressed so far in the industry. We will then propose a solution in the form of an experimental prototype and show how some existing NLP techniques can profitably assist blind students in meeting their academic objectives. This thesis is a technology application and engineering of a practically usable software product


identifier: Chi, Zhao Yu  (2006) The design and implementation of a scalable secure multicast system.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Multicast is an efficient way to distribute data to multiple receivers simultaneously. However, security, scalability, and group management issues still prevent the wide deployment of multicast due to the open model of multicast group membership. Our research group has developed frameworks for multicast protocols to solve these problems. Nevertheless, most work was concentrated on one aspect of the whole multicast system, and most of the achievements were architecture design, specification, and validation. In this thesis, a Scalable Secure Multicast System is designed, and a Multicast Data Security module is implemented. The Scalable Secure Multicast System, which integrates two major achievements in our research group, makes great efforts toward providing a scalable and secure multicast system for the real world. The implementation of the Multicast Data Security module proves the feasibility of proxy encryption with multicast and achieves a satisfactory performance in the Linux kernel. A new key distribution scheme based on proxy encryption is proposed to further improve the scalability and security of multicast communication.


identifier: Yao, Han  (2006) Adaptive neural networks control for unknown flexible joint robots and piezoelectric actuators.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: In the thesis, motivated by the well-known universal approximation capability (input-output mapping) of the neural network (NNs), we have proposed adaptive NN controllers for a Rigid Link Flexible Joint (RLFJ) robot manipulator with unknown nonlinearities and piezoelectric actuator with unknown hysteresis, respectively.  For a RLFJ robot manipulator, the dynamic model is decomposed into two different time scale models by using integral manifold method. The control torque consists of two terms: slow and fast terms for two time scale models. A composite NN-based control strategy is proposed for the position and velocity tracking of the manipulator. Two multilayer NNs are used to approximate two unknown nonlinear functions. These two NNs are tuned on-line without any off-line training. The stabilities of composite control system have been proved. The boundedness of NN weights and control signal of systems are guaranteed. Simulation results verify the developed control algorithms.  The feedforward multilayer NN is also further investigated to approach the complicated nonlinear function in proposed hysteresis dynamics, which is described by Duhem model. An adaptive NN compensator is designed for unknown hysteresis in a piezoelectric actuator. A pre-inverse hysteresis function is well-structured and the effect of the actuator hysteresis is cancelled. The simulation results are also presented to show the effectiveness of the developed adaptive control scheme


identifier: Qasaimeh, Ahmad Raji  (2006) Intelligent novel MSW management system for biogas control in landfill.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Controlling greenhouse gases at landfill is a great point of concern. This research aims to control methane and carbon dioxide by applying novel intelligent MSW management system. The intelligent MSW management system (Intelligent QEJ Bricks) proposed in this research provides new ideas about: landfill operation, material for biogas collection, biogas transport modeling, biogas mass transfer optimization, design configuration, and automatic control system.  The operation of new system includes series of cells built subsequently with porous bricks that confines waste cells. This approach implies integrated operation system that combines waste disposal, biogas evacuation, and biogas control. Bricks are made up of hydrophobic recyclable material that might be available on waste disposal site. In this research, a recyclable hydrophobic polymer (Styrofoam) was tested at laboratory to check its functionality for biogas collection. The test procedure on polymer medium entails the following findings: the permeability, the conductivity and diffusion coefficients, the convective flowrate, and the diffusive flux through polymer medium for carbon dioxide and methane. The influence of parameters such as water content, porosity, temperature variation, pressure gradient, and concentration gradient on gas movement (diffusion and convection) was also analyzed.  Information obtained from the laboratory tests were formulated as knowledge bases. The fuzzy logic implicated knowledge bases and specific rules to have the output that represents the gas transport rates in hydrophobic polymer medium for a wide range of various environmental parameters.  Genetic algorithm is used to optimize a transfer function that represents solutions for transfer rates for different ratios of biogas mixture. The mass and volume of biogas within the landfill time of service are determined for designing hydrophobic porous bricks for any ratio of CH 4 :CO 2 in landfill.  After having the cells finished and closed the configuration of the new system satisfies confining the waste with hydrophobic porous walls that surrounds the waste and captures all available biogas generated at the landfill. The design includes a system of valves evacuating biogas from porous walls of the bricks. The process of evacuation might link the valves with a blower that is connected with a storage tank or an energy generator. The valves are controlled by fuzzy logic system that is fed by sensors-data acquisition system. The output of automatic intelligent fuzzy system is dependent on the input data from the sensor-data acquisition system.


identifier: Pawar, Ashish  (2006) Analysis of postponement strategies in supply chain.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Inventory is an important part of supply chain management as it directly impacts both cost and service. As demand is more or less uncertain and it takes time to manufacture and deliver the goods, some amount of inventory is required somewhere in the chain to provide the required service to the end customer. Increasing supply chain inventories increases customer service and consequently revenue, but it comes at a higher cost. The aim of supply chain inventory management is to optimize the inventories and to shift the current customer service curve outward through improved inventory strategies and redesigning the supply chain. This thesis is aimed at studying the effectiveness of various factors in the supply chain environment with and without postponement strategies. Analysis of these factors enables a better understanding of the supply chains and will help to design these systems more effectively. Simulation models are developed using Arena and are used to capture the system dynamics with probability distribution which provides valuable insight into which variables are the most important and how variables interact. It also helps to capture the uncertainty and stochastic nature of the model. Two-level Fractional Factorial Experimental designs are used to study and analyze the performance of service level and inventory levels and to determine which variables are the most influential.


identifier: Emon, Md Mehedi Hasan  (2006) PAHs and nickel contaminated soil containment and stabilization with silica grout.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: The migration of contaminants from a site in the soil represents a real threat to the environment and to human health because contaminants might leach to groundwater and humans could be affected directly and indirectly. Therefore, the objective of this research was to evaluate the vulnerability of silica based chemical grout barriers to protect leaching of contaminants to groundwater. Thirty five experiments were done using calcium chloride (SC), formamide (SF) and combined reagents (SFC) with sodium silicate, along with three different types of soil. Sand, silty sand and sandy silt soils were contaminated with nickel (1000 ppm) or phenanthrene (600 ppm) or mixture of both contaminants. A resistance-based methodology was developed to find out the internal grout changes of grouted specimens. Grouted specimens were submerged in water which was simulated low-mineralized and high-mineralized groundwater. The results show that soil resistivity went up in all specimens. The highest coefficient of stability was found to be 6% in mixed (nickel-phenanthrene) contaminated soil grouted with SF. There was no phenanthrene release from grouted contaminated soil. The nickel release was as low as 4~5 ppm. Furthermore, a complex of sodium formate was found in water based on FT-IR analysis. Lastly, the values of pH and redOx confirmed the stabilization process. This research showed that to reduce contamination with heavy metal, silica formamide (SF) grout should be used. Contamination with phenanthrene was best treated with formamide (SF grout) and a combined (SFC grout) reagent. It was also found that a combination of both reagents made setting faster and created more stable conditions. A model was developed for prediction of contaminant stability. The results of this research can be applied to stabilize any kind of soil with particle size from 1.0 mm to 0.053 mm, contaminated with PAHs and heavy metals.


identifier: Ghafari, Elias  (2006) A comparison of CAD models and experimental results for some passive microwave circuits.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Passive RF and microwave components printed on microstrip circuit boards are essential elements of microwave circuits. Creating approximate closed-form solutions for the electrical characteristics in terms of S-parameters for these components and finding the appropriate microwave simulator to produce reasonably accurate results can be a challenge. In this thesis, we go through the design, simulation and S-parameters bench measurements of four commonly used passive microwave components and compare their simulation results to their laboratory measurements results. The four circuits studied in this work are: Stepped-Impedance ( hi-Z, low-Z ) low pass filter, edge coupled-line band pass filter, 3-dB 90{493} hybrid and a rectangular patch antenna. The two simulation packages used to design these components are PUFF (from California Institute of Technology), and the student version of Serenade (from Ansoft). The results of the study conducted on all four components show that unlike PUFF, Serenade predicted more reasonable and comparable results to the bench measurements. It is worth mentioning that there are slight differences between the Serenade simulation results and their corresponding bench results, such as frequency shift, insertion loss and return loss, but are less significant than those obtained from PUFF.


identifier: Kohantorabi, Farzad  (2006) An Agent system upon semantic web technologies to provide a fungal genomics data warehouse.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Biologists and bioinformaticians are accustomed to going through analysis steps in which they employ multiple data sources such as protein sequence and protein interaction databases. However, biological sources have a distributed, dynamic, and heterogeneous nature and finding the right source of data is not an easy task. Therefore, the need for integrated biological data sources has received a fair amount of attention from both computer and biology communities in the recent years.  In addition to that, access to biological data and service sources has become an issue in the recent years due to the use of inconsistent terminologies. That is, biological vocabulary is diverse in nature, and people do not use the same terminology to describe their data and services. Therefore, finding the right service and interpreting data received from multiple data sources is an issue.  In this research, we build a data warehouse containing integrated fungal genomics data for multiple fungi species from multiple sources, a data schema for the integrated data, transformers for changing the data from external sources to the integrated data schema, and an agent based ETL system for the data warehouse


identifier: Xu, Xiao Qing  (2006) Effectiveness of dampers in response of structures to near-fault earthquakes.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Using the nonlinear dynamic analysis program DRAIN-2DX, a detailed investigation for a one-story single-degree-of-freedom steel moment-resistant frame and a ten-story multi-degree-of-freedom steel moment-resistant frame with and without added dampers is performed. Three types of dampers - friction damper, viscoelastic damper and fluid viscous damper - are investigated. Comparisons of each damper under far-fault and near-fault ground motions are carried out. It is found that, when subjected to the same peak acceleration of ground motion, the dynamic responses of all damped structures under near-fault earthquakes with high pulse-type velocity are generally stronger than those under far-fault earthquakes. Moreover, from the energy point of view, comparison of effectiveness of different dampers subjected to earthquakes is performed. It is found that the friction-damped structure is relatively more effective than the other two dampers when subjected to selected earthquake records. However, the difference in the effectiveness among the three dampers is not large, which shows that all three types of dampers can be used to mitigate structural dynamic response effectively.


identifier: Cheung, Wan Hoi  (2006) Low power design of motion compensation module for MPEG-4 video transcoder in DCT-domain.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: For the 21 st century, the Internet has matured into the de facto data transport platform that analog media such as videotape, film, and broadcast will be supplanted by a digital media infrastructure. This digital infrastructure will allow data to be transferred between any two computing machines on the planet in a heterogeneous network environment. In the case where data is transmitted from the SONET network to PSTN network, dynamic bit-rate adaptation/reduction at the gateways is then required due to the transmission media has a lower capacity than the capacity required by the bitstream. There are many different approaches to this problem of bit rate conversion. A robust scheme is to implement a transcoder module to perform dynamic adjustments of bit rate of the coded video bitstream to the desired transmission rate.  The emphasis in this thesis is on the study of the transcoder's Motion Compensation module of MPEG-4 compressed video stream in the DCT domain on both algorithmic and implementation level.  For the algorithmic level of Motion Compensation in DCT-domain (MC-DCT) design, the 3-2-1 partial information scheme is integrated into the DCT Coefficient Translation and Truncation Transformation Matrix (DCTTTM)-based algorithm with two bit precision on the element of DCT-Constant Matrix (DCT-CM) to process the MC-DCT operation.  For the VHDL hardware-level design, data-dependent signal processing has been applied to the MC-DCT module to reduce power consumption via various manoeuvres such as zero bypassing, custom handling of internal bandwidth, the implementation of multiplication-free module, the 3-2 Wallace tree propagation-delay-free addition map and the logic-based addition module.  Keywords . MPEG-4, Motion Compensation, transcoder, drift error correction, discrete cosine transform (DCT) domain, requantization, data-dependent logic, low power


identifier: Iatauro, Sara  (2006) Evaluation of a mentored teleconferencing graduate course in psychosocial oncology research : iniated at four Canadian universities.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: This report summarizes the evaluation process and outcomes of a thirteen-week McGill University mentored doctoral-level course, (NUR2 783) "Psychosocial Oncology Research." This seminar-based initiative in Psychosocial Oncology Research Training - PORT (Loiselle, Degner, Butler, Bottorff, 2003-2009, ST1-63285), is a core component of the CIHR-ICR/NCIC Strategic Training in Health Research program. The purpose of this study is to investigate the benefits of using, web-based learning environments and their effects and students' reactions to using instructional technologies for learning.  This training course focused on evidence-based research developments in psychosocial oncology---the study of personal, contextual, and social factors that affect people's experience with cancer. The evidence base interventions were conferred through weekly seminars mediated through a videoconferencing medium broadcast within four Canadian Universities, a two-day face-to-face workshop and a computer-mediated communication system, WebCT.  Data was collected through questionnaires and surveys, interviews and observations. Results showed the trainees had acquired effective learning strategies prior to the course, experience with computer based technologies especially an asynchronous medium such as electronic mail and learned best when the acquisition of knowledge was meaningful. The trainees indicated having gained a significant amount of knowledge to apply to their professional lives. The computer-mediated communication system made available to the trainees and mentors to provide a collaborative conference area, view the course syllabus, exchange ideas, confer through synchronous and asynchronous discussions, access information and documents, was quite inactive