identifier: Acevedo-Ojeda, Andres, Contreras, Ivan ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0235-8108 <https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0235-8108> and Chen, Mingyuan  (2019) Multi-level production planning with raw-material perishability and inventory bounds.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

creator:
Acevedo-Ojeda, Andres
Contreras, Ivan
Chen, Mingyuan

abstract:
This thesis focuses on studying one of the most important and fundamental links in supply chain management: production planning. A considerably common assumptions in most of the production planning research literature is that the intermediate items involved in the production process have unlimited lifespans, meaning they can be stored and used indefinitely. In real life applications, whether referring to physical exhaustion, loss of functionality, or obsolescence, most items deteriorate over time and cannot be stored infinitely without enforcing specific constraints on a set of crucial production planning decisions. This is specially the case for multi-level production structures. In the thesis, we first introduce the fundamental characteristics in production planning modeling and discuss some of the common elements and assumptions used to model complex production planning problems. We also present an overview of the production planning research evolution. Our attention is then focused on the most relevant modeling approaches for perishability in production planning available in the research literature. We present lot-sizing problems that incorporate raw-material perishability and analyze how these considerations enforce specific constraints on a set of fundamental decisions. Three variants of the two-level lot-sizing problem are studied: with fixed raw-material shelf-life, with raw-material functionality deterioration, and with functionality and volume deterioration. We propose mixed-integer programming formulations for each of these variants and perform computational experiments with sensitivity analyses, showing the added value of explicitly incorporating perishability considerations into production planning problems. Using a Silver-Meal-based rolling-horizon algorithm, we develop a sequential approach to solve the studied problems and compare the results with our proposed formulations.
We then shift our attention to study the multi-item, multi-level lot-sizing problem with raw-material perishability and batch ordering, inspired by an application in advanced composite manufacturing processes. We proposed a mixed-integer programming formulation for the problem and perform computational experiments with sensitivity analyses, demonstrating its potentials for practical applications in planning composite production.
Finally, we address the study of production planning involving inventory bounds. This characteristic is shown to be related to the perishable raw-material considerations and constitutes another fundamental aspect of this family of problems. We study the multi-item uncapacitated lot-sizing problem with inventory bounds, presenting a new mixed-integer programming formulation for the case of non-speculative (Wagner-Whitin) cost structure using a special set of variables to determine the production intervals for each item. We then reformulate the problem using a variable-splitting technique that allows for a Dantzig-Wolfe decomposition. The Dantzig-Wolfe principle exploits the structure of the problem by decomposing it into two sub-problems: one relating to the production decisions per item and another that relates to the inventory decisions per period. We propose a Column Generation algorithm for solving the Dantzig-Wolfe reformulation. Computational experiments are performed to evaluate the proposed formulations and algorithms on a set of benchmark instances.
This research presents important contributions on a variety of fields related to production planning that had only been partially studied in the literature. It also opens important research paths for the integration of different types of raw-material perishability in multi-level product structures processes, with the study of finished product inventory bounds.


identifier: Evangelista, Czarina ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7745-5252 <https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7745-5252>  (2019) The priming effect of rewards and the role of dopamine transmission.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

type: Thesis NonPeerReviewed

abstract:
After receiving a reward, motivation to obtain more is boosted. For example, a taste of chocolate drives me to want and consume more chocolate—sometimes to the point that I finish an entire bar! This phenomenon is called the priming effect of rewards. The priming effect of rewards has primarily been studied with electrical brain stimulation. Rats primed with brain stimulation have been shown to prefer brain stimulation over competing rewards. Additionally, they work harder for more rewarding brain stimulation. Although over half a century of research implicates dopamine transmission in reward and motivation, the priming effect may not depend on dopamine transmission.
This thesis investigated the priming effect of electrical brain stimulation and food and the role of dopamine transmission. First, expanding on the original work on the priming effect of electrical brain stimulation, we examined whether the priming effect depends on the strength and cost of reward. We showed that the priming effect of electrical brain stimulation is more likely to be observed when the reward intensity is high and the cost is low. Secondly, we investigated whether the priming effect generalizes to other rewards such as food. We demonstrated that food also elicits a priming effect. Lastly, it was studied whether dopamine transmission is necessary for the priming effect of electrical brain stimulation and food. We showed that the priming effect of those rewards persists following dopamine receptor antagonism.
Although dopamine transmission is important for reward and motivation, the present thesis provides evidence that it may not be essential for the priming effect. This emphasizes the need to reconsider and investigate the role of non-dopamine systems in reward and motivation.


identifier: Hamidi, Hamid  (2019) A Combined Material and Structural Approach to Fatigue Failure Analysis of Bolted Thick Composite Laminates.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Most of the existing works on fatigue of long fiber composite laminates approach the problem from the material point of view. These works have also been mainly on thin laminates. This is because the laminates (particularly unidirectional laminates) are considered to be homogeneous and uniform. This may or may not be true because of the heterogeneous nature of the composite (consisting of fibers and matrix and interface), and the significant variability which gives rise to random spatial variation in the properties. A composite laminate is actually both a structure and a material. For thin laminates, the structural aspect is usually scanned over and only the material aspect is focused on. This gives rise to the expectation that the laminate should behave as a material (with good homogeneity and with little variability). This has resulted in failure of many failure criteria.
The importance of the structural aspect is more evident for the case of thick laminates, subjected to flexural loading while being constrained by bolts. To study the fatigue behavior of such materials (and structures), both the structural aspects and the material aspects must be taken into consideration. This is the subject of study of the present research. A combined material and structural approach, namely, the application of coupon level material properties (material level) into the 3D finite element model (structural level) is introduced and applied. By doing this, it examines the behavior of thick unidirectional glass/epoxy laminates subjected to flexural loads while being constrained by bolts. Both theoretical and experimental studies are carried out to validate each other. The theoretical part consists first of structural analysis which provides the locations of potential failure. This is followed by the application of fatigue failure criteria at these locations. Good correspondence is seen between the experimental and the theoretical results.
The agreement between the results of experiments with those of developed fatigue progressive damage modeling (FPDM) shows that the combined material and structural approach is suitable to study the fatigue behavior of thick composite laminates subjected to bolt loads.


identifier: Barlow, Meaghan Amanda ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5054-0473 <https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5054-0473>  (2019) Emotions and Well-Being in Older Adulthood: Exploring the Roles of Age, Stress, and Motivational Processes.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Functional approaches to emotion posit that different negative emotions serve adaptive functions by facilitating distinct motivational processes in response to situational demands. The discrete emotion theory of affective aging provides a lifespan developmental framework for examining the age-related fluctuations in the adaptive value of discrete negative emotions across older adulthood. With increasingly stressful life circumstances, the motivational concomitants of anger (i.e. persistence) may become relatively maladaptive, while those associated with sadness (i.e. disengagement) become paramount. This dissertation sought to examine the divergent associations of anger and sadness with motivational processes, emotional well-being, and physical health, and to explore the moderating roles of age and stress. Finally, this dissertation sought to demonstrate the adaptive value of the sadness-disengagement process.

Study 1 investigated the age-related associations between older adults’ anger and sadness with chronic low-grade inflammation (i.e., IL-6 and CRP) and chronic illness using cross-sectional data from 226 older adults. Results suggested that anger, but not sadness, was associated with chronic inflammation and illness in old-old, but not young-old, adults. Further, the age-related association between anger and chronic illness was mediated by chronic inflammation.

Study 2 explored the associations of sadness and anger with goal disengagement capacities, emotional well-being (i.e. positive and negative affect), and stress (i.e. perceived stress, and diurnal cortisol) using 10-year longitudinal data from 184 older adults. The results revealed a within-person association between sadness, but not anger, and goal disengagement capacities among older adults with generally elevated cortisol. Further, older adults who disengaged more when they experienced sadness were buffered from declines in positive affect associated with elevated levels of cortisol.

Study 3 sought to examine the adaptive value of goal disengagement, and its association with quality of life. Using meta-analytic techniques to synthesize 421 effect sizes from 31 samples, the analyses revealed goal disengagement was associated with higher quality of life, particularly in older samples. Further, the association between goal disengagement and lower depressive symptoms was reversed in samples at risk-for depression.

This dissertation integrates theory and research from the fields of emotion, lifespan development, personality, and evolutionary psychiatry, and contributes to the literature on successful aging.


identifier: Castellanos Arredondo, Melisa ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6980-0845 <https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6980-0845>  (2019) Homotypic and Heterotypic Peer Influence Effects for Aggression and Help, During Early Adolescence. The Role of Friends and Peers.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
This dissertation reports the results from two studies conducted with a sample of 1595 fourth, fifth and sixth graders from nine schools in Bogotá, Colombia (Mage= 10.25 years), who completed peer nomination measures of social behaviours at two measurement points. The main objective was to examinee homotypic (i.e. the effect of early adolescents’ behaviours on one dimension on the same dimension measured for their friend at a later time) and heterotypic peer effects (i.e. the effect of early adolescents’ behaviours at an initial time on their friend’s subsequent levels on another behaviour) among stable dyadic friendship relationships. Specifically, two types of aggressive behaviour (physical and relational) and one type of prosocial behaviour (help) were analyzed. Additionally, the moderating roles of gender, popularity and group norms were examined.
  A structural equation modelling approach was used to achieve the objectives. Specifically, the Actor-Partner Interdependence Model (APIM) was used to estimate peer effects at the dyadic level, and Latent Profile Analyses were used to explore salience group norms at the classroom level context. Moreover, these peer effects were compared by gender, popularity and classroom salience norms (i.e. classroom-level association between popularity and the behaviours).
  It was observed that the two types of aggressive behaviour, as well as help, increased as a function of the best friend’s level of those behaviours. Moreover, it was demonstrated that peer heterotypic influence effects did not occur between help and physical aggression, while friends’ levels of relational aggression predicted increases in pre-adolescents’ levels of help. Structural multi-group comparisons revealed that the most popular pre-adolescents exerted a larger influence on their best friends’ aggressive behaviour. In addition, girls seemed more prone to friend’s influence for aggression whereas boys were exclusively prone to increase their levels of help as a result of engaging in friendships with physically aggressive peers.
  Regarding the moderator role of salience norms, the results revealed that homotypic peer influence effects of physical aggression and help were stronger in classrooms in which these behaviours were equally salient. Similarly, heterotypic peer effects among relational aggression and help occurred only in these types of classrooms.


identifier: S. Arani, Mikail  (2019) Development of a Two-Wheel Inverted Pendulum and a Cable Climbing Robot.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
The research work in this thesis constitutes two parts: one is the development and control of a  Two-wheel inverted pendulum (TWIP) robot and the other is the design and manufacturing of a cable climbing robot (CCR) for suspension bridge inspection. The first part of this research investigates a sliding mode controller for self-balancing and stabilizing a two-wheel inverted pendulum (TWIP) robot. The TWIP robot is constructed by using two DC gear motors with a high-resolution encoder and zero backlashes, but with friction. It is a highly nonlinear and unstable system, which poses challenges for controller design. In this study, a dynamic mathematical model is built using the Lagrangian function method. And a sliding mode controller (SMC) is proposed for auto-balancing and yaw rotation. A gyro and an accelerometer are adopted to measure the pitch angle and pitch rate. The effect on the sensor’s installation location is analyzed and compensated, and the precision of the pose estimation is improved accordingly. A comparison of the proposed SMC controller with a proportional-integral-derivative (PID) controller and state feedback controller (SFC) with linear quadratic regulation (LQR) has been conducted. The simulation and experimental test results demonstrate the SMC controller outperforms the PID controller and SFC in terms of transient performance and disturbance rejection ability.
In the second part of the research, a wheel-based cable climbing robotic system which can climb up and down the cylindrical cables for the inspection of the suspension bridges is designed and manufactured. Firstly, a rubber track climbing mechanism is designed to generate enough adhesion force for the robot to stick to the surface of a cable and the driving force for the robot to climb up and down the cable, while not too big to damage the cable. The climbing system includes chains and sprockets driven by the DC motors and adhesion system. The unique design of the adhesion mechanism lies in that it can maintain the adhesion force even when the power is lost while the system works as a suspension mechanism. Finally, a safe-landing mechanism is developed to guarantee the safety of the robot during inspection operations on cables. The robot has been fully tested in the inspection of Xili bridge, Guangzhou, P.R. China.


identifier: Tajeddin, Mahdi  (2019) Essays on the Effects of Business Group Affiliation on the International Performance of Sub-Saharan African Firms.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: This dissertation consists of three essays which investigate the internationalization of firms in less developed economies (LDEs), with a special focus on institutional factors and business group affiliation (BGA), as well as a study of the firms’ non-market strategies in LDEs. The research setting is Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). The unique contribution of my thesis is to more deeply explore the research agenda articulated by George and his colleagues (2016) in focusing on a prevalent and understudied organizational form in the region. BGs are widely viewed in the literature as a mechanism for closing institutional voids, developing their affiliates’ capabilities through resource provision, and enabling opportunities by raising their capacities to reach international markets. I examine ethnicity as a primary axis of solidarity among BGs in SSA, and address the question of their competitive advantage from the perspective of solidarity. Lastly, the thesis seeks to contribute to the debate around the dominant non-market strategies of SSA’s firms, contribution to public projects, and bribery, by drawing attention to resource dependency theory. In this study, I also examine the influence of business group affiliation on non-market strategies, and their linkage.


identifier: Perlman, Norah Jesseca  (2019) The Psychosocial Effects of Having a Sibling with Autism Spectrum Disorder.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
As siblings play an important role in one another’s cognitive, affective, behavioral, and social development, the sibling relationship is an important subsystem within the family unit. However, in families where one child has an Autism Spectrum Disorder diagnosis, the dynamics between family members may be different due to the associated deficits in communication. Therefore, the purpose of this mixed method study was to explore the perceptions of six typically developing children with a sibling with autism and their parents. Semi-structured interviews and questionnaires were used for both parents and the typically developing child, which allowed for an in-depth investigation into the sibling relationship. Identification of major themes followed by
focused coding was conducted in order to capture the essence of what was said and to categorize the most frequent themes. Overall, both parents and typically developing children had positive and negative things to say about the relationship. Additionally, typically developing children seem to be at a loss for coping strategies that they consider helpful, perhaps due to their own poor emotional regulation skills. This study emphasizes the need to support typically developing children and their development, as well as parents. Parents also identified other themes beyond the sibling relationship such as the perceived poor quality of public services received, the school experience, and their reactions towards the diagnosis.


identifier: Lagota, Kelvin  (2019) Green function and self-adjoint Laplacians on polyhedral surfaces.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Using Roelcke's formula for the Green function, we explicitly construct a basis in the kernel of the adjoint Laplacian on a compact polyhedral surface X and compute the S-matrix of X at the zero value of the spectral parameter. We apply these results to study various self-adjoint extensions of a symmetric Laplacian on a compact polyhedral surface of genus two with a single conical point. It turns out that the behaviour of the S-matrix at the zero value of the spectral parameter is sensitive to the geometry of the polyhedron.


identifier: Chatterjee, Bodhiswatta  (2019) Urban Feature Classification from Remote Sensor Imagery Using Deep Neural Networks.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Convolutional neural networks have been shown to have a very high accuracy when applied to certain visual tasks and in particular semantic segmentation. In this thesis we address the problem of semantic segmentation of buildings from remote sensor imagery. We explore different architectures to semantic segmentation and propose ICT-Net: a novel network with the underlying architecture
of a fully convolutional network, infused with feature re-calibrated Dense blocks at each layer.
Uniquely, the proposed network (ICT-Net) combines the localization accuracy and use of context of the U-Net network architecture, the compact internal representations and reduced feature redundancy
of the Dense blocks, and the dynamic channel-wise feature re-weighting of the Squeeze-and-Excitation(SE) blocks. The proposed network has been tested on two benchmark datasets and is shown to outperform all other state-of-the-art by more than 1.5% on the Jaccard index on INRIA’s dataset and 1.8% on the Jaccard index on AIRS dataset.
Furthermore, as the building classification is typically the first step of the reconstruction process, in the latter part of the work we investigate the relationship of the classification accuracy to the reconstruction accuracy. A comparative quantitative analysis of reconstruction accuracies corresponding to different classification accuracies confirms the strong correlation between the two. We present the results which show a consistent and considerable reduction in the reconstruction accuracy.
The work presented in this thesis has been published in the 16th Conference on Computer and Robot Vision 2019.


identifier: Saif, Mohamed Ahmed Nasr Mohamed ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2210-3524 <https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2210-3524>  (2019) Design of Tunable Beamforming Networks Using Metallic Ridge Gap Waveguide Technology.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Wireless communication is a leap of development in the history of humanity. For the past 100 years, a considerable effort has been spent to develop better standards, and technologies for a higher speed wireless communication with high system capacity for different applications. This requires the design of a high-frequency, point-to-multipoint antenna array system to achieve the mentioned goals. In addition, the reconfigurability of this antenna system is essential to change the system characteristics to achieve acceptable performance in different situations.
The main goal of this thesis is to design a reconfigurable beamforming network to work on the Ka-band for waveguide applications. Among different beamforming networks in the literature, the Butler matrix is chosen due to its higher efficiency and the smaller number of components required than other beamforming networks. The Butler matrix is designed using a dual-plane topology to avoid using crossovers.  Ridge gap waveguide technology is chosen among different transmission lines to implement the Butler matrix for several reasons: It does not need dielectrics to operate, so its power handling capacity is defined by the gap height, and it has no dielectric losses. Its zero-field region represents the operating principle for some tunable devices introduced here and its contactless nature, which eases the assembly of waveguide parts at the millimeter-wave frequencies. The reconfigurability of the Butler matrix is implemented such that beamwidth, maximum gain, and beam direction may be all tuned for optimum system performance.
To that end, several components are designed to achieve the required target, and strict requirements are placed on several components to achieve an acceptable cascaded-system performance. These components include a ridge gap waveguide 90o-hybrid working over a more than 30% bandwidth, which can provide several coupling levels ranging from 3 dB to 33 dB and a return loss and isolation better than 30 dB. Another component is a wideband reconfigurable power splitter that has a 40% bandwidth, a return loss better than 20 dB in the worst case and the ability to achieve all power splitting ratios including switching between the two guides. In addition, a wideband reconfigurable phase shifter is designed to have 33% bandwidth and phase shift tuning range from 0o to 200o. Two coaxial-to-ridge gap waveguide transitions are designed to work over a more than 100% bandwidth to facilitate testing different ridge gap waveguide components. Analysis of the asymmetric double ridge waveguide is introduced where its impedance is deduced and may be used to design a single to double ridge waveguide transition useful for the dual-plane Butler matrix introduced here. In addition, this concept is used to develop a wideband unequal power divider in the single ridge waveguide technology.
At the end, the whole system is assembled to show its performance in different tuning states. The ability of the system to produce radiation patterns of different characteristics is demonstrated. The presented Butler matrix design is a promising beamforming network for several applications like radar, base stations for mobile communications, and satellite applications.


identifier: Xu, Pinjing ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3637-6101 <https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3637-6101>  (2019) Delineation of Road Networks from Remote Sensor Data with Deep Learning.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
In this thesis we address the problem of semantic segmentation in geospatial data. We investigate different deep neural network architectures and present a complete pipeline for extracting road network vector data from satellite RGB orthophotos of urban areas.

Firstly, we present a network based on the SegNeXt architecture for the semantic segmentation of the roads. A novel loss function is introduced for training the network. The results show that the proposed network produces on average better results than other state-of-the-art semantic segmentation techniques. Secondly, we propose a fast post-processing technique for vectorizing the rasterized segmentation result, removing erroneous lines, and reﬁning the road network. The result is a set of vectors representing the road network. We have extensively tested the proposed pipeline and provide quantitative comparisons with other state-of-the-art based on a number of known metrics. This work has been published and presented at the 14 th International Symposium on Visual Computing, 2019.

Finally, we present an altogether different approach to road extraction. We reformulate the task of extracting vectorized road networks as a deep reinforcement learning problem with partially observable state-space and present our preliminary results and future work.


identifier: Liu, Sarah Y.  (2019) Changes in Personality and Well-Being Across Adulthood: Riding the Self-Esteem Rollercoaster.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Personality factors have long been implicated in how individuals manage and cope with circumstances to maintain well-being and health across the lifespan (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984; Mroczek & Spiro, 2007; Wrosch & Scheier, 2003). However, personality factors have also been shown to change over time in both situational and normative contexts (Caspi & Roberts, 1999; Crocker & Wolfe, 2006; Robins et al., 2002; Roberts, Walton & Virchtbauer, 2006). These changes in personality can provide important information about how individuals adapt to and navigate life events and challenges. We investigate self-esteem as a personality factor that changes across the lifespan and identify age-related differences in the impact of self-esteem levels and changes on indices of well-being. This line of research combines personality and lifespan developmental literature to address the question whether levels of and changes in self-esteem can predict well-being and whether there are age-related effects as self-esteem changes across the lifespan. The present dissertation had three main goals: 1) To examine the impact of self-esteem changes and levels across the adult lifespan; 2) to examine changes in self-esteem in different ways – intraindividual changes in self-esteem, normative changes in self-esteem and experimental changes in self-esteem; 3) to investigate the moderating role of self-esteem changes. In order to address these goals, data was collected to examine within-person changes in self-esteem among older adults, data from Statistics Canada was analyzed to examine normative changes in self-esteem, and finally an intervention study was developed to examine experimental changes in self-esteem among young and older adults, and data on psychological and emotional well-being were collected. Three manuscripts were then written based on this data and are included as part of this dissertation.
The first manuscript examined the potential moderating role of self-esteem on older adults’ perceived stress and regret intensity, over 10 years in a sample of 167 community dwelling older adults. This study examined the within-person associations between older adults’ perceived stress and regret intensity, and the moderating role of levels of, and within-person changes in, self-esteem. Within-person results indicated that older adults reported higher levels of regret intensity when they reported higher than their average levels of perceived stress, and that within-person increases of self-esteem, but not between-person levels, moderated this association. The results suggest that within-person changes in self-esteem may be more important than individual differences of self-esteem in protecting older adults from experiencing greater regret intensity under stressful circumstances.
The second manuscript, revised and re-submitted for publication in Social Science and Medicine, examines normative changes in self-esteem across the adult lifespan in a 16-year longitudinal sample of 14,117 adults from the National Population Health Survey (NPHS). The study examines whether changes in self-esteem and chronic disease exert reciprocal effects on subsequent changes in self-esteem and chronic disease, and whether individuals’ age would moderate these associations. The findings from this paper suggest that there are reciprocal age-related associations between changes in self-esteem and chronic disease. Only among young adults, but not middle-aged or older adults, initial decline in self-esteem predicted subsequent increases in chronic disease, and initial increases in chronic disease predicted subsequent declines in self-esteem. The results from this study highlight that adverse changes in both self-esteem and physical health may be particularly problematic for young adults, and have comparably less impact among middle-aged and older adults.
The third and final manuscript included in this dissertation attempted to improve young and older adults’ self-esteem through a brief writing intervention. The study examines whether self-esteem can be improved, whether baseline levels of self-esteem and naturally occurring changes in self-esteem play an adaptive role in mitigating consequences of stress, and predict psychological and emotional well-being, and whether these associations are moderated by age. The study examines 106 young and older adults, randomized into control and intervention groups, who were asked to engage in three consecutive days of writing. All participants completed an in-lab stress task, and cortisol data were also examined. The results of the study suggest that our writing intervention did not work. In addition, the results suggest that high levels of self-esteem and naturally occurring increases in self-esteem (and not experimental changes), predicted positive outcomes, only for older, but not younger, adults.  Consistent with previous research, our results highlight age differences in the association between self-esteem and psychological and emotional well-being, which may also suggest that future self-esteem interventions could be more tailored to each specific age group.


identifier: MacDonald, Margaret  (2019) Desire for Data: PornHub and the Platformization of a Culture Industry.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: That no one pays for their porn anymore has become something of an adage of internet culture, given that seemingly endless porn content now exists on free streaming tubesites. What’s more, the type of pornography content being produced and promoted to users has shifted dramatically in the decade since tubesites first appeared online. In this thesis, I investigate the organizational tactics of one major player in the porn world through the website PornHub.com. As entities like MindGeek (the parent company of PornHub) consolidate media market control in an oligopolistic mode, they also gain influence over what types of pornography can be made profitable. A scarcity of data surrounding privately held porn companies further complicates the study of this supply chain. Using a blend of pornography and platform studies, and by way of a digital walkthrough method, I will overcome the opacity that surrounds PornHub to make their organizational choices clear. By analyzing the operations and strategic choices of the platform, this project will reveal ways in which the platform manages user attention and renders porn media production contingent to their operations.


identifier: Rodriguez Gallegos, Cesar Augusto  (2019) A Study on the Effect of New Technologies on Supply Chain Coordination.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: In this globalized economy, the fierce competition in the market, added to the increasingly exigences from customers demanding products with more added value and lower prices, force organizations to be always at the vanguard to maintain their positioning in the market. One critical ingredient for maintaining the competitive advantage is the acquisition and implementation of new technologies for achieving process and product enhancement. This is specially the case for high tech industries in sectors like aerospace, pharmaceutic and telecommunication, to name but a few. But investment in new technologies is a challenging decision due to their complexity for implementation and the cost involved. Therefore, it is of utmost importance to understand the effect of new technologies on the performance of the acquiring company and on its supply chain. Although the existence of an ample number of empirical studies in the current literature describing the relation between supply chain (SC) operation and new technologies acquisition, analytical research on this matter is quite scarce. In this thesis, our objective is to model and analyze the effect of new technologies on the SC members performance. We propose two main directions of research: (1) impact of technology transfer among SC members; and (2) impact of technology investment in the SC. In the first direction, we consider that an existing technology in the supply chain is transferred from its owner to a different member in the system. In the second direction, we assume that the new technology is independently acquired by an organization in the supply chain, i.e. obtained from a third-party or through internal R&D. Furthermore, we analyze the impact of new technologies on the performance of different system structures. On the first stream of research, we discuss the effect of technology transfer on a one-supplier one-manufacturer supply chain system involving technology transfer and market sharing. We consider the technology transfer decision to be made by the manufacturer, the key technology owner, as the decision affects its market share. It is proposed three models for analyzing the system performance: (i) a supply chain without technology transfer, (ii) a supply chain with technology transfer but without supplier’s market sharing, and (iii) a supply chain with technology transfer and supplier’s market sharing. Findings show that the optimal profit of the manufacturer in a supply chain with technology transfer and market sharing is typically greater than those without technology transfer or market sharing. The analysis also provides the conditions for the manufacturer to enhance technology transfer when the supplier’s market is open to the final products. On the second stream of research, we explore the impact of technology investment on supply chain coordination. We first investigate the optimal pricing and technology investment decisions in a system consisting of one manufacturer and two competing retailers. On one hand, the manufacturer is required to invest in new technologies in order to improve its performance. On the other hand, the retailers compete in the same market with different products. We determine the conditions at which the cost-revenue sharing contract and the two-part tariff contract are capable of coordinating the one-manufacturer two-retailer supply chain system. Lastly, we analyze a system consisting of multiple complementary suppliers and a single manufacturer. It is assumed that the suppliers are required to invest in new technologies in order to participate in the supply chain negotiations. While the manufacturer initially offers a wholesale price contract to the suppliers. We compare both the decentralized and centralized settings, and show that if the supply chain members decide to cooperate and coordinate the system, they could increase the overall expected profit by at least 1/3 compared to the non-cooperative scenario. We then find that although the cost-sharing contract is unable to coordinate the system, the cost-revenue sharing contract is capable of coordinating the multi-supplier and single-manufacturer supply chain. Moreover, we establish the conditions at which the cost-revenue sharing contract offers a win-win profit scenario to all parties of the negotiation and review how bargaining analysis can lead to the optimal negotiation ability of each member.


identifier: Ghaderi, Mohsen  (2019) Cyber-Attack Detection and Mitigation in Networked Control Systems.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Cyber-Physical System (CPS) is the term used to describe the physical systems equipped with computation and communication capabilities. CPSs can be used in different applications e.g. autonomous vehicles, water distribution systems, smart grids, industry 4.0 and Internet of Things (IoT). CPSs have expectation of improving the capability of traditional engineering system but on the other hand, they arise several concerns about their security against cyber-attacks. In the last decade, several cyber-attacks targeting SCADA systems have been reported, see e.g. Maroochy water breach and the Stuxnet worm aimed Iran's nuclear facility. From a control point of view, a CPS can be interpreted as a Networked Control System (NCS) where the risk of cyber-attacks can be modeled as the possibility that malicious agents could compromise the communication channels. In order to bene�t from CPSs, specially in safety critical systems, their vulnerabilities to cyber-attacks must be properly faced. In this thesis two control architectures for CPS are developed. In the first, starting from the analysis of active detection mechanisms available in the literature, we propose a novel architecture capable of detecting a broad class of False Data Injection (FDI) attacks. Such strategy has been contrasted with the well-known watermarking detection mechanism and it is shown that our solution is capable of detecting replay attacks without degrading the closed-loop performance of the system. Moreover, it is shown that compared to detection schemes resorting to auxiliary systems, the proposed strategy is less involved and of easier implementation. In particular, it can be installed on the existing NCS infrastructure without changing communications, controller or state estimator. In the second architecture, we propose another novel architecture capable of detecting and mitigating a broad class of FDI attacks. First, we propose a detection mechanism based on a coding scheme to limit the attacker's disclosure and disruptive resources and prevent the existence of stealthy attacks. Second, we propose an emergency local controller that is activated when an attack is detected or the plant's safety is in danger. It is proved that the proposed architecture always guarantees the safety of the system, regardless of the attack actions and detector performance. Moreover, plant's normal operation recovery is ensured once the attack is terminated.


identifier: Effaty, Farshid ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2389-4903 <https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2389-4903>  (2019) Inter and Intramolecular Aryl-Nitroso Copper-Mediated Redox Reactions.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
The redox conversions of hydroxylamine (NH2OH) are biologically relevant because this molecule serves as a nitric oxide donor in mammals under certain conditions. The analogous arylhydroxylamine compounds (ArNHOH, where Ar is an aryl group) display similar chemistry, with the advantage of fewer side-reactions. Thus, there has recently been increased interest into investigations of the reactivity of arylhydroxylamines with metal complexes as mimics of the biologically relevant reactions of NH2OH with copper or iron. Oxidation of arylhydroxylamines yields nitrosoarenes (ArNO), which are structurally and electronically versatile redox-active molecules. Their corresponding metal complexes are stable mimics of O2 and HNO complexes transiently found in nature and catalytic cycles. This stability allows for a systematic survey of the structure and redox state of ArNO metal complexes. The metal-mediated transformations between ArNHOH, ArNO and other relevant nitrogen-based groups, however, are not well understood. Herein, in two different reports, we address the reactivity of ArNHOH and ArNO groups with copper complexes.
In the first study, a series of complexes is prepared by self-assembly of copper(I) precursors and arylnitroso species. The nature of the copper(I) supporting ligand (bi-, tri- or tetradentate, as well as secondary vs. tertiary amine donors) and the electronic nature of the arylnitroso species (electron-donating or withdrawing substituents) are varied. The stoichiometry of the reaction, the topology, and the electronic properties of the adducts are characterized by UV-Vis spectroscopy, single crystal X-ray diffraction, and DFT methods. The more electron-rich ligands and the more electron-poor arylnitroso species lead to an inner-sphere electron transfer and formation of copper(II)-(arylnitrosyl radical) complexes bearing a linkage topology that depends on the denticity of the supporting ligand. These results provide a canvas by which to predict the products of similar self-assembled redox reactions.
In the second study, the synthesis of an unprecedented copper(I)-arylhydroxylamine complex is reported. The reactivity of the arylhydroxylamine is arrested by the presence of an intramolecular hydrogen bond that stabilizes the weakly bound hydroxylamine. Upon two-electron oxidation, a copper(II)-(arylnitrosyl radical) complex is formed, which crystallizes as a copper(I) species with an uncoordinated arylnitroso function. This validates that such ligands may enable ligand redox chemistry and hemilability in copper complexes. Such tethered arylnitroso complexes present new opportunities for two-electron chemistry in earth-abundant metal catalysis.
In a nutshell, this thesis highlights unique electron-transfer events and redox conversions about the N-O bond in copper complexes. The main finding is the characterization of an intermediate redox state in-between ArNHOH and ArNO, namely the arylnitrosyl radical anion, ArNO-, which is stable only when coordinated.


identifier: Mohammadi, Elham ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7890-8180 <https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7890-8180>  (2019) Automatic Detection of Emotions and Distress in Textual Data.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Online data can be analyzed for many purposes, including the prediction of stock market, business, and political planning. Online data can also be used to develop systems for the automatic emotion detection and mental health assessment of users. These systems can be used as complementary measures in monitoring online forums by detecting users who are in need of attention.

In this thesis, we first present a new approach for contextual emotion detection, i.e. emotion detection in short conversations. The approach is based on a neural feature extractor, composed of a recurrent neural network with an attention mechanism, followed by a final classifier, that can be neural or SVM-based. The results from our experiments showed that, by providing a higher and more robust performance, SVM can act as a better final classifier in comparison to a feed-forward neural network.

We then extended our model for emotion detection, and created an ensemble approach for the task of distress detection from online data. This extended approach utilizes several attention-based neural sub-models to extract features and predict class probabilities, which are later used as input features to a Support Vector Machine (SVM) making the final classification. Our experiments show that using an ensemble approach which makes use different sub-models accessing diverse sources of information can improve classification in the absence of a large annotated dataset.

The extended model was evaluated on two shared tasks, CLPsych and eRisk 2019, which aim at suicide risk assessment, and early risk detection of anorexia, respectively. The model ranked first in tasks A and C of CLPsych 2019 (with macro-average F1 scores of 0.481 and 0.268, respectively), and ranked first in the first task of eRisk 2019 in terms of F1 and latency-weighted F1 scores (0.71 and 0.69, respectively).


identifier: Mujammami, Essa ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8012-6022 <https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8012-6022>  (2019) High Gain Broadband mm-wave Antennas and Beamforming for Wireless Communication Systems.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Generating multi-beams along with having broadband and beam steering capability in the mm-waves band are of crucial importance for diverse applications such as remote piloted vehicles, satellites, collision-avoidance radars, and ultra-wideband communications systems. Besides, the propagation environment at millimeter wave (mm-wave) frequencies—suggested for the next generation of wireless networks (5G)—lends itself to a beamforming structure wherein antenna arrays are required in order to obtain the necessary link budget and to overcome the associated strong attenuation. Therefore, the design of high gain antennas (to focus the directive beam to a user) and beamforming networks (to reduce interference) are essential and are needed to address many challenges associated with 5G wireless communications.
This work addresses the design and development of high-performance Quasi-Yagi antenna and Rotman lens-based beamforming networks. Accordingly, several issues are addressed in this thesis.
A Quasi-Yagi antenna with a perturbed dielectric lens that is broadband and has high gain is designed, optimized, fabricated and tested at 30 GHz. The antenna provides 95% aperture efficiency with a measured gain of 15 dBi as well as a radiation efficiency of ~90% at 30 GHz and a broadband (24-40 GHz) for |S_11 |<-10 dB. The designed end-fire antenna, with its low-profile and compact size, is a good candidate for many applications in the mm-wave band.
An optimum and accurate methodology for designing Rotman lens-based mm-wave analog beamforming network (BFN) is presented. The simulation and measurement results showed good beamforming capabilities as well as a scanning range of 80° in the azimuth plane, and, also, good matching at the array ports. The maximum phase error is ±6.6°, and the main beam of the proposed BFN points at seven different angular directions that cover the range of ±40°. The maximum achieved realized gain is 14 dBi at 28 GHz for the center beam.
An analog Rotman lens-based BFN using RWG technology, integrated with the excitation ports and the antenna array elements, was designed, simulated, manufactured, and measured. The proposed integrated system is realized using the metallized 3D-printing technology, in order to reduce the implementation cost of the full metal RGW Rotman lens. The measured results demonstrate that the system scan range equals ±39.5º over a wideband 27.5-37 GHz decreases to 30º in the band 37-40 GHz. The BFN bandwidth for VSWR < 2 is larger than 38% and is limited by its single antenna element.


identifier: Ghasri, Mina  (2019) Improving Surface Water Quality Using a Geotextile Filtration Technique.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Different substances are carried from land to water areas such as lakes and ponds by natural or anthropogenic activities. Suspended solids (SS) consisting of organic and inorganic matter are examples of these substances that are discharged into water bodies. Contaminants, such as nutrients, bacteria, and heavy metal, which enter surface waters adsorb onto the surface of these particles and eventually settle on the bottom sediments which then become the largest potential source of contaminants into the overlying water. The presence of these SS in the water causes a decrease in the transparency and also excessive loads of nutrients which lead to eutrophication and rapid growth of algae in the water. Lake Johanne is a shallow mesoeutrophic lake located in the municipality of Saint-Anne-Des-Lacs, Quebec, Canada. The lake was exposed to algal blooms during the hot summer in the past and the water has been found to be turbid since 2008.
The focus of this study was to evaluate the water quality variables of this mesoeutrophic lake, to improve the quality of water using a geotextile filtration technique and thus assess the reliability of the geotextile filters in removing suspended solids and adsorbed nutrients. To accomplish these, lake water quality was monitored for two years (2017-2018). Also, a series of on-site filtration experiments was conducted beside the lake using non-woven geotextiles as filter media. Different combinations of geotextiles, differing in apparent opening sizes and number of layers (5-6), were examined to find the combination showing maximum efficiency in removing SS and associated nutrients. Experiments were classified into four categories with respect to the geotextile combination used as a filter media.
The results obtained from all the experiments conducted with different geotextile combinations were promising for the suspended solids, turbidity, chlorophyll-a, and phosphorus removals. However, combination 3 which included two layers of 100 microns followed by two layers of 90 microns, and two layers of 70 microns showed better results as compared to the other combinations used in this study. The filtration experiments conducted with this combination resulted in 8.3 g /m2-d total suspended solids (TSS), 11.6 mg /m2-d total phosphorus (TP), 9.8 g /m2-d chemical oxygen demand (COD), and 11.1 mg /m2-d chlorophyll-a removal. Overall, the results have indicated the potential of non-woven geotextiles for use as a filter media to improve the quality of surface water by removing SS and algae that impair the water quality. Thus, the geotextile filtration technique can be considered as an effective remediation method for contaminated surface water bodies such as lakes and ponds.


identifier: Gendron-Blais, Hubert  (2019) Musique de la communauté affective. Sonorités politiques, perceptions collectives et performances expérimentales.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Cette thèse constitue l’expression écrite d’un projet de recherche-création visant à appréhender le rôle joué par les composantes sonores et musicales dans la (trans)formation des agencements collectifs. En quoi le son et la musique contribuent à la formation et à l’intensification des communautés affectives, ces communautés aussi intensives qu’évanescentes qui ne reposent pas tant sur une identité préétablie ou des intérêts déterminés, mais qui émergent à même l’événement, comme penchants partagés, quelque chose qui circule entre les êtres, les choses, les ambiances? Une telle recherche, au confluent de la philosophie, de la pensée politique et de la musique, a entre autre requis la réalisation d’une véritable enquête sonore sur les bruits du politique, et plus particulièrement ceux issus des manifestations autonomes. L’attention à l’impact des sonorités ambiantes dans les manifestations du commun a ouvert toute une réflexion sur la matérialité sensible et la perception collective du son. L’étude des dimensions esthétiques et politiques de l’affectivité du son a finalement orienté la recherche vers les pratiques musicales, et plus particulièrement sur la manière dont certains processus musicaux peuvent orienter l’expérimentation de nouvelles manières de se rassembler à même l’événement. La musique apparaît ainsi comme le résultat d’un processus de capture de forces environnantes; les composés sonores qui en émergent ouvrent la voie à une analyse autour des notions de composition, d’improvisation et de performance, mais aussi sur les différentes techniques requises pour favoriser l’expression d’un agencement musical donné, faisant ressortir l’apport des composantes non humaines qui participent à l’événement sonore. La conclusion marque l’amorce d’une réflexion autour des notions d’origine, d’appartenance et d’appropriation, offrant une perspective nouvelle sur les enjeux et débats liés aux politiques identitaires dans le champ artistique, politique et social. Ce travail théorique a trouvé son expression musicale dans la composition de la pièce "Résonances manifestes", création musicale comprovisée – c’est-à-dire adressant le mélange complexe de contingence et de contraintes qui émerge du brouillage des notions de composition et d’improvisation – performée par le Devenir-ensemble à l’issue d’un processus de création et de réflexion collective qui s’est étalé sur près d’un an. La pièce est venue prolonger et stimuler les réflexions déployées dans la thèse écrite.


identifier: Sarkar, Aindrila  (2019) Bug Triaging with High Confidence Predictions.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Correctly assigning bugs to the right developer or team, i.e., bug triaging, is a costly activity. A concerted effort at Ericsson has been done to adopt automated bug triaging to reduce development
costs. We also perform a case study on Eclipse bug reports. In this work, we replicate the research approaches that have been widely used in the literature including FixerCache. We apply them on
over 10k bug reports for 9 large products at Ericsson and 2 large Eclipse products containing 21 components. We find that a logistic regression classifier including simple textual and categorical attributes of the bug reports has the highest accuracy of 79.00% and 46% on Ericsson and Eclipse bug reports respectively.
Ericsson’s bug reports often contain logs that have crash dumps and alarms. We add this information to the bug triage models. We find that this information does not improve the accuracy of bug
triaging in Ericsson’s context. Eclipse bug reports contain the stack traces that we add to the bug triaging model. Stack traces are only present in 8% of bug reports and do not improve the triage accuracy.
Although our models perform as well as the best ones reported in the literature, a criticism of bug triaging at Ericsson is that accuracy is not sufficient for regular use. We develop a novel approach
that only triages bugs when the model has high confidence in the triage prediction. We find that we improve the accuracy to 90% at Ericsson and 70% at Eclipse, but we can make predictions for 62%
and 25% of the total Ericsson and Eclipse bug reports,respectively.


identifier: Phan, Duy Hoang  (2019) Proactive and Dynamic Task Scheduling in Fog-cloud Environment.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Fog computing was introduced for the first time by Cisco in 2012. Since then, there has been a great number of studies on fog computing, in which vacant and free-of-charge computing resources in local networks provide low-latency services to end devices.
Even though traditional architecture with scalable and powerful central servers in cloud can accommodate those tasks, it is costly to allocate resources in cloud to execute all those tasks. In addition, it falls short of satisfying Quality of Service (QoS) requirements in terms of waiting time because of long distance communication between servers and user end devices.

In this thesis, we discuss dynamic scheduling problem in fog-cloud collaboration environment for real-time applications when QoS is strict and when an answer is useless if the corresponding application finishes its execution after a pre-defined deadline. By taking into account an admission control procedure to grant only requests whose deadline requirements are feasible with respect to the available resources in the network, we study a proactive scenario using different strategies to calculate schedules and to assign resources, within the admission control procedure to accommodate an incoming request.
Then, we propose our heuristic with four variants corresponding to four different strategies, with the adjustment of a trade-off cost-makespan factor in an utility function. When evaluating performance with some baseline methods in such proactive scenario, the numerical results show that our variants can meet deadline requirements for more applications while exploiting more efficiently  the  resources in the fog layer and being charged less for using cloud.

Keywords: fog computing, cloud computing, dynamic scheduling, real-time scheduling, task scheduling, workflow applications, DAG, QoS requirements, heterogeneous systems.


identifier: Khalifa, Mahmoud Adel Mahmoud  (2019) Performance of Stone Columns in Cohesive Soil.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Stone columns are widely used and generally considered to be one of the most cost-effective and environmental-friendly soil improvement technique for highways and embankments. They are also used as drainage to reduce the consolidation period, which accordingly increases the bearing capacity, reduces settlement, and reduces the liquefaction potential.
Current design theories used to estimate the bearing capacity of a group of stone columns are based on the unit cell or homogenized material concepts, which neglect the effect of the column interactions and installation technique. This thesis therefore presents an experimental investigation, together with numerical modelling, to examine the performance of a single stone column and group of stone columns subjected to vertical loading. An analytical model is developed to capture the effect of an arrangement of stone columns and the mode of failure within a column and the surrounding soft clay material.
A single stone column and a group of stone columns were investigated in a large-scale experimental set-up. The testing program was divided into four steps: (a) filling the testing tank with the clay, (b) installing the stone columns in the clay bed, (c) extracting samples of the reinforced soil (a block of stone columns surrounded by the soft clay loading), and (d) testing the samples in a triaxial apparatus. The results showed that the mode of failure of the reinforced soil depends on the column spacing and the strength of the column materials and the surrounding soil.
Numerically, a 3-D finite element model was developed to examine the influence of the governing parameters on the bearing capacity of the group. The model was validated against experimental results from this study and results available in the literature. The numerical model was used to simulate the actual driving process during installation of the columns. The model was then used to predict the actual failure plane under a rigid footing reinforced by stone columns for a given geometry/soil condition.
An analytical model was developed utilizing the actual failure plane deduced from the numerical model to develop a theory to predict the bearing capacity of the reinforced soil. The theory developed was validated against the results obtained from the numerical model and results reported in the literature.


identifier: Chowdhury, Md Atique Reza  (2019) Untriviality of Trivial Packages.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

title: Untriviality of Trivial Packages

abstract:
Nowadays, developing software would be unthinkable without the use of third-party packages. Although such code reuse helps to achieve rapid continuous delivery of software to end-users, blindly reusing code has its pitfalls. Prior work investigated the rationale for using packages of small size, known as trivial packages, that implement simple functionality. This prior work showed that, although these trivial packages are simple, they are popular and prevalent in the \npm ecosystem. This popularity and prevalence of trivial packages piqued our interest in questioning; first, the `triviality' of these packages and, second, the impact of using these packages on the quality of the client software applications.

To better understand the `triviality' of trivial packages and their impact, in this thesis we report on two large scale empirical studies. In both studies, we mine a large set of JavaScript applications that use trivial \npm packages. In the first study, we evaluate the `triviality' of these packages from two complementary points of view: based on application usage and ecosystem usage. Our result shows that trivial packages are being used in important JavaScript files, by the means of their `centrality', in software applications. Additionally, by analyzing all external package API calls in these JavaScript files, we find that a high percentage of these API calls are attributed to trivial packages. Therefore, these packages play a significant role in JavaScript files. Furthermore, in the package dependency network, we observe that 16.8% packages are trivial and in some cases removing a trivial package can break approximately 30% of the packages in the ecosystem. In the second study, we started by understanding the circumstances which incorporate trivial packages in software applications. We analyze and classify commits that introduce trivial packages into software applications. We notice that developers resort to trivial packages while performing a wild range of development tasks that are mostly related to `Building' and `Refactoring'. We empirically evaluate the bugginess of the files and applications that use trivial packages. Our result shows that JavaScript files and applications that use trivial packages tend to have a higher percentage of bug-fixing commits than files and applications that do not depend on trivial packages.
 Overall, the findings of our thesis indicate that although smaller in size and complexity, trivial packages are highly depended on packages. These packages may be trivial by the means of size, their utility in software applications suggests that their role is not so trivial.


identifier: El Hammouli, Soukayna  (2019) Performance of Pile Cap Foundation with Respect to Cap Rigidity.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
The thickness of a pile cap is a major parameter in the design of the pile-cap foundation. A thin cap performs as a flexible slab by distributing the load on the piles unevenly, which does not accord with the concept of pile foundations. On the other hand, a thicker and therefore more rigid cap evenly distributes the load on the piles, as well as resisting bending moments and punching shear failure, but may impose additional load on the foundation. In view of these differences, there is a need to determine an optimal cap thickness such that the cap will distribute the load evenly on the piles without imposing excessive loads.
This thesis, therefore, used ABAQUS commercial software to develop a 3-D finite numerical model to simulate pile-cap foundations of 9 and 16 piles under variable pile diameter, pile length, and pile spacing for a range of cap thickness from 0.5m to 3m. The collected data is in the form of the load on individual piles, the load sharing between the pile and the cap, and the vertical displacement of the cap.


identifier: Rasifaghihi, Niousha  (2019) Impact of climate change on urban water consumption: a case study for Greater Montreal.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Smart cities need a sustainable plan and management of urban water consumption (UWC). A reliable long-term forecast of UWC is one of the key tasks to ensure water security and to achieve a balance between future water demand and supply. Long-term forecasts of UWC inevitably contain uncertainties. The uncertainties can associate with: 1) historical data of UWC; 2) existing observations of hydrological/climate variables as potential drivers of UWC; 3) the dependence of UWC on the potential drivers; and 4) projections of future climate change. The purpose of this research is to improve our understanding of the climate-change impact on UWC and of feasible ways to handle the foregoing uncertainties. Specifically, this research seeks answers to two key questions: 1) What quantity of water will be needed in the long-term? 2) To what extent will long-term UWC be affected by climate change? This research took the probabilistic approach to the problem of UWC forecast and made an application to the City of Brossard in the Greater Montreal metropolitan area. The methodologies involve Bayesian statistics as well as cluster analyses, which are a frequently used technique in machine learning. The analyses were performed on multiple year records of daily water consumption (DWC) in the city as well as field measurements of climate variables from the Montreal area. The analyses produced results of decomposed base water consumption (BWC) and seasonal water consumption (SWC). The DWC time-series was shown to have a transition from BWC to SWC at a threshold air temperature. The BWC was independent of climate change but subject to weekend effects, being higher on a weekend than weekdays. The SWC was a function of daily minimum air temperature, daily maximum air-temperature, and daily total precipitation. The SWC forecasts allowed for inherent uncertainties in climate variables. Markov Chain Monte Carlo was used as a sampling method in approximating the posterior distribution of regression parameters. The results from Bayesian linear regression gave a probability distribution of DWC. To quantify the impact of climate change on UWC, future projections of air temperature and precipitation were obtained from 21 General Circulation Models and downscaled for the city. The downscaled daily air temperature and precipitation corresponded to two scenarios of levels of greenhouse gas concentrations. Using quantile mapping methods, bias corrections were made to the downscaled daily minimum temperature, daily maximum temperature and daily total precipitation. These data gave input to the Bayesian linear regression model and produced SWC forecasts for the next three decades. The SWC was shown to display a positive trend over time in response to changing climate. The methodologies discussed in this thesis can be applied to other cities, producing results useful for upgrade and/or construction planning of water supply infrastructures.


identifier: Alsayed, Motasem  (2019) Behaviour of Partially Earth-anchored Cable-stayed Bridge with Crossing Cables of Different Side-to-Main Span Ratios.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Maximising the main span length of cable-stayed bridges while optimizing the cost of construction is a bridge engineering challenge. One solution has been suggested by Shao et al. (2014) who proposed a partially-earth anchored system in conjunction with crossing cables at the main span as a new system for cable-stayed bridges. The main span length tested in their study was 1408 meters, which is much longer than existing conventionally constructed bridges. Although analysis results demonstrated that the proposed system has advantages over conventional systems, it is still under development and has not been adopted in practice.
	The purpose of this study therefore is to evaluate the structural response of a cable-stayed bridge under the proposed new system of different side-to-main span ratios. The bridge considered in Shao et al. (2014) is used for analysis. Six side-to-main span ratios, i.e., 0.24, 0.27, 0.30, 0.33, 0.36 and 0.39, are tested. Three-dimensional finite element models are developed using structural analysis software SAP2000. The models are subjected to dead load, traffic load, and earthquake load to test the response of the bridge’s superstructure and substructure.
	From this study it is found that under static loads the side-to-main span ratios have a significant effect on girder axial force and anchorage, while having a very minor effect on cables. The results also show that the ratio does not affect the bending moment of the main span, but that when a small ratio is considered particular attention needs to be paid to the pier farther from pylon to avoid uplifting. Deck vibration and longitudinal movement, as well as pylon lateral displacement, would not be an issue for this super-long bridge. However, it might be necessary to take appropriate action to allay concerns over residual displacement due to earthquake load.


identifier: Desharnais, Brigitte ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7373-656X <https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7373-656X>  (2019) Mathematical Method Validation Tools for Application to a Proteomics Approach of Postmortem Metabolic Capacity Estimation.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
In postmortem cases, forensic toxicologists perform analyses for legal and illegal drugs, volatile substances, poisons and biochemical parameters in order to determine the causes and circumstances of death.

Evaluation of the metabolic capacity of an individual might help to achieve this goal. Knowledge that the deceased had a poor metabolic capacity might help differentiate between medical error and accidental overdose, for example.

Traditionally, DNA analysis of genes encoding for metabolizing enzymes has been used for this purpose. However, the genotype can be quite a poor predictor of phenotype; intervening factors such as sex, age, presence of inducers or inhibitors act as confouding factors.

A proof-of-concept methodology estimating the postmortem metabolic capacity through characterization and quantification of cytochrome P450 (CYP) enzymes in liver tissue is presented here. Combining quantitative proteomics with detection of the peptides bearing mutation sites allowed for a more accurate estimation of the metabolic capacity than genotyping alone.

The current regulatory environment, and best practices, requires forensics bioanalytical methods to be validated. Anticipating the validation of this method, several methodological issues were foreseen.

In order to properly validate the quantitative part of the CYP analysis method, a simple, analyst-independent, and systematic procedure to choose and validate a calibration model (order, weighting) based on statistical analysis was developed. Additionally, the omnipresence of the target analyte(s) in authentic matrix (human liver) calls for a methodology allowing to deal with endogenous concentration(s) of analytes in matrices used to prepare calibration standards and quality control samples. An automated tool was developed to correct for the endogenous analytes’ concentration.

Finally, characterization of the CYP enzymes, via the monitoring of peptides bearing a mutation site, requires validation via a qualitative decision point method. Current guidelines about this type of analysis are ill adapted to deal with the binary nature of the results. A more suitable set of guidelines was developed and tested.

These mathematical method validation tools, in combination with the CYP analysis method, provide the necessary framework for metabolic capacity estimation in postmortem cases.


identifier: Ahmed, Mohamed  (2019) Development of an Improved PCM-to-Air Heat Exchanger for Building Envelopes - Advancement to Free Cooling Applications.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
With high energy consumption trends in buildings, the adoption of the thermal energy storage systems toward reducing cooling load has been increased in recent years. In this study, the utilization of phase change materials (PCMs) has been comprehensively discussed for building free cooling applications. The potential and limitations of using PCM-to-Air Heat Exchangers (PAHXs) for free cooling applications were analyzed. Referring to the local climatic conditions, one of the most important operational challenges that face PAHX applications is the insufficient cooling charging energy during the PCM solidification phase. An improved PAHX type was developed in this study for building envelopes by applying the concept of thermal radiation losses to the sky during night-time to increase the cooling potential of the system. Two real-scale prototypes were designed and set-up to monitor the effect of radiative cooling on the thermal performance of the PAHX system. The experimental results indicated that exposure to the clear sky, as a cooling source, during PCM solidification increases the cooling potential of the system due to the maximized thermal losses by radiation. A 2D numerical model was developed considering the PCM thermal storage, short and long waves radiation, and convection phenomena. New thermal boundaries of long-wave radiation were developed between the system elements and the sky temperature. In addition, the 2D model considered various forms of convective heat transfer phenomenon. The experimental data and inter-model comparison were applied to validate the proposed model. The application of the developed PAHX system in the hot desert climate was assessed to evaluate its thermal performance. It was concluded that the PAHX system outlet air could be directly supplied to the indoor spaces through a direct free cooling application to satisfy the cooling loads, also it could be introduced to the mechanical cooling unit to minimize the energy consumption. The results showed that the thermal comfort levels were enhanced by up to 18% (during the direct free cooling application), and the energy consumption for cooling purposes was
reduced by 18.5% (during the energy savings mode) saving an amount of energy up to about 11 kWh/week.


identifier: Lin, Fan  (2019) Design and Optimization of Magnetorheological Elastomer Based Adaptive Tuned Vibration Absorber.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: The excessive vibration if not properly controlled can cause premature fatigue failure of structural component. One effective way to attenuate vibration is to attach a tuned vibration absorber to the main structural component. Passive tuned vibration absorbers are mainly effective to attenuate vibration at specific tune frequencies and they significantly lose their effectiveness under mistuned conditions due to variation in environmental condition. The main objective of the present research study is to develop a wide-bandwidth and light-weight adaptive tuned vibration absorber (ATVA) featuring magnetorheological elastomer (MRE) to be tuned on a simply supported beam. The accelerance transfer function has been derived for both beam with and without ATVA. The effectiveness of the ATVA to control vibration at varying external excitation is then demonstrated. Proposed ATVA consists of C-Shape frame with winding coils, two MRE specimens and active mass. Isotropic MRE with 40% volume fraction has been experimentally tested and a quasi-static micromechanics and dynamic parametric model have been developed to predict the MRE’s elastic modulus at various frequency and applied magnetic field. Using MRE models and magneto-circuit analysis, the frequency bandwidth of the ATVA was analytically obtained. Finally, a multidisciplinary design optimization formulation has then been developed to minimize the mass and maximize the frequency bandwidth of an ATVA featuring magnetorheological elastomer (MRE).


identifier: Leduc, Claude  (2019) The Symbolic Subject in Information and Communications Technologies: Michel Freitag on Technique, Science, and its Implications for Subjectivity.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Grasping the novelty of contemporary technological mediation in its ubiquity, particularly within information and communications networks, typically involves recognizing the post-human status
of subjects relationally embedded to technical processes that are increasingly autonomous relative to the individual. Problems with this approach become apparent once we consider both the symbolic character of human beings and the technical relation to objects as only a partial moment of a subject’s interaction with the world. Providing an answer to these concerns, Michel Freitag’s theory of the symbolic grants a sociological understanding of the role of technique
within action in its historical unfolding as a distinctly productive activity in modernity. In this context, the predominance of theory over technique in the production of knowledge within modern scientific practice will slowly reverse as modern epistemology regresses into the abyss of the subject-object dualism of the enlightened individual while scientific production itself is progressively appropriated by industry as of the 19th century. This new operational understanding of scientific epistemology will reach its archetypical form in the post war field of cybernetics, where information ontology will quickly instigate further technical automation within productive labour and later influence neoliberal epistemologies in matters of governance.
The latter, increasingly realized in the technocratic management of social life, will further effectuate itself in the digital infrastructure of contemporary communications systems under algorithmic governmentality in which both the normative and expressive ends of action tend to be subsumed. In this context, the reduction of language to its communication and of action to its operability will signal the ideological confusion between reality and its representation, together tending towards the unraveling of the transcendental unity of the subject and betraying the disavowed yearning for an absolute freedom liberated from worldly constraint.


identifier: Novkovic, Anja  (2019) Alley Atlas: from non-place to place in six maps.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Activators and the general public view commercial alleyways as “non-places”—they seem to lack a sense of history, relationality, and identity, and therefore a sense of place (Augé, 1995). In this study, I use a phenomenological understanding of place to explore the potential place-ness of the Bishop/Mackay alleyway, a commercial backstreet in downtown Montreal. I use the same concept to map personal stories associated with this alleyway and to better understand the deeper sense of place this particular alley holds. Using a research-creation process, ethnographic methods, inductive visualisation, and deep mapping lead me to my Alley Atlas. Through it, I argue that the alley’s meaning consists of its ability to house shadow-like expressions of the human condition, and connect people and places. Because of its non-judgemental quality, this alley creates a safe haven for a myriad of taboo behaviours, like crying, having a mental breakdown, smoking, using drugs, drinking alcohol, and spray-painting. Secondly, I argue that inductive visualisation and deep mapping are compelling and complementary approaches to the visualisation of meaning in an alleyway; while the former functions as a method of extracting meaning and visualising it, the latter creates a container within which to move from superficial to deeper representations and understandings of place, housing both place and non-place qualities. Finally, I arrive at the conclusion that, while the alley’s identity depends on who is looking at it and how, viewers of my Alley Atlas might see that it is inherently a place.


identifier: Zhang, Xiaoyang  (2019) Nonlinear Aeroelasticity and Active Control of Airfoils Subjected to Gusts.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: In this thesis, the coupling effects of structural nonlinearities and a gust input on the aeroelastic behaviour of an airfoil are studied, and an adaptive controller which is effective for suppressing limit-cycle oscillations (LCOs) is designed. The dynamics of the airfoil are approximated via two- (pitch and plunge) and three-degree-of-freedom (pitch, plunge and flap) models. Different types of structural nonlinearities, such as free-play and hysteresis are considered in the modelling. The nonlinear dynamics is analyzed based on time history, power spectral density (PSD), phase-plane, and Poincar\'{e} section plots, along with the estimation of the dominant Lyapunov exponent for the chaotic-like motion. It is found that free-play and hysteresis nonlinearities may considerably reduce the critical flow velocity compared to the linear system. The dynamic responses of the nonlinear system to sharp-edged and 1-cosine gust profiles are obtained at different flow velocities and compared to those of the system with no gust input. In addition, basin of attraction is plotted to show the stability boundary of the system subjected to a sharp-edged gust with various amplitudes. It is discussed that as the gust becomes stronger, the likelihood of the occurrence of LCO increases. Based on the nonlinear model with a control surface, the suppression of LCO is studied. Without uncertainties, a PD controller together with a partial feedback linearized controller can effectively alleviate oscillations due to gusts and structural nonlinearities. Considering some uncertain structural parameters, an adaptive controller with estimation parameter update law is further designed to stabilize the system. A Lyapunov function is constructed and utilized to prove the stability of the system.


identifier: Kantesariya, Shyamkumar Rajesh  (2019) OptiShard: An Optimized & Secured Hierarchical Blockchain Architecture.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Blockchain has become an emerging decentralized computing technology for transaction-based systems due to its peer-to-peer consensus protocol over an open network consisting of untrusted parties. Monolithic architecture supporting Bitcoin and other major alt-coins are inherently non-scalable. In recent past, some hierarchical approaches have been explored to shard the decentralized blockchain to improve scalability. However, there is no discussion in the literature about how to determine an optimal shard size to maximize performance and how the presence of malicious or faulty nodes can impact on choosing an optimal shard size. To address these issues, this thesis presents a sharding scheme and validation protocols for a hierarchical blockchain architecture named OptiShard. The hierarchy divides the network nodes into multiple disjoint shards and the majority of transactions are distributed among these shards in non-overlapped fashion. Optimal shard size is determined based on two parameters: performance and correctness of transaction validation in the presence of malicious or faulty nodes. OptiShard provides guaranteed majority of good shards, subject to a maximum allowable threshold of faulty nodes, by choosing the right shard size. It also provides a mechanism for identifying faulty shards, through the overlapping of a small fraction of transactions across all the shards, and discarding all their transactions. Experimental results performed on up to 800 Amazon EC2 nodes conform to the theoretical analysis and also exhibit the scaling characteristics of OptiShard.


identifier: Medkour, Younes ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2913-2384 <https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2913-2384>  (2019) Mechanisms by which PE21, an extract from the white willow Salix alba, delays chronological aging in budding yeast.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: To discover novel aging-delaying and longevity-extending chemical compounds of plant origin, we conducted a screen for plant extracts that can prolong yeast chronological lifespan. Our screen revealed six plant extracts that increase yeast chronological lifespan. One of these six plant extracts is PE21, an extract from the white willow Salix alba. We found that PE21 extends the longevity of chronologically aging yeast to a significantly greater extent than any of the presently known longevity-extending chemical compounds. We demonstrated that PE21 is a geroprotector which delays the onset and slows the progression of yeast chronological aging by eliciting a hormetic stress response. We showed that PE21 has the following effects on cellular processes known to define longevity in organisms across phyla: 1) PE21 amplifies mitochondrial respiration and membrane potential; 2) PE21 alters the pattern of age-related changes in the intracellular concentration of reactive oxygen species; 3) PE21 reduces oxidative damage to cellular proteins, membrane lipids, and mitochondrial and nuclear genomes; 4) PE21 enhances cell resistance to oxidative and thermal stresses; and 5) PE21 accelerates degradation of neutral lipids deposited in lipid droplets. We found that PE21 causes a remodeling of lipid metabolism in chronologically aging yeast, thereby instigating changes in the concentrations of several lipid classes. We demonstrated that such changes in the cellular lipidome initiate three mechanisms of aging delay and longevity extension. The first mechanism through which PE21 slows aging and prolongs longevity consists in its ability to decrease the intracellular concentration of free fatty acids. This postpones an age-related onset of liponecrotic cell death promoted by excessive concentrations of free fatty acids. The second mechanism of aging delay and longevity extension by PE21 consists in its ability to decrease the concentrations of triacylglycerols and to increase the concentrations of glycerophospholipids within the endoplasmic reticulum membrane. This activates the unfolded protein response system in the endoplasmic reticulum, which then decelerates an age-related decline in protein and lipid homeostasis and slows down an aging-associated deterioration of cell resistance to stress. The third mechanism underlying aging delay and longevity extension by PE21 consists in its ability to change concentrations of some lipids in the mitochondrial membranes. This alters certain catabolic and anabolic processes in mitochondria, thus amending the pattern of aging-associated changes in several key aspects of mitochondrial functionality.


identifier: Lynch, Erin Elizabeth  (2019) Locative Tourism Applications: Between Gaze and Performance in the Branded City.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
As cities look for new ways to enliven their streets as cultural destinations, many have begun offering augmented reality tourism applications for mobile users.  These apps layer audio, text, and visuals over the built environment in a bid to help tourists make sense of the city, and are a type of “locative media” - a genre of site-specific platforms that use location-aware mobile technologies to enable interplay between digital content and “real” geographies.

The maps of meaning constructed by these apps forward particular (on-brand) understandings of what is culturally valuable in the city – what sites are worth seeing, whose stories are worth listening to, how best to taste, touch, and even smell the city.  However, as these apps at once animate and are animated by the streetscape they attempt to frame, gaps and seams between the urban environment and the digital layer come into focus.  Along the way, users of these apps encounter other rhythms, meanings, and ways of being in the city that can trouble unifying narratives and unsettle the authority of the map.  Locative media’s cartographies are not only overlaid but “entangled” with locations and their existing representations, weaving a narrative of the city that is set on a shifting stage.

This thesis draws from sensory ethnography and on-site media analysis with diverse apps in 10 cities to interrogate how these applications layer maps of meaning over the urban environment, and consider what their use – at the embodied intersection of physical and digital space – can tell us about the production of cityscapes for touristic consumption.  Two comparative case studies – in Christchurch and Montreal – further examine how locative apps can mediate the urban ruin and turn the city into a screen, respectively. Situated at the intersection of urban sociology, the anthropology of the senses, cultural geography and new media studies, this study argues that exploring the performance of the locative tour offers valuable perspective on the patterns, traces, and entanglements of urban meaning making in the digital age.


identifier: Ahmadi, Sobhan  (2019) Green airport operations: Conflict and collision free taxiing using electric powered towing alternatives.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Abstract

Everyday millions of liters of jet fuel are burnt while airplanes are¬ running on the ground and releasing tons of air polluting gases in the earth's atmosphere. Scientists and technicians believe that more efficient taxiing strategies should replace traditional aircraft ground handling methods. Multiple factors should be considered in the airport operation programming. Environment protection, energy efficiency, safety matters, performance restrictions, and airlines' financial profit are some examples of these determinative elements.
Furthermore, aircraft ground operation is the leading cause of airports' air and sound pollution. It also becomes more remarkable to the airline companies when the risk of airplane ground accident is involved. At present, airports’ control towers handle the airport's surface traffic manually. Human-made mistakes and slow responding time to high-risk occurrences may put the airplane ground handling system in serious problems. Due to this fact, the traffic control personnel have no choice except keeping departing flights in the gates and let them leave only when the entire assigned path is clear. This manual flow control approach is inefficient and causes long taxi times.
Technically, a robust mathematical formulation is able to offer optimal solutions for the airport surface operation. In this study, a new, environmentally friendly optimization formulation is developed in order to minimize the total taxiing time and aircraft’s fuel consumption on the ground by eliminating unnecessary delays. Moreover, solving airplanes' conflict problems in ground movements is guaranteed during the entire taxi-paths, since without considering the aircraft collision avoidance feature, the mathematical model will not be practical.
Based on the presented methodology, a combination of the single-engine taxiing method and truck-towing is suggested as the best practical solution. The conducted investigations indicate that this approach provides both economic and environmental benefits to the aviation industry. The accuracy of the offered model is validated by the daily aircraft’s data on the layout of the Montréal-Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport. Three extensive sets of numerical analyses have been conducted to provide better insights into the issue. In each part of these analyses, different determinant factors such as total taxi time, total fuel consumption, and total delay have been used to compare the obtained results of the proposed approach with the current situation at the airport. After studying all effective elements and analyzing the results, an environmentally friendly and economically efficient approach is offered.


identifier: Soltani, Mojdeh  (2019) Electrification of Airport Operations: Electric Powered Tow-Truck Utilization in Taxiing Operations.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
ABSTRACT
Civil aviation has steadily increased over the past decades and plays an essential role in connecting
people and countries across the world. According to the International Civil Aviation Organization
(ICAO, 2018), passenger traffic has grown with an average of 5.4% between 1995 and 2015. ICAO
estimates the demand for aviation to continue increasing by an annual rate of 4.3% until 2035 and
4.1% until 2045. Among several crucial objectives of air transportation system problems, the
minimization of fuel consumption has a profound impact on both the economic viability of airline
companies and the impact of air-transportation in the environment.
Although aviation is not currently the leading cause of global warming, industry development, and
the increase in air transportation will make it a significant factor for global warming over the
coming decades. Predicting the impact of aviation on economic and environmental systems
requires investigations at different stages of air transport operations. One of the strategies to reduce
the fuel consumption of aviation is to optimize the fuel burn during airplane ground movement
(taxiing) in airports. The main reason is that aircraft ground movement is a significant source of
fuel consumption and emissions at an airport (e.g., it is estimated that aircraft burn about 7% of
their fuel during this stage of the flight). Among different ways of taxiing operation in an airport,
electrification of ground transportation has proven to be one of the most efficient ways which have
many advantages such as reducing fuel consumption and emission of greenhouse gases with low
maintenance cost. However, it should be noted that electric-powered vehicles can be a beneficial
and efficient way of taxiing in airports if the electricity is clean. Clean electricity is produced from
IV
renewable and non-emitting sources such as wind, sun, and water. Using electric-powered vehicles
in airports might not be the optimal option if the electricity is produced by burning fossil fuels like
coal. Nowadays, in many provinces of Canada, the produced electricity is clean, and the
government is determined to have 90% clean electricity across Canada by 2030.
The presented study discusses the scheduling of aircraft towing tractors at the airport in order to
minimize the fuel consumption and environmental emission of airplane engines and towing
tractors. In this study, we developed a Mixed Integer-Linear Programming (MILP) model to
schedule electric-powered towing vehicles (pushback Tugs) to provide taxiing services to aircraft.
The proposed MILP solution enables aircraft to request a towing vehicle when it is available or
perform traditional taxiing operations by using aircraft engines to minimize operating costs, which
includes delay/earliness costs, fuel consumption cost, and towing cost. We concluded that the
hybrid system for taxiing operation which includes both traditional engine powered solutions and
the proposed electric-powered towing vehicle approaches, is the optimal solution. Through
sensitivity analysis, the proposed taxiing operations planning model determines the optimum
number of towing vehicles in an airport.


identifier: Zhou, Mi  (2019) The role of animated images in the website evaluation and online purchase process.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
More companies, especially the electronic companies, have started to use animated images on their websites to strength the first impression of their products and services. The first objective of this study was to aim at understanding the following gap: understanding the relationship between the animated images and the purchase intention. This will be done considering two mediators: visceral emotion, website credibility. No research focuses on the impact of websites animated images considering serial mediators. The second objective was to investigate the moderating effect of the culture value on the impact of the animated images on Visceral emotion (Pleasure, arousal, dominance). The results indicate that animated images will elicit greater emotional pleasure (arousal) which will induce higher perceived website credibility, thus leading to higher purchase intention than static images on the electronic’s product pages. Emotional dominance does not seem to change when customers see animated images. In fact, people from different countries have similar emotional flow towards animated images on the electronic’s product pages and similar ones following perceived site credibility and purchase intention. The managerial implications of this study suggest
builder could focus their effort on creating animated product images instead of making two versions of images to adjust the tastes of different cultures. In both cases, electronic companies and web builders should be careful in their ethical approach to ensure they do respect individuals' rights and maintain an ethical mindset in their whole vision of their marketing strategy and application.