identifier: Reinhardt Falk, Karla  (2022) The Spirituality of Feasting: An Exercise in Practical Theology.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

format: text video

abstract: The memory of the simple pleasures of good food and drink shared with loved ones around a well-laid table produces a numinous moment: the feast and its lingering after-effects are more than the sum of its parts. Food, already a multi-faceted topic, invites an interdisciplinary approach. Food and theology must, by extension, include a multi-disciplinary investigation. Conceived of as an exercise in practical theology, the theologies of feminism, embodiment, hospitality, and crossover approaches like liturgical anthropology all combine to describe how the basic elements of a shared abundant meal create a transcendent moment. In this moment we can experience God’s overwhelming love for humanity, begun in creation and brought to fulfillment with Christ’s death and resurrection. This abundant love is well represented at the shared feasting table. Food is good to think; feasting is good to experience God’s love.


identifier: Azar, Kamyar  (2022) Hybrid Statistical, Machine Learning, and Deep Learning Models for Fault Diagnosis and Prognosis in Condition-based Maintenance.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

type: Thesis NonPeerReviewed

abstract: Maintenance has always been an essential and inseparable part of manufacturing and industrial sectors. Generally speaking, maintenance strategies aim to prevent asset failures/downtimes to protect investments and to provide a safe working environment. With the recent growth in sensor and data acquisition technologies, a rich amount of condition monitoring data has become available in manufacturing and industrial sectors. Consequently, there has been a recent surge of interest in using more advanced solutions, especially those based on Machine Learning (ML), Reinforcement Learning (RL), and Deep Learning (DL) models, to utilize such extensive and high-quality data in the maintenance domain. In this context, the thesis proposed different ML and hybrid models for prognostic and health management purposes to further advance the maintenance field. In particular, we conducted the following three studies: In the first work, a hybrid and semi-supervised framework is designed based on the hazard rate of the system. The proposed framework can extract the hidden state of the system without domain knowledge. To evaluate the efficacy of the proposed method, a real dataset is used where optimal maintenance policies are obtained based on the extracted states via RL. In the second study, a DL-based model is proposed to predict the hazard rate of the underlying system. As opposed to its statistical counterparts, the proposed predictive model does not assume any linear relationship between the sensors' measurements, and is capable of learning from censored data. In the last study, we investigated application of the proposed methods on high-dimensional data such as images. The proposed methods achieved promising results illustrating their great potential to be used in real-world applications.


identifier: Rao, Ying  (2022) Distributed Provisioning of 5G Service Requests.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Service function chain (SFC) plays a prominent role in realizing 5G Slicing and next generation networks. Supported by the emerging techniques such as Software-Defined Networking (SDN) and Network Function Virtualization (NFV), network operators can freely define and configure a variety of complex network services or SFCs based on business needs, policies, and quality of service (QoS) requirements.

Additionally, 5G networks are expected to be highly dynamic, constantly upgrading and scaling, in which case a plug-and-play mechanism is needed to avoid high operational and management costs, for which the flexible and scalable distributed system is well suited.

This thesis investigates the distributed SFC provisioning problem, and propose a fully distributed algorithm that runs with dynamic traffic aiming to find and reserve the best suited network and compute resources for each SFC request with manageable messaging costs.

We implemented the resulting algorithm in the OMNET++ environment and conducted a series of experiments with different dynamic traffic instances running on a distributed network. We then compare its performance with a classical centralized resource constraint shortest path (RCSP) algorithm, the results show that our 5G provisioning algorithm obtains a similar performance to the centralized RCSP in terms of throughput and acceptance rate.


identifier: Garneau-Lévesque, Jeanne  (2022) Ce que nous avons perdu/What We Have Lost: Conceptualisation d’une installation immersive sur la notion de la perte de mémoire individuelle à travers la matérialité du livre.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
RÉSUMÉ
Ce que nous avons perdu/What we have lost: Conceptualisation d’une installation immersive sur la notion de la perte de mémoire individuelle à travers la matérialité du livre.

Jeanne Garneau-Lévesque

Dans le contexte du vieillissement de la population et de l’augmentation de l’espérance de vie des aînées, les maladies neurodégénératives, telles que la maladie d’Alzheimer, sont de plus en plus diagnostiquées. La maladie d’Alzheimer s’attaque particulièrement à la mémoire et aux fonctions vitales de la personne. Une maladie redoutable et irréversible que les scientifiques connaissent encore très peu. Ces derniers en sont encore à étudier la progression de cette maladie et ignorent encore comment la guérir. Cela étant dit, la maladie d’Alzheimer souvent incomprise fait subir de graves préjudices aux personnes atteintes. À la lumière de cette problématique, cette
recherche-création pose la question suivante : comment conscientiser le public en général à cette maladie afin de susciter chez ceux-ci de l’empathie ? Les objectifs de la recherche sont de réaliser une expérience immersive sur les stades de la maladie d’Alzheimer. Concrètement, pour y parvenir,
la recherche a privilégié la métaphore du livre « détruit » évoquant la perte de la mémoire. De plus, c’est à l’aide d’un genre particulier, « l’installation vidéographique et sonore », qu’il a été permis de mettre en oeuvre et de concrétiser ce projet.


identifier: Alahmad, Yanal ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7898-5354 <https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7898-5354>  (2021) A Framework for High Availability Management of Applications Services in Cloud.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Cloud computing is a fast and growing paradigm for hosting applications services that belong to the Application Service Providers (ASPs). However, Quality of Service (QoS) remains an issue that opens different research areas in a distributed, elastic and dynamic
cloud platform. One major issue raised for the ASP is service High Availability (HA). Service availability is a non-functional requirement that indicates the period of time the service is provided for the end customer. Managing the availability of different application services during the runtime in a cloud cluster is not an easy task to do due to several challenges. The key success to maintain service availability is to provide a mechanism to protect service against failure and recover the service once the failure happens as fast as possible.
This thesis proposes a general framework for availability management and enables continuity for applications services in the cloud computing environment. We address service availability and propose efficient solutions from different perspectives. First, the thesis proposes a reactive framework that can maintain HA of the application service in a virtualized computing cluster. Second, a proactive service availability framework is proposed. The framework uses deep learning methods to predict application task termination status (Success or Fail) in cloud cluster using three public available datasets. The results show the used methods can predict task termination status with high accuracy. Third, a failure-aware task scheduler approach is proposed. The scheduler uses a heuristic approach to solve task scheduling NP-hard problem with the objective to minimize failure probability and resources usage of tasks. The results show the ability of the scheduler to protect many
tasks and save a large number of resources. Fourth, the thesis proposes an availability-aware Virtual Machine (VM) dynamic placement framework. The framework tackles VMs placement as a response to different request types that include deploying a new application, VM scaling, and migration. Moreover, an optimization approach that is based on the heuristic AntColony algorithm is proposed to solve the VM placement NP-hard problem. The approach targets multiple objectives to minimize power consumption, resources wastage, and failure of the active servers that are used to host the VMs. In addition, the placement approach tries to provide application service availability as close as possible to the requirements by ASP and avoids violation of the Service Level Agreement (SLA). The results show the ability of the framework to increase the admissibility of new applications that meet the availability requirements and enhance the resources utilization of servers, compared to the existing VM placement solutions in the literature.


identifier: Toobaee, Mohammadmahdi  (2022) Understanding Geographical Patterns of Scientific Collaboration in the field of Artificial Intelligence.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: The role of geographical proximity in facilitating inter-regional or inter-organizational collaborations has been studied thoroughly in recent years. However, the effect of geographical proximity on forming scientific collaborations at the individual level has not been addressed so far. Using co-publication data of AI researchers from 2000 to 2019, first, the effect of geographical proximity on the chance of future scientific collaboration among researchers was studied. The logit regression and machine learning classification results show that geographical distance is an essential impediment to scientific collaboration at the individual level despite the tremendous improvements in transportation and communication technologies during recent decades. Second, the interplay between geographical proximity and network proximity was examined to see whether network proximity can substitute geographical proximity in encouraging long-distance scientific collaborations. The results show that the effect of network proximity on the likelihood of scientific collaboration increases with geographical distance, implying that network proximity acts as a substitute for geographical proximity. Therefore, policies aiming at encouraging long-distance collaborations could positively affect scientific collaboration and future knowledge production.


identifier: Duong, Dang Huy  (2021) The Dogma of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary – A Theological Study of the Historical Development of the Doctrine.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
ABSTRACT

The Dogma of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary – A Theological Study of the Historical Development of the Doctrine.

On December 8, 1854, under the pontificate of the blessed Pope Pius IX, the Catholic Church declared the dogma of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary,  the Mother of God. According to it, because of the merits of Jesus Christ, the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of God was preserved from all stain of original sin from the first moment of her conception.

The pious belief in the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception has constantly existed throughout the Church’s history. The Church Fathers from the apostolic and patristic period have shown a remarkable and consistent devotion to this doctrine, especially amongst the early Greek Fathers. In their writings, the patristic Fathers considered the Blessed Virgin as the New Eve (or the Second Eve) whose destiny had been foretold in the Holy Scripture (Genesis 3:15) and who had been preserved from any stain of original sin with supreme holiness and purity.

The theological debate on this doctrine reached a new height in the Medieval period where several prominent doctors and theologians expressed their supporting as well as opposing opinions to the doctrine. During this time, John Duns Scotus (1266-1308) had emerged as the most passionate defender of the doctrine and his bold theological defense was seen as the decisive turning point advancing the Church’s gradual acceptance of the doctrine in the subsequent centuries. Scotus’ defense  is principally based on the doctrine of the Absolute Primacy of Christ which asserts that Jesus Christ is able to mediate for His Mother the fullness of grace by preserving her from contracting the original sin from the first moment of her conception.

After Scotus for almost 5 centuries, the Church continued to navigate in resolving conflicting opinions and to intervene at the essential moments of history which culminates in the official declaration of the dogma in 1854.


identifier: khazen, mohammadali  (2022) Monitoring Workers on Construction Sites using Data Fusion of Real-Time Worker’s Location, Body Orientation, and Productivity State.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Traditionally, on-site construction production monitoring depends primarily on manual processes that are time-consuming and error-prone. State-of-the-art technologies have been utilized lately to improve these processes to support timely decisions pertinent to the productivity and safety of onsite operations. This research introduces a novel construction site monitoring system to track workers' location, body orientation, and productivity state. The developed system uses Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) based reference transmitting beacons fixed on job sites and a set of receiving beacons mounted on workers’  hardhats, chests, and wrists. The system works via three modules, i.e. (i) RTLS (Real-Time Location System) module; (ii) body orientation detection module; and (iii) productivity state detection module.

The RTLS module is developed to continuously track the location of the workers and subsequently extract the actual labor workspaces. The RTLS is explicitly designed for construction by satisfying requirements for widespread on-site adoption, including cost efficiency, deployability, scalability, adjustability to the construction site dynamism, and the expected accuracy. The main features of the developed RTLS are (i) substituting commonly used BLE receivers with BLE receiving beacons; (ii) proposing a modular infrastructure placement strategy; (iii) deploying Trilateration and Min-Max as localization techniques; (iv) post-processing the worker’s estimated locations.

As per the body orientation detection module, it identifies workers' body orientation on the job sites, using the impacts of signal blockage by a human body to identify an approximate worker's body orientation. It works based on geometrical relationships and Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI) values between the chest-mounted receiving beacon and the reference transmitting beacons. Last but not least, the productivity state detection module determines workers' productivity state (i.e., direct work, support work, delay) and travel state, using the accelerometer sensor embedded in the body-mounted receiving beacons. Consequently, the collected data of the system modules are fused to augment real-time knowledge of workers' status on job sites.


identifier: Lambert, Roseline  (2021) Le reflet du monde est à l'intérieur de moi: une ethnographie poétique de l'expérience de l'agoraphobie en Norvège.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Cette thèse est une ethnographie de l’expérience de l’agoraphobie en Norvège et vise à documenter ses dimensions matérielles, émotionnelles, sensorielles, culturelles, de même que sa dimension poétique. La Norvège étant le pays européen qui enregistre la plus grande prévalence du diagnostic d’agoraphobie, cette recherche se base sur un terrain ethnographique d’une durée de huit mois dans ce pays. Cette thèse est également un projet de recherche-création où s’entrecroisent deux démarches d’écriture : la poésie et l’ethnographie. Les deux questions de recherche de cette thèse sont : 1) la compréhension de l’expérience de l’agoraphobie et 2) le recours à une forme d’écriture réflexive et poétique dans le contexte d’un terrain ethnographique. Le cadre théorique prend racine dans l’anthropologie médicale narrative influencée par la phénoménologie, la psychanalyse et la critique foucaldienne. Cinq chapitres analytiques constituent une ethnographie, qualifiée de poétique. Dans le chapitre CABANES est analysée la question de la maison et du chez-soi qui ont une connotation spécifique en Norvège, alors que plusieurs auteurs affirment qu’il s’agit d’une société particulièrement « home-centered », où ce pivot central de la maison (hjeme) s’oppose à l’extérieur (ute) et au social. Dans le chapitre FRONTIÈRES, les expériences des agoraphobes sont situées dans le cadre social et politique de l’école, du travail, du système de santé et du système norvégien social-démocrate de soutien social. Dans le chapitre MASQUES, sept figures significatives discutées par les informateurs rencontrés sont présentées : soit celles du « masque du parfait Norvégien », du Viking, du marin norvégien, de Peer Gynt, du soldat norvégien, d’Edvard Munch, et de l’étranger. Dans le chapitre LUMIÈRES, un essai de poésie ethnographique est présenté en intégrant les poèmes de la chercheure sur l’état de la lumière en Norvège qui s’entrecroisent avec des extraits d’entrevues avec les informateurs. Finalement, le chapitre ARMES présente le thème de la colère dans l’expérience de l’agoraphobie, de même que les différentes stratégies de résistance ou de résilience des personnes rencontrées face à leurs difficultés.


identifier: Leboeuf, Émilie  (2022) La pensée binaire des sources normatives de la gestion de la diversité ethnoculturelle : le cas de la Loi sur la laïcité de l’État au Québec.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
La Loi sur la laïcité de l’État (loi 21), adoptée en 2019 par l’État québécois, divise la population et les élites politiques et universitaires. Au niveau universitaire, deux clans se distinguent nettement dans leur interprétation de la loi; l’un cherchant à faire valoir la légitimité et le bien-fondé de la loi 21, étant le symbole d’une avancée démocratique et progressiste, et l’autre tentant de condamner la loi pour ses choix déraisonnables et ses conséquences négatives, étant le présage d’un nationalisme ethnique foncièrement antipluraliste. Cette recherche a pour objectif de déterminer les influences réelles et symboliques de la loi 21 en s’attardant aux sources normatives du vivre ensemble, elles-mêmes sujettes à une démarcation binaire où s’oppose le courant libéral-pluraliste et républicain-conservateur. Cette étude qualitative émet deux hypothèses concurrentes; la loi 21 est conséquente avec l’interculturalisme, modèle de gestion de la diversité du courant libéral-pluraliste, ou elle s’arrime plutôt à la vision républicaine-conservatrice du vivre ensemble. Le premier volet offre un retour historique sur la gestion de la diversité en contexte québécois et une contextualisation des diverses tensions liées à l’identité et l’intégration des immigrant.e.s au Québec. Le deuxième volet tente de vérifier la concordance entre les postulats normatifs de l’interculturalisme et les idées véhiculées dans le discours de la Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) lors de sa défense du projet de loi 21 en consultations particulières et en commissions parlementaires à l’Assemblée nationale. Le dernier volet s’intéresse aux similarités et aux divergences entre les idées républicaines-conservatrices et la loi 21 et adresse ses affinités libérales. Cette recherche conclut que la loi 21 n’est ni républicaine-conservatrice, ni interculturelle et appelle à une plus large compréhension académique des ambigüités relatives aux sources normatives de la gestion de la diversité ethnoculturelle en contexte québécois.

Mots-clés : gestion de la diversité ethnoculturelle, laïcité, Québec, interculturalisme, républicanisme, conservatisme, libéralisme politique.


identifier: Clarke, Shannon H.  (2022) Applications of Effective Population Size in Conservation Biology Through an Experimental Study and Quantitative Review.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Effective population size (Ne) is a key parameter in conservation biology, as it influences the degree of genetic drift and adaptive potential of a population. Although Ne is widely reported in individual studies, it is not well integrated into monitoring programs, and there is still much to learn about how it is impacted by human-induced stressors. My thesis attempted to bridge these gaps through (1) an experiment assessing how Ne changes within populations exposed to size- selective harvest, and (2) a quantitative review summarizing Ne estimates across and within taxa in wild populations. I showed experimentally that in populations of brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalis) exposed to size-selective harvest, change in Ne is buffered through density-dependent genetic compensation. Therefore, in the short-term, Ne can be resilient to harvest even with substantial decreases in population size. My review also showed that Ne varies between taxonomic groups in wild populations, and that a high human footprint is associated with lower Ne, especially in amphibians and mammals. There were two broad conclusions from this work. Firstly, many wild populations fall below key conservation thresholds (Ne of 50 or 500), and I discuss the caveats of using conservation thresholds based on broad generalizations across taxa that vary in life history traits and adaptations. Secondly, I emphasize the importance of integrating genetic and demographic factors in monitoring and risk assessments. Overall, these conclusions can help guide the integration of Ne into research, monitoring, and policy.


identifier: Ghandour, Yasmine  (2022) Teacher and Director Beliefs About Their Simultaneous Implementation of the Montessori Method and Quebec’s Educational Programme.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Teachers and directors of early childhood education and care (ECEC) centres in Quebec have to conform to provincial guidelines when implementing their educational programme. Those in centres that identify as Montessori are simultaneously faced with the sometimes-conflicting directives of the Montessori method and Ministry guidelines. This dissertation responds to the dilemma of facing such a dual frame of reference. I report the results of an investigation which explores the beliefs and reflections on the experiences of teachers and directors in four ECEC centres that identify as Montessori in the province of Quebec. Based on a review of the literature, I designed a mixed method project with two related studies. Study 1 was a questionnaire targeted towards Ministry-recognized centres in the province of Quebec that identify as Montessori. Results from this initial study helped to paint the current landscape with data collected from 25 Montessori-inspired centres in the province, and also provided a source for recruitment of potential participants for Study 2. The second study was a deeper investigation, which used a qualitative design to explore the beliefs of teachers and directors from four individual centres that identified as Montessori. The study explored teacher and director beliefs about their implementation of the Montessori method and of Quebec’s educational programme. This was pursued through the use of questionnaires, interviews, and document reviews that provided rich descriptions of the phenomenon under study. Thematic analysis of the data led to five core themes, which emerged inductively from facing the dual frame of reference, namely: each child is unique, pedagogical approaches promoting children’s learning and development, teacher’s role in promoting children’s learning and development, parent’s role in promoting children’s learning and development, and challenges faced in promoting children’s potential. However, besides the noted similarities in beliefs, variations and contradictions also appeared. The results indicate that distinctions in beliefs - both among participants and within centres - emerged particularly around the notions of free play, pretense, creativity, and parental involvement. On this basis, further research is recommended to explore the effects of such suggested inconsistencies in Montessori programme implementation on both practical and scholarly platforms.


identifier: Mohammadi, soufia  (2022) Decentral Energy Recovery Potential of Black Water and Kitchen Refuse using Anaerobic Co-digestion in Eco-Districts.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
On a local and global scale, wastewater collection and treatment plants are significant
energy consumers and have a major impact on the environment and economy of many
municipalities. Decentralization looks to be a promising option to address the sustainability issues
of wastewater management systems since it focuses on on-site wastewater treatment as well as
local recycling and reuse of domestic wastewater resources. In addition, Blackwater (BW) and
Kitchen Refuse (KR) are household wastes with a high organic content that can be used as
substrates for anaerobic co-digestion processes to recover biogas as a source of energy.
The research objective was to analyze a source separation decentralized BW and KR
treatment system in which the energy is recovered from BW and KR co-digestion and digestate
gasification. The coupling of biological and thermal technologies allows for the complete
conversion of wastes into energy and biochar, eliminating sludge disposal.
A simplified anaerobic digestion model was developed and implemented to simulate the
biogas production potential. The simulation is based on a mathematical model using biomass,
organic substrate, and biogas mass balances. The model was implemented in the INSEL simulation
environment, and experimental data from the literature was used for validation. The results of the
simulation match the experimental data well. Using the model, the energy consumption and
generation potential of anaerobic co-digestion of BW and KR were assessed.
Moreover, a greywater reuse system was investigated considering the same number of
residents within an eco-district. It could be shown that conventional WWT systems require more
energy and lead to more CO2 emissions than the greywater reuse system.


identifier: Gerber, Myriam B.  (2021) Memory and Materiality – submerged, exhumed, displaced: The re-emerging difficult heritage of the former forced labour camp Allach.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: The forced labour camp Allach, outside of Munich, Germany, was the third-largest of a network of 140 Nazi era subcamps of the main camp Dachau, and was created specifically to provide the labour force for the nearby airplane engine production plant of the corporation BMW. By 1944/45 conditions in the camp became catastrophic as a result of overcrowding, malnourish-ment, abuse and diseases, so that when the US army liberated the camp on April 30th 1945, dead bodies “were piled up like kindling,” and mass graves were created in the area of the so-called “Jewish camp.” After the end of the Second World War, the area of the former forced labour camp Allach was repurposed, until in the 1950s the Neue Wohnsiedlung Ludwigsfeld was created on site to provide a permanent settlement for refugees, expellees and displaced persons. Although corpses were removed from the mass graves in the 1950s, in 2017, 12 human skeletal remains were discovered unexpectedly on site during archaeological excavations which were undertaken in preparation for a major housing development. After it was determined that the remains were not of Jewish heritage, and that no evidence for mass graves had been found, the skeletons were exhumed and reburied in a local cemetery; the site now awaits rezoning permis-sion by the city of Munich. Local memory activists have lobbied extensively for a memorial project, which has been deemed not feasible by the city; instead, the mnemonic and material traces of the site have now been incorporated into exhibitions in the memorial site Dachau and in the BMW corporate museum. By building on the concept of “dead body politics”, I propose that the removal and reburial of the human remains of the Allach site highlights the ambiva-lence, which is inherent in these disturbing, forgotten and the oftentimes hidden remnants of the Holocaust that haunt the German urban, suburban and rural landscape in a form of enduringly “difficult heritage/knowledge.” This stands in sharp contrast to Germany’s much- lauded Ver-gangenheitsbewaeltigung   which can perhaps be considered as “comfortable horrible.”


identifier: Webb, Brandon  (2021) Boundaries Drawn: The Cultural and Labour Politics of American Political Cartooning, 1945-1973.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
In the twentieth century editorial cartoons were an integral part of American daily newspapers. Readers looked to these images for pithy commentary on news events. Yet, following the Second World War, economic changes in the newspaper industry threatened to make the job of the newspaper editorial cartoonist redundant. As editors became increasingly reliant on national syndication to fill their content needs, cartoonists who supported the Cold War consensus were better positioned to maintain their staff positions. At the same time, media critics argued that editorial cartoonists had abdicated their traditional adversarial role. Responding to these challenges, editorial cartoonists in the 1950s organized to promote American cartooning as an essential vehicle for maintaining a democratic print culture and print diversity. But because they struggled to imagine their art form apart from the commercial press, mainstream cartoonists were largely unaware of their radical counterparts in the alternative press who had to contend with the twin pressures of anticommunism and economic precarity.

This dissertation is both a cultural and labour history of a niche profession that became a site where hegemony was forged and contested. By situating the medium within a changing mediascape and the volatility of print capitalism, this study draws on Marxist cultural theory and archival research of two influential groups — the National Cartoonists Society (NCS) and the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists (AAEC) — to highlight how cartoonists responded to industry change as media workers. In the early Cold War, cartooning’s professional societies were fiercely anti-communist and anti-union. Many of their most prominent members also voiced broad support for US foreign policy while venerating the role of markets in shaping public policy. Departing from dominant portrayals that depict cartoonists as cultural rebels removed from the world of work, this study analyzes cartoonists’ working lives in the context of their profession’s racial, gender, and class dynamics. Examining both the ideological and material conditions that prompted this professional organizing, I argue that American cartoonists’ support for Cold War liberalism, combined with their romanticized ideals of a “free press,” strengthened a postwar status quo by failing to ask who gets to speak and why.


identifier: Chui, Cynthia  (2022) Advertising and Market Concentration: the Relationship in Canada-US Context.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Advertising is prevalent in our lives, which is also one of the common ways for
firms to attract attention and promote sales. Its relationship with market concentration has long been a debate, where Lee (2002) did impressive analyses with Korean
manufacturing data. By regressing sector-level Canadian and US manufacturing data
in 2007 and 2009, this paper studies the relationship between advertising intensity and
market concentration. The regression results are consistent with Lee’s (2002) findings
on the pattern of the advertising-concentration relationship: an inverted U-shape in
the consumer goods industry and a lazy J-shape in the producer goods industry when
Herfindahl-Hirschman (HH) is used as Measure. To enrich the model, the effects of
the 2008 financial crisis are brought into the discussion.


identifier: Sicotte, Vanessa  (2022) Resistant Materiality in Interwar France: Charlotte Perriand’s Feminine Manifesto Embedded within the Table basse manifeste pour Jean-Richard Bloch (1937).  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: This thesis examines the work of French architect and designer, Charlotte Perriand (1903-1999), by way of the Table basse manifeste pour Jean-Richard Bloch (1937), produced for Bloch’s office as the editor of the highly political Journal Ce Soir.  Interior spaces and decorative arts gained importance in the reconstruction of France after the First World War. Within these fields and roles primarily occupied by men, Perriand figured among a small group of trailblazing women who helped shape the modern interior with an approach inspired by natural, vernacular, and artisanal sources and informed by the rise of functionalism. Women designers employed strategies to overcome this gender marginality, influencing their professional experiences and recognition. From the trend of male-female partnership to those who either embraced or rejected female solidarity, women designers demonstrate multiple and contradictory relationships with their sex, the idea of the feminine and feminism. To distill the importance of Perriand’s object-based manifestos, I draw upon an interdisciplinary approach informed by French psychoanalyst Luce Irigaray’s understanding of language, French linguists and theorists Laurie Laufer and Florence Rochefort’s conceptualization of gender, Antoine Picon’s and Judy Attfield’s notions of materiality, gender studies and design theory. I likewise pull from the work of Beatriz Colomina, Kate Millet, Judith Butler, Jane Rendell, John Potvin, and Penny Sparke to build a framework for understanding gendered meanings hidden within objects of daily use. Women furniture designers played a crucial role in French interwar design, yet their presence and contribution are under-acknowledged. This thesis hopes to add to the growing body of research about the experience and representation of women designers and architects in Interwar France.


identifier: Bezyan, Behrad ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7941-2494 <https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7941-2494>  (2022) detection and diagnosis of multiple dependent faults in HVAC systems using machine learning techniques.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
The building sector accounts for about 40% of the total annual energy consumption in the United States and 25% in Canada. Therefore, it is so essential to design and operate energy-efficient smart buildings. About 15 to 30% of the energy in the commercial buildings would be wasted if the heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems are not maintained regularly, or they are inappropriately controlled, and if the system degradation has not been detected at early stages. Therefore, the building performance should be monitored in real-time using the Building Automation System (BAS), in order to detect any potential fault in the system and diagnose the sources of malfunction in the HVAC systems.
Machine learning (ML) models which are developed from BAS trend data without information about the physical system, proved in the past, good performance for analysis the linear and non-linear systems. Therefore, ML models due to their capacity for distinguishing the faulty from normal operation are applied in this thesis for multiple dependent fault detection and diagnosis (MDFDD). In this thesis, ML models are proposed for MDFDD of sensors in an air handling unit (AHU) of an institutional building located in the Concordia University campus.
Two approaches are proposed with application of experimental and synthetic data sets: 1) combination of machine learning models with rule-based technique, 2) classification machine learning models.

1) ML models (e.g., Support vector regression (SVR)), developed from building automation system (BAS) trend data, predict air temperature of two target sensors, under normal operation conditions without known problems. The fault symptom is detected when the residual of measured and predicted values exceed the threshold. The recurrent neural network (RNN) models predict the normal operation values of regressor sensors, which are compared with measurements, as the first step for the identification of fault symptoms. Rule-based models are used for fault diagnosis of sensors or equipment.
2) The optimized classification ML models (e.g., shallow artificial neural network (ANN), deep ANN, K-Nearest Neighbor (KNN), decision tree classification, random forest classification, support vector machine (SVM), Naïve Bayes, and principal component analysis) are developed for MDFDD. ML algorithms parameters are optimized over RandomizedSearch method by varying the length of training dataset, input time lags, and relevant parameters of each ML models.
Results from the two data set types of an existing building show the high quality of proposed method for the detection and diagnosis of the multiple dependent faults.


identifier: Andoh, Dominic Isaac  (2022) Quantitative Trading in North American Power Markets.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Abstract
Quantitative Trading in North American Power Markets
Dominic Isaac Andoh
Short-term load forecasting (STLF) in electrical grids is critical for efficiency and reliability. Many
countries in the west have deregulated their electric power industry, allowing for a free and competitive
market; this has made load forecasting a more critical task for estimating future spot prices. Load
forecasting is a complex task due to seasonal variation and the non-stationarity of historical load data.
Also, multicollinearity among exogenous variables adds to the complexities of STLF. We use data
provided by Plant-E Corp, an investor in the New York Control Area electricity market. We propose
STLF models and test them against the benchmark New York Independent System Operator (NYISO)
model; we propose three different models for STLF. The first is a hybrid model consisting of
a clustering part and a weighted Euclidean distance norm component; we name it the Cluster-WED
model. The other two models are deep learning models we shall call BiLSTM and AttnLSTM model.
Both are based on the encoder-decoder architecture. The encoder part of the BiLSTM model comprises
a bidirectional layer. The decoder is a unidirectional LSTM layer. We incorporate the attention
mechanism into the AttnLSTM model, where we assign weights to all the hidden states of the encoder
before making the next predictions in the decoder. The encoder and decoder for the AttnLSTM model
are both unidirectional LSTM layers.
Though none of our proposed models outperformed the NYISO model due to the disparities in
the input information, the results from the Cluster-WED model prove that we can perform a complex
task like STLF using simple nonlinear models. Also, the results from the BiLSTM model demonstrate
the applicability of deep learning when adapted for structured time series data. The generalization
and consistency of the BiLSTM model suggest that we could achieve competitive performance against
the benchmark once the information gap is bridged.
Keywords: Short-term load forecast, clustering, weighted Euclidean distance, deep learning, bidirectional,
unidirectional, attention.


identifier: Zubair, Muhammad  (2022) Quantum transport in Dirac materials and their heterostructures.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: This thesis explores the transport and optical properties of novel two dimensional (2D) materials such as graphene or graphene nanoribbons, transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs), and some heterostructures based on them. To study these systems, we use a tight-binding, one-particle Hamiltonian and take its low-energy limit near the Dirac points. Diagonalizing the Hamiltonian gives the eigenvalues and eigenvectors which we use to evaluate linear response formulas for the conductivities in various systems, e.g., bilayer TMDCs in the presence or absence of magnetic and electric fields. We study in detail physical properties such as the quantum Hall effect, the quantum spin-Hall effect, and optical properties for one-body collisions of electrons with, e.g., impurities. We also consider heterostructures, made by encapsulating graphene monolayers on suitable substrates, e.g., TMDCs. In addition, we discuss the influence of an off-resonant light on valley-controlled transport in such systems and predict, among other things, topological phase transitions induced by such a light. Finally, we address the optical response of armchair graphene nanoribbons (AGNRs) as a function of the photon frequency. Also, we assess the influence of elastic scattering by impurities on the diffusive (Drude-type) contribution to the current in these nanoribbons.


identifier: Tolooei, Nazila  (2022) Elementary School-Aged Children’s Conversations with their Mothers about Helping and Being Helped by Peers.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
The acquisition of prosocial abilities and behaviours (i.e., actions that seek to meet others’ needs) is a valuable part of children’s social and emotional development and can be encouraged through parent-child conversations (Brownell et al., 2013; Nadler, 2015; Spinrad & Gal, 2018). This study investigated the similarities and differences between parent-child conversations that centered on an event wherein the child was a prosocial actor or prosocial target. The study was based on a sample of 56 mother-child dyads with children between the ages of 6-7 years old or 10-11 years old. Half of the dyads (n = 28) discussed a past event wherein the child was the agent of help (actor), while the other 28 discussed an event wherein the child was the recipient of help (target). Transcripts of conversations were reliably coded for references to prosocial acts, consequences, actors’ reasons, targets’ needs, evaluations, and lessons and insights. Results revealed that conversations included more references to reasons for helping and evaluations when the child was the actor, whereas consequences of help for targets were discussed more when children were targets of help. Across both events, there were more references to positive (rather than negative) evaluations and consequences. Conversations with girls included more references to target’s needs while boys included more evaluations. Overall, findings highlight the importance of investigating children’s experiences of both helping and being helped and reveal the role of parent-child conversations in supporting children’s prosocial understanding across both types of events.
Keywords: prosociality, helper, recipient, parents, conversations, socialization


identifier: Le, Thao-Nguyen Nina  (2022) Heritage Language Maintenance Through Political Shift: Vietnamese Montrealers’ Perceived Role of Language in Their Cultural Identity and Heritage Social Networks.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Immigrants feel pressure to integrate into the host society, and so often find it challenging to pass their heritage language (HL) on to next generations. Immigrant children’s HL skills, particularly speaking, often depend on the family’s language patterns, their social networks, and beliefs about how strongly language shapes their identity (De Houwer, 2007; Wong Fillmore, 2000). Another important yet largely overlooked factor is the sociopolitical circumstances that trigger immigration (Perera, 2015), such as whether immigrants relocate due to economic hardship or political turmoil. This study therefore examines whether sociopolitical reasons for immigration (in addition to immigrants’ social identity and social networks) predict immigrant children’s ability to speak the HL.
Participants included 76 first- and second-generation Vietnamese Montrealers (38 parent–child pairs) from the first wave of (conflict-driven) Vietnamese immigration (1975– 1999). The parents identified their reasons for immigration (economic, political, both), and all participants completed ethnolinguistic questionnaires (capturing the role of language in identity) and social network surveys (measuring size, intimacy, and interconnectedness of HL use). Participants’ informal Vietnamese speech (Mlength = 52.33 seconds, SD = 10.42) was rated by four native Vietnamese speakers for accentedness, comprehensibility, and fluency (α = .86–.91).
Results showed that Vietnamese use by both generations was a positive predictor of HL maintenance. For the political immigrants, the parents’ willingness to preserve the language and culture showed positive association with the HL ratings of their children, while for the economic immigrants, it is the parents’ pride in the current Vietnam that revealed positive associations. Social network analysis showed that in the political group, the children’s social network size was associated positively with their HL ratings, while their network intimacy showed negative associations. In the economic group, the children’s network size did not contribute strongly to HL maintenance; however, their network intimacy did, with a positive association. Findings suggest complex interactions of various sociopolitical factors in their relevance to HL maintenance.


identifier: Gaucher-Loksts, Erin  (2022) Energy Efficiency and Flexibility Analysis for Building-Integrated Photovoltaics-Heat Pump Combinations in a House.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
This thesis considers three design configurations of air source heat pumps and building-integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) systems in a solar house concerning energy efficiency and energy flexibility in interacting with a smart grid. BIPV/Thermal (BIPV/T) provides electricity generation and reduces the electricity consumption when pre-heating air for a heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) system such as a heat pump. A heat pump’s coefficient of performance (COP) and capacity decrease at colder temperatures. Therefore, increasing the inlet temperature can significantly increase the capacity or enable a heat pump to operate when the outdoor air is below the cut-off temperature. A higher COP enables an efficient heat transfer and storage when heat is available; this provides flexibility to the system. Energy flexibility is an important factor to consider as providing flexibility to the grid helps alleviate its demand and stress during critical periods. In addition to the grid’s need, the utility often provides incentives for consumers to reduce electricity consumption during critical periods. Adopting advanced controls that can provide flexibility is beneficial to help reduce overall electricity consumption and energy cost.
A comprehensive literature review of various BIPV systems and their applications demonstrated a gap in the current research to investigate the possibility of utilizing solar gain (from inside a solarium or greenhouse) to pre-heating air for a heat pump. Furthermore, the use of semi-transparent photovoltaic (STPV) windows with a heat pump have not been explored. Thus, a new configuration is proposed utilizing the solar heated air in an attached solarium as a source for the air side of an air-source heat pump water heater (HPWH) with integrated water thermal storage and a 5kW semi-transparent photovoltaic façade. This configuration is compared with two other cases: a reference case consists of a 5kW BIPV system on the roof with a separate HPWH and a more novel option of a 5kW BIPV/T roof system. The heated air from the BIPV/T system is ducted to the air source of the HPWH, which also contains integrated thermal storage (the hot water).  The three cases are modelled with an explicit finite difference thermal network model, and energy performance is determined and compared over a typical heating season in Montreal.
Another important gap in the research found from the literature review is maximizing the flexibility of BIPV/T and heat pump systems. Thus, the energy flexibility of the BIPV/T configurations listed previously is compared for different scenarios, such as heating the thermal water storage during the daytime (e.g., using the solar heat in the novel options) and using it for space heating during the time that the grid is under stress (and may have price incentives).
A full-scale experimental set-up modelling the passive solar case was completed to demonstrate this novel system configuration and to partially verify the developed model using the Future Buildings Laboratory at Concordia University. The real-time data collected from the experiment is analyzed and utilized to verify each component within the system. Results show that the proposed case utilizing the solarium air as the inlet of the heat pump had over 80% reduction in annual electricity consumption relative to the reference. In comparison, the BIPV/T configuration had around a 5% reduction compared to the reference case. The proposed configuration improves system performance significantly compared to the reference and ducted BIPV/T systems. The tank volume and solarium size had the highest impact on the system's energy flexibility. Optimal thermal storage size was between 300 – 600 L for a house with a floor area of 116 m2. The experimental results confirmed the increased energy savings from the passive solar configuration operation. The temperature in the test rooms reached over 20 °C on a cold sunny day from passive solar gains. The simulation models had a similar performance to the experimental data which also demonstrated the significant energy flexibility potential of the configuration tested.


identifier: Weeks, Arrien  (2022) Sustainable Material Pedagogy in the Faculty of Fine Arts at Concordia University.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: This thesis looks to uncover how studio-based Fine Arts students are learning about sustainable material practices at Concordia University. By investigating current material approaches in art education and interviewing technical support staff and professors in five departments and programs across the university, I set to find out.  As I built the case study, four themes emerged: waste, health and safety, time and natural materials. They helped to frame what I learned from my participants, but also guided the recommendations for future directions in material pedagogy and literacy. The goal of my research is to change the culture of sustainable material practice in the Faculty of Fine Arts at Concordia University.


identifier: Etemad Zadeh, Ali  (2022) Evaluation of Implementing Mining Wastewater in Closed-Loop Pressure Retarded Osmosis.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Pressure-Retarded Osmosis (PRO) is an osmotic process that is used to harvest energy from salinity gradients using a semi permeable membrane. The driving force in this system is the difference in produced osmotic pressure between feed and draw solutions. Water flows across the membrane from the feed side and mixes with the draw solution. The draw solution is pressurized at pressure less than the net driving force and depressurizes in a turbine to generate electricity. A thorough comparison between open-loop PRO (OLPRO) and closed-loop PRO (CLPRO) was made regarding their performance and costs. In this study, gold mining wastewater was investigated to be used as the feed solution in PRO and its potential was evaluated. Prior to the main process, this solution was pretreated using ultrafiltration (UF) and nanofiltration (NF) to separate large molecules, colloids, multivalent ions, heavy metals, etc. In each step the fouling components and mechanism were explained. NF permeate characterization showed high removal efficiency of the present ions and heavy metals separation. In PRO, a solution of NH_3-CO_2 with concentration of 3M were used as the draw solution. The proposed system could generate power density of 15.0 ± 0.4 W⁄m^2 . In the last section, Thermal efficiency was calculated and improving this efficiency were discussed. Overall, the utilization of the mining wastewater as the feed solution in PRO showed good potential, though, foulant elements may still have a major impact on pre-treatment steps and harnessing the full potential of the PRO process.


identifier: Gunther, Brian  (2022) Dual Training Effects of Bilingualism and Music on Auditory-Motor Integration.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Musicianship and bilingualism are both demanding sensorimotor processes that require extensive training and expertise to master. Functional changes have been observed in the dorsal pathway comprised of auditory and motor regions of the brain, a network critical for linking sounds to action, a process called auditory-motor integration. Due to this neural overlap, musicianship has been shown to impact aspects of speech processing. The primary goal of our study was to investigate such a “dual training effect” of musicianship and bilingualism. We recruited two groups of bilingual individuals, with one group also being highly trained musicians, controlled on a number of critical demographic factors. We hypothesized that this type of training would result in converging patterns of functional activity at rest within auditory- motor brain networks and impact ability to reproduce non-native language sounds in a more native-like way.
In Study 1, we investigated the impact of being both musician and bilingual on resting- state functional connectivity within the dorsal-auditory motor stream. We observed that musician bilinguals possessed significant decreases in rs-FC between the left IFG pars triangularis and three separate brain clusters comprised of the STG/SMG, left insula, and right insula. We also observed a series of correlations between these reductions in rs-FC and performance on cognitive and musical tasks.
In Study 2, we investigated this dual training impact on ability to listen to and correctly reproduce non-native language sounds. No group differences were found for NNL reproduction overall. However, we observed a significant correlation between rs-FC reductions observed in Study 1 and these NNL reproduction tasks. When running a series of hierarchical regressions, we observed that musicianship as a grouping variable significantly predicted this performance.
Taken together, our results demonstrate that combined musicianship and bilingualism results in significantly decreased resting-state functional activity between brain areas organized within the dorsal-auditory motor network. Furthermore, we observed that participants with the greatest reductions in rs-FC performed best on tasks assessing spatial organization and working memory, musical rhythm reproduction, and non-native language reproduction. Therefore, we hypothesize that possessing this dual experience may result in a more efficient or streamlined circuit, which may also relate to improved performance on other cognitive tasks, including language tasks.


identifier: Bowie, Alison Jane  (2022) (Re)presentions of the Anglophone Other: Dramaturgical Strategies of Resistance and Revisioning on the French-Canadian Stage 1910-1929.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: This study explores the history, contexts, and dramaturgies of French-Canadian theatre from 1910 to 1929. The study opens with a survey of the beginnings of French-Canadian theatre history and an exploration of the historical, sociopolitical, and cultural ideas and movements that came about in early 20th century Canada. Through extensive archival research, this study provides an in-depth analysis of the theatrical landscape of these two decades situated within the established sociopolitical and cultural contexts, identifying trends in theme, genre, format, and playwright positionality. Furthermore, this research project delves deeper into a particular corpus of plays, exploring the ways in which French-Canadian playwrights represented and represented Anglophone culture and the power dynamics between French- and English Canadians in their works. This study uses a post-colonial lens to examine the dramaturgical strategies used by playwrights to undermine and subvert the dominant cultural and historical narratives through creative choices relating to character, language, time, and space. The study concludes with a consideration of the possibility or potentiality of the subversive act of revisioning of Anglophone culture and (re)writing of cultural and historical narratives on stage to contribute to the understanding of and creation of French-Canadian national identity in the early 20th century.


identifier: Mendenhall, Grace  (2022) So I Know it’s Real: an embodied understanding of performative authenticity.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Through a series of performative documentary video works that interweave self-shot footage with found interviews in an approach informed by theories of chance and embodiment, this creation-as-research project explores ‘authenticity’ as a condition of labour in the production of pornography. In order to trouble the understanding of authentic porn as ethical porn and, further, the notion that there is a single ‘truth’ to sex work at all, I draw on a practice established by transgressive feminist documentarians and video artists of radical subjectivity as a tool of resistance. Through a process-driven recontextualization of audio and video in the style of assemblage, the nonfiction pieces produced in this thesis tell a nuanced story – not only of sex as work, but of the practice and potential of ‘embodied editing’ towards the advancement of ‘radically subjective’ documentary film.


identifier: Massa, Lisa  (2022) Negotiating Bella Figura: Inside the Childhood Homes of Six Second-Generation Italian-Canadian Women in Montreal.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: My thesis seeks to explore the spatial experiences of second-generation Italian-Canadian women in Montreal in their childhood homes during the 1970s and 1980s to learn about the gendered domestic environments during their childhood and coming-of-age. By conducting photo-elicitation oral history interviews with six second-generation Italian-Canadian women, I seek to explore the spatial layout and material culture of the homes they grew up in and how the home was a space of interaction and negotiation of two cultures. My thesis argues that bella figura is an underlying ideal that contributes to the gendered facets of these homes, an Italian ideal that prioritizes one’s image in the public eye as it relates to decorum. Focusing on the untouchable upstairs living room as a case study, I argue that this space exemplifies this ideal not only through its spatial qualities and material culture but through its maintenance. This thesis explores how maintenance is gender-coded and historically belongs to the separate sphere of the domestic and, therefore, a woman’s responsibility. I explore an intergenerational tension felt by these women in relation to keeping up with these stereotypes and the gendered ideal of bella figura through their perspective of dual cultural identities. I also seek how acculturation and age affect divergent experiences within my sample and how bella figura has lasting impacts on these women as they matured and had families of their own.


identifier: Mohammadi Pour Khajani, Shayan  (2022) a study on the feasibility of 3D micromachining and micro-molding using nanosecond laser.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Today, miniaturization is evident in almost every field of manufacturing. Laser micromachining can produce high-precision microstructures and micro-components. The current project proposes an air jet-assisted laser micromachining for the fabrication of 3D microstructures and micro-molds. In the developed laser micromachining system, MATLAB algorithms were used to control the galvoscanner mirrors to direct the laser beam in the x and y-directions. Further, an adjustable stage was used to enable the movement in z-direction to facilitate 3D laser micromachining.
Laser parameters such as overlap, laser power, and the number of pulses were varied to investigate the performance. The results were analyzed in terms of machining depth, surface roughness, and machining accuracy to obtain optimum parameters for micromachining. For the micromachining setup developed as part of this work, a laser with 532 nm wavelength, 1.1 W power, 80% overlap between spots, and 400 pulses per spot provided optimum results, a roughness of 1.89 µm, and depth of 21.31 µm. Concordia logo was selected as a complex shape to perform a 2D micromachining. This experiment was conducted with the optimum parameters on four different scales starting from 4 mm down to 1 mm. The aim was to find how accurate is the micromachining to generate features on small scales considering the spot size is 60 µm in our setup.
The goal of this study is to present a high-precision 3D laser micromachining system. An experiment was designed to generate a 3D pyramid to ascertain the feasibility. While machining layer-by-layer, melt debris presented a significant challenge. To overcome this, an air jet was directed towards the machining area to clear the melt debris in situ. The results were investigated by interferometer and confocal microscopes in terms of machining depth and surface roughness in each layer.
Subsequently, a 3 mm diameter gear was selected as a complex shape to investigate the ability to fabricate features such as corners and edges accurately. In the final step of this research, the pyramid and gear were used as molds to fabricate the polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) structures. The micrometric features such as corners and edges were accurately molded.


identifier: Alaszkiewicz, Paula  (2022) The Labyrinth of Fashion Display: Exhibitions, Temporalities, and Visions of Modernity.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Recent museum exhibitions of contemporary fashion in London and New York have set records for visitor attendance. Yet, the subject of exhibiting fashion remains relatively under-researched, with the existing scholarship emphasizing developments since the 1970s. This dissertation expands the historical horizons of this phenomenon by asking when, where, and how fashion has been displayed outside of, and prior to, the rise of the museum fashion exhibition.

Rather than focusing exclusively on museum exhibitions, the dissertation also considers instances of fashion display in nineteenth- and twentieth-century international exhibitions, department stores, and shop windows. Three underlying supports of fashion display are omnipresent across the various times, places, and contexts under consideration. The mannequins that serve as surrogate bodies for fashion objects, the display cases or shop windows that “frame” fashion while creating a tension between art and commerce, and the sacred-like spatial structures expressly designed for temporary fashion display are pivotal to creating meaning in fashion exhibitions. The chapters devoted to these material supports make extensive use of rich archival deposits including photographs, drawings, commercial catalogues, postcards, and other forms of visual culture.

At the same time, the dissertation delves into questions about fashion’s relationship to time. Drawing on Walter Benjamin’s writings on fashion, history, and modernity, the dissertation develops a theoretical framework that seeks to accommodate fashion’s multiple temporalities. Despite its ties to the rationalized time of industrial capitalism, fashion operates through non-chronological temporal mechanisms; the latest fashion inevitably revives and reanimates styles from the past. Correspondingly, this dissertation assembles disparate examples drawn from over one hundred and fifty years of modern fashion display in montage-like constellations. This non-chronological structure uncovers an alternative history of the museum fashion exhibition. Far from being mere background supports, mannequins, shop windows and display cabinets, and spatial structures illuminate the complexity of fashion, its unique temporal conditions, and the tensions that have come to characterize its place in the museum.


identifier: Wagner, Vera  (2022) The Impact of Different Types of Hundreds Charts on Place Value and Number Sense in Kindergarten and First-Grade.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: The present study examined the spatial affordances of hundreds charts in the context of place value knowledge, number sense, and use of the chart for addition and subtraction. Kindergarten and first-grade students (N = 47) participated in online interviews with a researcher. Participants were randomly assigned to one of three conditions in which they received a lesson on how to use the hundreds chart to solve addition word problems. Each condition used a different chart: (a) top-down, where the numbers begin in the top row and increase with downward movement; (b) bottom-up, where the numbers begin in the bottom row and increase with upward movement, (c) explicit analogy, where a bottom-up chart was accompanied by visual cues to highlight the structure of the bottom-up chart. Children were assessed on their place and number sense before and after the lesson. After the lesson, learning and transfer tasks were administered to assess place value and the use of the chart. Results showed that the top-down and explicit analogy conditions were better able to move through the chart in the appropriate vertical direction to solve subtraction problems than the bottom-up condition. The top-down chart was more effective for place value knowledge than the other two conditions. No effects were found for number sense. The present study contributes to the literature on the affordances of hundreds charts and has implications for teachers on the use of the chart in mathematics instruction.


identifier: Tonge, Parikshit  (2022) Tribological evaluation of environmentally friendly MoS2 based solid film lubricants for gas turbine engines.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Solid lubricants such as MoS2 have been widely used in the aerospace industry with the primary purpose to lower the friction and wear of the tribological interfaces. Pure MoS2 generally performs better (i.e., in terms of low friction and low wear) in vacuum conditions compared to humid environments as the premature failure of the lubricant can be attributed to undesirable interfacial processes as well as the formation of oxides such as MoO3. To overcome these limitations as well as increase the endurance life of these lubricants in ambient conditions, they are generally doped with different elements or compounds. For instance, Pb based and Sb2O3 compounds have been used as dopants with MoS2 to improve the tribological performance of the lubricant. However, due to the recent environmental concerns and targets to eliminate non-green lubricants, there is a strong desire to eliminate Pb based compounds due to its toxic nature. In addition, bonded MoS2 based solid lubricants contain a binder system and various carriers to bind and deposit the lubricating solid (i.e., pigment) and the dopant with the substrate. Currently, the carriers are mainly composed of the organic solvents and thus, are responsible for the release of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) during the curing process. The release of the VOCs can be harmful for the ecosystem due to its toxicity and carcinogenicity. Hence, to eliminate these organic solvents, alternatives are preferred which are generally aqueous solvents.
The main purpose of this research is to provide a better understanding of the influence of the toxic elements on the interfacial processes of MoS2 based solid lubricants. This thesis is composed of two research studies where we critically evaluate the tribological performance of ‘non-green’ and ‘green lubricants’ in order to fully capture the influence of the various elements on the interfacial phenomenon. In the first study, the baseline ‘non-green lubricant’ was doped with Pb based compound and Sb2O3 and in the ‘green lubricant’, the Pb based compound was removed and was replaced by higher percentage of Sb2O3. In the second study, the bonded MoS2 based solid lubricants were doped with Sb2O3, with one of the lubricants containing solvent-based carrier and the other lubricant with water-based carrier.
In both the studies, the tribological evaluation was performed using ball-on-disc tribometer with various normal loads. Subsequently, the ex-situ analysis was done using Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM), Micro-Raman Spectroscopy and Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) to understand the chemical composition and to analyze the interfacial processes at different normal loads. It was observed that the non-green lubricant performed better in terms of tribological behavior (i.e., low friction and low wear) when compared with the green lubricant. The improved tribological properties were attributed due to the formation of dense and uniform tribofilm and transfer film with the basal planes oriented in the parallel direction. Furthermore, it was observed that the solvent-based lubricant had performed better tribologically (i.e., low friction and low wear). The increased coefficient of friction and reduced wear resistance of the water-based lubricant was attributed to the increased cohesiveness within the lubricant. The findings of the interfacial phenomenon have provided vital information for developing green alternatives that may have the ability to replace toxic compounds in the future for sustainable ecosystem.


identifier: Black-Rotchin, Sivan  (2022) Gamifying High Variability Phonetic Training: The development of the FineTune app.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
High Variability Phonetic Training (HVPT), an established method of improving the learner’s perception and potentially production of second language (L2) segments, has received considerable attention by the research community (Barriuso & Hayes-Harb, 2018). However, this technique is unknown to most teachers and rarely translated into useable pedagogical tools (Thomson, 2018a). Thomson notes that one reason for this disconnect may be that in its current lab-based form, HVPT is neither accessible nor engaging to L2 learners. In order to mitigate both issues, he suggests implementing this training into a mobile application and adding game elements to the existing HVPT paradigm. He posits that such changes may help in bridging the gap between pronunciation research and pedagogical practices.

This thesis responds to this recommendation by presenting the blueprint for FineTune, a mobile-based application that combines HVPT with research-driven gamification techniques, with the aim of helping learners improve their perception of English speech sounds. In the training, learners hone their perception of vowels and consonants by progressing through levels of gamified forced choice identification tasks. The development of FineTune is informed by empirically motivated frameworks and theories in the fields of Mobile-Assisted Language Learning, HVPT, and gamification. For instance, the game elements incorporated in FineTune are selected on the basis of van Roy and Zaman’s (2017) gamification heuristics for educational contexts, and Deci and Ryan’s (2000) Self-Determination Theory (thus chosen based on their ability to satisfy the user’s feelings of autonomy, competence, and relatedness).

This thesis represents stage one in Cardoso’s (2022) chronological framework for the development of CALL material: outlining the development and rationale of the proposed tool (FineTune), and concludes with suggestions for how to proceed with stage two of Cardoso’s framework: exploring the pedagogical affordances and user attitudes towards the app.


identifier: Moghadamazad, Mehrshad  (2022) A Comprehensive Heat Transfer Analysis for Thermoplastic Composites Made by Automated Fiber Placement Using Hot Gas Torch.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Thermoplastic composites bring many benefits in terms of mechanical properties and manufacturing. Possibility of healing and recycling and proper strength are some of these desirable characteristics. Automated fiber placement (AFP) process can be used to manufacture both thermoplastic and thermoset composite structures. However, manufacturing of thermoplastic composite structures with free edges using AFP process faces a big challenge. These structures such as flat laminates deform, and these undesirable deformations occur even during the manufacturing process of unidirectional laminates. The distortion of thermoplastic structures with free edges is mainly caused by development of temperature gradients and residual stresses. To investigate the temperature gradients and residual stresses, accurate heat transfer models need to be developed. In this study a two-dimensional transient heat transfer model was developed for thermoplastic structures manufactured by AFP process with a hot gas torch. The accuracy of heat transfer model for AFP process using hot gas torch is highly dependent upon the accuracy of hot gas/air and convection coefficient distributions in the vicinity of the substrate (thermal inputs). Therefore, mathematical models for both thermal inputs were developed in this study.  Inter-layer thermal contact resistance and temperature dependencies of the material properties were considered, and the heat transfer model was validated by experimental results. Furthermore, a heat transfer model was developed to include the effects of time between each pass.  Then, using the validated heat transfer models and considering temperature histories and the time between each pass, the development of temperature gradients was investigated for various types of mandrels.


identifier: Bodea, Anamaria  (2022) Exploring the Scope of Flow in a Language Learning Context: Redefining the Dimensions Based on Student Perspectives.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: This study explores the notion of flow as it applies to contexts of second language (L2) learning and use. Previous work has focused on researcher-centred descriptions of flow, which generally refers to a person’s sense of being completely absorbed in a task, with L2 learners predominantly responding to questionnaire statements about flow. In this study, instead, flow is explored through the perspectives of the individuals experiencing flow, by asking them to describe their feelings and any factors they feel relevant to their experience. For a period of four weeks, five undergraduate students taking L2 courses of French or Spanish reported their flow states in weekly diary entries and interviews. As reported by students, several contexts emerged as conducive to flow, including interactive activities (which were the most reported), taking an exam, studying grammatical forms, listening to a lecture, reading, or practicing a speech. Data analysis focused on identifying a set of flow dimensions as emergent from students’ reports. Seven flow dimensions were identified: skill–challenge balance, attention, oblivion, interest, stress, enjoyment, and sense of accomplishment. Four dimensions were similar to the characteristics identified previously in relation to L2 learning (attention, interest, enjoyment, sense of accomplishment), one dimension was redefined on the basis of the present findings (skill–challenge balance), and two new dimensions were identified for the first time (oblivion, stress). Findings of this study suggest that flow might be linked to a certain level of proceduralization of L2 skills, as the element of automaticity was prominent in most descriptions of flow. Taken together, the findings align with previous claims that advanced skill levels are necessary for flow states to emerge (Egbert, 2003; Nakamura & Csikszentmihalyi, 2014).


identifier: Kadam, Karuna Dhananjai  (2022) Application of Lean in High-Mix Low-Volume Production Systems: A Case Study in the Architectural Lighting Industry.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: With Small to Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) in North America offering customized products to compete with low-cost offerings of off-shore manufacturers, their production systems often produce a high mix of products in low volumes. With an objective to improve competitiveness of such SMEs, this thesis develops a framework for lean application in High-Mix Low-Volume (HMLV) production systems and demonstrates its application in a real-life case study. In the developed framework, routing and demand forecasts are first used to select a product family that delivers the highest value. Value stream mapping is then utilized to map process cell data, information flow and material flow. Takt time is measured prior to process and flow kaizen led waste elimination. Next, a continuous flow cell is designed and a pacemaker is selected. A weighted average of total work content is used to define resource requirements, a ‘schedule to capacity’ concept is developed to enable mix scheduling and a concept of ‘dynamic pitch’ is introduced to ensure adherence to schedule. Finally, flow based FIFO lanes and pull based supermarkets are assigned to institute inventory leveling and therefrom construct, the future value stream. This thesis also uses linear programming to construct an optimized preventive maintenance schedule that improves uptime and an optimized ‘revenue-leveled’ schedule that institutes a ‘daily financial pitch’. A real-life case study of a HMLV manufacturer in the Architectural Lighting Industry is presented. Lead time improvements of 33% to 60% and processing time improvements of 58% to 79% are achieved in addition to changeover, uptime and yield improvements.


identifier: Sénécal, Anne-Marie ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8725-0413 <https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8725-0413>  (2022) Learning English L2 vocabulary with clickers.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
This study explored the use of clickers (i.e., a polling technology) as a tool to promote the acquisition of second language (L2) vocabulary. A growing body of literature on the pedagogical effectiveness of clickers in an L2 context has revealed that clickers can foster learning gains (e.g., Reynolds & Taylor, 2020). However, the extent to which clickers play a role in learning gains compared to other pedagogical approaches lacks consensus; in addition, most research has focused on adult learners and has taken place in large classrooms (Caldwell, 2007).

To address these limitations, the current research investigated the effects of clickers on L2 vocabulary acquisition in a K-12 educational setting. Two intact groups comprised of 61 Grade 8 students (age range: 13-14) learning English as a second language (ESL) in Montréal (Québec) were assigned to a vocabulary acquisition treatment: while the Clicker Group (CG: n = 31) received instruction via clickers, the Non-Clicker Group (NCG: n = 30) was treated via hand-raising without the target technology. The target vocabulary for the experiment constituted 30 low-frequency words extracted from James and the Giant Peach, a novel by Roald Dahl.

The pedagogical effectiveness of clickers on participants’ acquisition of the target vocabulary was measured via pretests, posttests and delayed posttests. Overall, the results indicate that the pedagogical use of clickers contributed to L2 vocabulary acquisition, but that the learning gains are comparable in both groups. The discussion of the findings highlights the role of individual differences among members (i.e., some participants improved significantly more than others) and the implications for L2 teaching/learning.


identifier: da Costa, Stephanie  (2022) A Support Group for Siblings of Children with Autism.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Typically developing (TD) children who have a sibling with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are not often given the opportunity to receive an intervention that is tailored to their complex family life situations and their unique experiences. An online support group for siblings of children with autism was implemented to provide a safe space for TD siblings to express their feelings, increase their knowledge of their sibling’s disorder, learn coping strategies and problem-solving skills, and seek comfort from others in similar situations. This study consisted of a sibling support group, whereby participants attended eight weekly one-hour sessions virtually via Zoom. A mixed method approach was used in order to gather evidence for the aforementioned goals. Data gathered from the participants (N=5) was analyzed from observations during the support group sessions and demographic questionnaires completed by parents, in addition to the Knowledge on Autism Spectrum Disorder, KIDCOPE, and the View of Siblings Questionnaire (VSQ; pre and post) given to participants before and after attending the support group. Qualitative results indicated that all participants improved their understanding and knowledge of their sibling’s ASD, benefitted from working on their self-esteem, developed a peer network, and developed their communication skills. Furthermore, most of the participants (60%) increased their use of adaptive coping strategies, while some of the participants (40%) decreased their use of maladaptive coping strategies. Moreover, the majority of participants reported improvements in their sibling relationships in addition to satisfaction in their attendance of the sibling support group.


identifier: Gillett, Molly-Claire ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8064-4273 <https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8064-4273>  (2022) Meaning and/in Materiality: Learning and Making in Irish Communities of Craft.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: This thesis charts a path through the networked institutions, organizations, philanthropic initiatives, and government bodies that supported, promoted and monitored the crafting and design of Irish lace in the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries, then traces their impact on this craft through to the present day. This narrative highlights the craft’s development and cultural meaning – it is now practiced in contemporary lacemaking communities and proudly claimed as a part of Ireland’s intangible cultural heritage – as well as its interconnectedness with deeply politicized, gendered, and class-based discourses surrounding design, education and industry. I revisit little-studied texts and employ unstudied archival and material sources to connect such diverse stakeholders in the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth-century lace industry as the Cork School of Art, British Department of Science and Art, Irish Agricultural Organisation Society, and Irish Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction. Weaving together a complex network of cultural, economic and social exchanges between these diverse actors in colonial governance, philanthropy, co-operative organization, and design education, this thesis tells the story of – primarily women – designers and makers at a pivotal moment in Irish history, whose entangled co-agency was a function of their skill, class, gender, and nationality. Concluding with a consideration of my own learning and making with Irish lace communities, I chart a shift through the twentieth century in the conception of lace design as ‘art for industry’ and making as an economic necessity to both practices as expressions of identity, creativity and networked, ‘storied’ and ‘placed’ community-building. In employing research creation as a methodological strategy, and learning localized, embodied knowledge from contemporary practitioners, I also draw attention to the primary nonhuman agent in this network, namely the lace itself, both to assert its material vibrancy, and to contemplate the actual experience and activity of lace designing and making women, historical and contemporary. This study addresses a gap in Irish craft and design history, as well as women’s and labour history more broadly, employing focused interdisciplinarity and the methodologies of materiality studies to suggest new paths and methods of inquiry for craft and design history and Irish studies.


identifier: Sattar, Sami  (2022) A single-event transient tolerant optical receiver.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Fiber optical communication systems have attained significant importance in space applications
e.g. Satellites, Space stations, etc. The systems have remarkably lightweight characteristics, less
frequency dependent loss, and provide high-speed data transmission in a power-efficient way. Satellites
and space stations are exposed to a higher level of radiation due to energetic particles in space.
Fiber optical links mainly consist of integrated semiconductor devices. When integrated circuits
are exposed to radiation such as in space applications, they are influenced by high-energy ionizing
particles. This radiation causes malfunctioning of electronic devices and reduces their life span.
It also generates transmission errors which are classified as single-event transients (SETs), single
event upsets, and single event latch-up, and also causes total ionization dose effects. This thesis proposes
a radiation tolerant (SET tolerant) optical receiver using triple modular redundancy (TMR) in
which a conventional receiver is split into three identical sub-receivers in parallel. Majority voting
is performed at the outputs after the received analog signal has been thresholded.
To investigate the effectiveness of the proposed design, a conventional optical receiver is taken
as a reference design, and its performance is compared with the proposed TMR-based radiation
tolerant optical receiver. The proposed receiver uses an impedance scaling technique so that its
overall power dissipation, gain, and bandwidth are the same as the reference design while providing
SET tolerance. The proposed receiver removes SET errors with the limitation that only one subreceiver
experiences a SET in a given unit interval. By applying the impedance scaling technique,
the proposed receiver is robust to SET errors with no increase in overall power dissipation but at the
sensitivity cost of 0.8 dB.


identifier: Sun, Jincheng ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1180-7542 <https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1180-7542>  (2022) Deep Reinforcement Learning and Graph Learning to Plan Resource Provision for Large Scale Cloud-based Game Servers.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
To meet the service-level objectives (SLOs), video game companies maintain a pool of virtual machines on the cloud to support millions of online game players. In the study case of this thesis, a rule-based planning algorithm is applied in the ecosystem to automatically scale in and out the number of active virtual machines on demand. The rule-based system maintains a buffer of idle virtual machines to guarantee no under-provision cases. As a result, on average, 30% of the virtual machines requested from the cloud providers are not utilized. Furthermore, game companies often serve players from different geometrical regions. The rule-based system is applied to each region individually, causing more waste from a global perspective.

This thesis aims to reduce idle virtual machines while meeting the SLO of provisioning. First of all, a reinforcement learning-based planning framework with Soft Actor-Critic (SAC) algorithm is proposed to make scaling decisions on a single region. Two reward functions are designed to meet the objectives: (1) a threshold-based reward function to limit the over-provisioning virtual machines within an acceptable range; (2) a cost-based reward function to minimize the cost of virtual machines of two types.

On a global level, when a region is under-provisioned for game servers, game companies tend to place the players into a neighboring over-provisioned region with tolerable delay. To perform multiple-fleet virtual machine planning tasks, a graph-based method is proposed in this thesis. The Heterogeneous Graph Transformer (HGT) algorithm is applied with the SAC framework to minimize the idle virtual machines globally. A threshold-based and square percentage error reward function is designed to reduce the multiple-fleet level over-provision and minimize the planning error on a single region.

The notable benefits of the approaches in this thesis are in two aspects. In the single-fleet virtual machine planning scenario, the SAC-FCNN model (1) reduces the misprediction virtual machine waste to 22.4%, which is 5.78% lower as compared to the rule-based system; (2) satisfies the SLO of over-provisioning virtual machines at least 99.0% of the testing time. In the multiple-fleet virtual machine planning scenario, the SAC-HGT model; (3) reduces the misprediction virtual machines waste by more than 9.61% of the SAC-FCNN model and 28.90% more than the rule-based system; (4) meets the SLO of over-provisioning at least 99.0% of the testing time on the multiple-fleet level.


identifier: Henchey, Angel-Rose  (2022) STEM Experiences and Student Interest in Pursuing a Career in Engineering.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Of the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematic (STEM) fields, women remain underrepresented in many engineering disciplines. Obstacles persist for entering the field via enrollment in an engineering program of study, but also for entering and remaining in an engineering profession. The push for more diversity and inclusion in STEM fields has led to many STEM enrichment programs, within and outside the school environment. These career-relevant learning experiences, both prior to and during university, influence students’ perceptions and attitudes towards engineering. According to Social Cognitive Career Theory, individuals choose to pursue a career based on their skills and their expectations of the career, which can be influenced by external factors, such as participation in career-relevant learning experiences. To this end, I study the effect of pre-university engineering experiences and university extracurricular experiences on undergraduate students’ perceptions of engineering and, ultimately, their decision to remain in the field. One hundred and ninety-four engineering students from Concordia University in Montreal, Canada responded to a survey about their pre-university and during-university career-relevant experiences, and their attitudes about the engineering profession. Results suggest that pre- and during-university engineering experiences are beneficial to engineering students, improving their self-efficacy and perceptions of the field. Engineering companies and educators may want to invest in these experiences if they want to support the next generation of future engineers and benefit from a more diverse workforce.


identifier: ElBarkouky, Nada  (2022) The Blindspot of Growth: A Deeper Look into the Mindset and Capabilities Required to Sustain Startup Momentum.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Growth is critical for a tech startup's long-term success, as it determines whether it will stick around or fizzle out into obscurity. More than 70% of startups fail because of growth issues (e.g., premature scaling). The existing research and knowledge on the capabilities and mindset required to sustain startup growth momentum are limited. This study adopts a multiple case study method from a meso-level perspective to uncover how successful tech startups in Egypt managed to sustain their growth during varying levels of environmental turbulence (i.e., waves and storms). Our findings indicate that startup momentum is based on the equilibrium of the evolution of these three constellations: Stability (i.e., Laying the Foundation and Strategic Direction), Agility (i.e., Dynamic Capabilities and Improvisational Capabilities), and Team & Leadership. These constellations are interconnected and possible by adopting a Service-Dominant Logic, which involves co-creating value throughout the ecosystem. We also offer a new perspective on how growth hacking strategies can achieve sustainable growth by creatively leveraging startup resources and the entrepreneurial ecosystem's support. We propose a conceptual model, "The Constellations to Sustain Startup Growth Momentum," to set the stage for future researchers to further inquire into the capabilities required for startups to sustain their momentum and understand the influence of different entrepreneurial ecosystem factors on startups. We also suggest ten pointers to help entrepreneurs identify and surpass startup blindspots to ensure growth.


identifier: Sikder, Nasmoon Amin  (2022) Identifying Perceived Deception in Online Consumer Reviews.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Purpose – There is a rising trend to post deceptive reviews online, and literature has stressed on the difficulty for humans to detect such deceptive online consumer reviews (OCR)s. Consumers are aware of such deceptive practices, but, they do not know for sure which OCR is deceptive and which one is not deceptive. This dilemma forms their perceptions of deception towards OCRs, and brings us to an important question: which cues in OCRs can potentially lead consumers to perceive deception in OCRs? What is the consequence of such perceived deception? In this study we take a consumer-centric approach in trying to understand the cues of perceived deception in online consumer reviews (PDOCR).

Methodology/approach – A between-subjects survey of 251 participants were conducted using the context of online restaurant reviews. The effects of Picture, Emotional Expression, and Incongruent review on PDOCR and purchase intention were measured. The effects of individual cultural values as moderators were also tested.

Findings and implications –Picture and Emotional expression (EE) do not have main effects on PDOCR but on purchase intention only. Picture increases and EE decreases purchase intention. In the presence of the moderating role of Incongruent valence, Picture had a significant effect at 90% CI on PDOCR, and EE had a significant effect at 95% CI on PDOCR. An important aspect of the study was the influence of individual cultural values, and we found several cultural variables significantly moderates incongruent valence, which in turn moderates the effects of Picture and EE on PDOCR. The findings have a number of meaningful theoretical and managerial implications and avenues for future research as it is one of the very few studies on PDOCR.


identifier: Monro, Jonathan  (2022) Does Canada Need Graduate Training for Musical Theatre Creators?  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Musical theatre is big business in Canada, contributing to our culture and economy. However, Canadian musical theatre creators (composers, lyricists, book-writers, musical directors, and directors of musicals) often leave the country to acquire their skills and pursue opportunities in the industry. Canada does not offer official diploma, degree, or graduate programs for musical theatre creators. My project assesses whether Canada needs such a training program at the graduate level. I collected data through three methods: a survey for professional musical theatre creators; a survey for pre-professional musical theatre creators; and focus groups for musical theatre creators of varying experience levels for cross-case analysis. Surveys were analyzed, cross-tabulated, and then triangulated with the coded focus group data. My analytical approach combined Carliner's ADDIE framework and Mezirow's critical reflection theory, as well as examining data through a phenomenological lens, and I found there was support for a graduate program among practitioners as well as systemic issues, including the existence of misperceptions of musicals and the artists who create them in the general public. Further research might address how audiences, funding bodies, theatre companies, and policymakers view these artists; measure the cultural and economic impact of such artists; and hopefully improve their ability to train in Canada and make a living.