identifier: Vannan, Kristina  (2019) Collecting the Algorithmic Self: Portraits of Surveilled Subjects in the Video Works of Natalie Bookchin.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: This thesis considers how contemporary digital art can underscore the urgency to be critical of the digital condition, especially within the context of surveillance and algorithmic culture. By considering the art practice of American artist Natalie Bookchin (b. 1962), case studies for this analysis include her video installation Testament (2009/2017) and film Now he’s out in public and everyone can see (2009-2011, 2017). Amongst many others in her oeuvre, Bookchin collected and collaged found video confessionals and vlogs from social media sites and YouTube, where people (often alone in private spaces) face the camera to express their views about personal and/or social issues. Bookchin establishes connections between her subjects and draws them together in a type of choral orchestration. The thesis frames this art practice by drawing on contemporary art writing, media theory, and archival theory, while paying particular attention to recent scholarship about the politics of algorithms, and the field of surveillance studies. In doing so, this investigation complicates surveillance as a complex cultural phenomenon, rather than simply a top-down, omnipresent system of control; while search engine algorithms are analyzed because of the ways they influence how individual and collective digital histories are being organized, remembered and archived. Bookchin’s art practice is important as it plays a powerful role in underlining the hidden architecture of online platforms and emphasizes the importance of engaging critically with the structures that shape digital culture.


identifier: Florence, Kathryn ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8015-1604 <https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8015-1604>  (2019) Tail/Tale/Tell: The Transformations of Sedna into an Icon of Survivance in the Visual Arts Through the Eyes of Four Contemporary Urban Inuit Artists.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

type: Thesis NonPeerReviewed

abstract: Inuit visual arts have been a feature of Canadian popular culture since it was thrust onto the world stage in 1949. Vibrant owls, dancing bears, and drumming shamans have pervaded museum galleries and trade showrooms for seven decades. One popular, recurring figure is Nuliajuk—also known by other names throughout the circumpolar world—epithetic-ally called the Sea Woman and colloquially referred to as Sedna. Qallunaat (non-Inuit) have constructed their own narrative around these images and their art history, which can ignore the role that art plays in the lives of the artist resulting in a skewed narrative and misinterpretation. In this thesis, I interview four contemporary Inuit artists to reveal how the figure of Sedna has transformed morphologically and semantically since she first appeared on the art market nearly 70 years ago. The results of my research propose that Sedna has become an icon of Inuit identity as well as a symbol of survivance against the tides of colonialism and attempts at cultural extermination. These contemporary artists are reclaiming her in their work, asserting her importance to their identity as Inuit and her ongoing influence in their world. Exploring her story in their art is a way for artists raised in the variety of situations and combinations of living within and outside of Inuit Nunangat to anchor their identity as Inuk.


identifier: Gardiner, John Robert  (2019) It Makes a World of Difference: The Posthuman Sonics of Love in Her.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: This thesis, “It Makes a World of Difference: The Posthuman Sonics of Love in her,” explores the romantic relationship between the film’s male protagonist, Theodore, and his purchased OS partner, Samantha. Employing analytical approaches that borrow from posthuman critical theory, film sound theory, SF cinema scholarship, and philosophies of erotic love, this thesis integrates a common theme between these discourses – that of difference, or alterity – as informing a method of textual analysis of the film. Taking up the non-dominant perspective of Samantha – a non-corporeal, artificially-intelligent entity defined primarily by her voice – this thesis listens for how to look, and looks, the best it can, through synaesthetic, non-human eyes. Through de-centering the human and the visual, I argue that by attending closely to her’s sonic channels, we come closest to reaching something akin to a posthuman point-of-view; we meet Samantha on her own terms. By straining our sensorial faculties towards the abstract, algorithmically audiovisual we advance towards an understanding of love that accounts for our ever more technologically mediated and interfaced connections. While the larger societal issues raised by this analysis hover throughout, this thesis is an exploration of SF and posthuman spectatorship. Given that many SF/posthuman narratives reinforce conventional, humanist ideals, this thesis intentionally adopts non-intuitive perspectives as influenced by the critical posthuman project of artificially casting aside our humanness the best we can.


identifier: Linares Martínez, Oslavia Danaé  (2019) Latin American Online Animation: General Overview of its Contextual Conditions and Analysis of its Formal Traits.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
The Latin American children of the late 1990s and 2000s grew up watching cartoons, just like those
decades before; however, for the first time, many of these cartoons were being made by them. That was
only the beginning… Benefiting from new digital animation technology and Internet availability as much
as from a renewed sense of what cartoons were and for whom, online animation became one of the
earliest and most popular forms of online media in Latin America and the world. And yet, their
popularity is relatively confined to the Internet and their academic study remains scarce. This thesis
aims to remediate this absence and to provide a base from which to give a better account of Latin
American online animation. In doing so, it can improve our understanding of other online media’s
connection with socio-economic, technological, ideological, and aesthetic imperatives. I highlight the
role of economic class and cultural imperialism in online animation’s aesthetic and contents, consider
the role of cable networks in both shaping these tastes and offering a precedent for online platforms like
YouTube, and review the technological limitations leading to an online animation vernacular (regional
and global). I focus on this vernacular’s formal traits as a necessary first step to approach online
animation and potentially other media. Ultimately, I provide a socio-economic and techno-historical
context for Latin American online animation’s visual culture and its media and geo-cultural specificity.
This research is all the more necessary in the face of the impermanence of online media.


identifier: Conides, Anna  (2019) Empowering Leadership and Employee Motivation, Behaviors, and Well-Being: Enabling or Burdening?  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Empowering leadership has shown to be related to a variety of positive organizational outcomes, as well as positive individual outcomes for employees. However, some evidence suggests that there is also a burdening side to empowering leadership, whereby the increased autonomy and responsibility provided to employees can in fact be detrimental to firm and employee performance. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of both enabling and burdening empowering leadership on employee motivation, extra-role behaviors, and well-being, while taking into account individual differences such as employee general self-efficacy and proactive personality. Drawing on the self-determination theory and social cognitive theory, this study proposes that empowering leadership will lead to positive behaviors, and reduced emotional exhaustion and turnover intention, through autonomous motivation, and that personality traits in subordinates will moderate these relationships. The data was collected using a short online questionnaire using employees (n = 267) from various firms across North America. Empowering leadership was positively related to autonomous motivation, and was also positively related to extra-role behavior, and negatively related to emotional exhaustion and turnover intention. Results showed support for the moderating effects of self-efficacy and proactive personality on extra-role behavior, emotional exhaustion and turnover intention. The findings of this study are relevant for the workforce, as leaders who are more aware of the effects of their leadership style will be better able to adjust their behavior accordingly in order to ensure their employees are performing at an optimal level, which will result in a more motivated and engaged workforce, and ultimately increased overall firm effectiveness


identifier: Dutremble-Rivet, Jaëlle  (2019) Parlons Montréal: Exploring Young Montrealers' Linguistic Identity.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

format: text other

abstract: Parlons Montréal is a research-creation project that explores my generation’s relationship to linguistic identity. Assembled in Klynt, this bilingual nonlinear interactive documentary explores notions of identity, linguistic tension, language laws and challenges faced by young Montrealers (aged 18-30). I conducted 13 interviews with Montrealers throughout the city and asked them about their thoughts on language, identity and Montréal’s linguistic landscape. This written component offers a broader perspective which situates my documentary historically. As such, I will be exploring the historical events that inform our current linguistic landscape and offer more context on the realities young Montrealers face.


identifier: Watson, Nicholas  (2019) Re-Crafting Games: The inner life of Minecraft modding.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Prior scholarship on game modding has tended to focus on the relationship between commercial developers and modders, while the preponderance of existing work on the open-world sandbox game Minecraft has tended to focus on children’s play or the program’s utility as an educational platform. Based on participant observation, interviews with modders, discourse analysis, and the techniques of software studies, this research uncovers the inner life of Minecraft modding practices, and how they have become central to the way the game is articulated as a cultural artifact. While the creative activities of audiences have previously been described in terms of de Certeau’s concept of “tactics,” this paper argues that modders are also engaged in the development of new strategies. Modders thus become “settlers,” forging a new identity for the game property as they expand the possibilities for play. Emerging modder strategies link to the ways that the underlying game software structures computation, and are closely tied to notions of modularity, interoperability, and programming “best practices.” Modders also mobilize tactics and strategies in the discursive contestation and co-regulation of gameplay meanings and programming practices, which become more central to an understanding of game modding than the developer-modder relationship. This discourse, which structures the circulation of gaming capital within the community, embodies both monologic and dialogic modes, with websites, forum posts, chatroom conversations, and even software artifacts themselves taking on persuasive inflections.


identifier: da Rocha Melo, Carolina  (2019) Influencers and Brand Partnerships: A Co-Branding Story.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: This thesis investigates the partnerships between consumer brands and social media influencers. Here, influencers are treated as human brands and the alliance in question is identified as a co-branding partnership. Thus, I rely on the literature of human brands, co-branding and celebrity endorsement to develop the theoretical background of this thesis. Through a qualitative study, 10 in-depth interviews were conducted with social media influencers and Instagram posts were collected and analyzed to address the research questions: how social media influencers develop brand partnerships and what benefits they receive from these alliances? The findings include a framework outlining the influencer-brand partnership, as well as a discussion on the legitimacy issue that emerged from the data. Because influencers lack forms of legitimacy, such as regulative, they attempt to overcome this by using strategies to increase their cognitive legitimacy levels, having brand partnerships as a core part of it. Also, this research brings evidence that financial and non-financial benefits move in a two-way path from influencer to consumer brand and vice-versa, differently than what is most commonly discussed on the celebrity endorsement literature. These benefits include brand equity, visibility, and financial compensation. Both marketing practitioners and social media influencers will find value in this study since it can guide them on future partnerships and clarify some tensions present in this type of alliance.


identifier: Bonner, Pat  (2019) Reading Against the Goo: Goosebumps, YTV, and Canadian Children's Television.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: This thesis examines the oversight of Canadian children’s television through the Canadian-American co-venture Goosebumps (1995-1998) and the Canadian specialty children’s network YTV. Grounding Goosebumps within the North American post-network television landscape, this thesis argues that the show anticipates hypercommercialism, a term used to define “the way in which advertisers tend to colonize media spaces” (Asquith 2012). This thesis proposes that by detaching YTV and Goosebumps from the threatening connotations of hypercommercialism, scholars can better engage with the show’s reception. It further contends that Goosebumps is imbued with sensorial and perceptual operations which can help children achieve the “mastery of intertextuality” (Kinder 1999). Analyzing how the poetics of the children’s horror genre are articulated through the show’s form, this thesis argues that Goosebumps cultivates the child audience through sensorial and perceptual operations, preparing them to engage with increasingly hyper-saturated media spaces. This audience training is problematized by the suffusion of the aesthetics of children’s horror into the marketing efforts of Goosebumps and YTV. Analyzing two multi-part episodes of Goosebumps, this thesis argues for the merits of textually analyzing children’s programming, an approach that opens up inventive pedagogies through which young people and academics alike can critically engage with commercial children’s television.


identifier: Xu, Shuangshuang  (2019) Effect of Rapid Drawdown on the Stability of Railway Embankments.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: The rapid drawdown of water level adjacent to a clay slope under railway embankments reduces the stability of these slopes, which results in further safety implications when a freight train is passing through this area. Thus, to enhance the safety and stability of a clay slope under both rapid drawdown and a moving freight train conditions requires in-depth investigation, which has not been done before. This work is focused on the coupled drawdown analysis with slope stability assessment under undrained conditions using 2-dimensional models through the finite element shear strength reduction (FE-SSR) method. A series of parametric studies were performed including the identification of key factors, such as geometric characteristics of the slope, rapid drawdown ratios, and freight train speeds. The control variable method was introduced to individually study each parameter and its effect on slope stability. For slopes with different geometric parameters and rapid drawdown ratios, maximum safe train speed information is presented for slopes with a minimum factor of safety of 1.3. Noticeably, a slope with 3H:1V slope inclination, and 3-m railway embankment has shown excellent results in terms of high maximum safe train speeds under the studied conditions. As a contribution, this study provides maximum safe train speed information for a slope with different geometric parameters and rapid drawdown ratios, which can be used as a reference for safe freight train operations.


identifier: Blamey, Courtney  (2019) Bringing Down the Banhammer: Understanding the Impact of Competitive Players on Moderation Tactics in Overwatch.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: This thesis investigates how the need for player moderation tactics in Overwatch (Blizzard Entertainment, 2016) has shifted following the introduction of competitive and professional matches. With a player’s season rank heightening stakes when playing competitively, so too does the need to avoid toxic players impacting their win rates. Alongside this, the analysis of forums and developer updates examines what values (Flanagan and Nissenbaum, 2014) are embedded in the implemented moderation tactics, and players are responding to the tactics in community forums. This will provide a clearer insight on what data Blizzard developers are using to inform the design choices behind their moderation tactics.


identifier: Voloshyn, Anastasiya  (2019) Second language specific health communication anxiety in Canadian Russian-speaking immigrants: How it affects willingness to use second language mental healthcare services.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: The percentage of the Canadian population that reports being or having been an immigrant has been steadily increasing for the past 50 years, such that more than 20% of Canada’s population identifies as foreign-born. As a result, a large proportion of the users of healthcare find themselves in language discordant situations in a healthcare system that they might not be comfortable navigating. The problems associated with using one’s second language (L2) in a healthcare setting might be especially salient in the mental healthcare context, where the quality of diagnosis, treatment, and overall services is highly dependent on language. How does the anticipation of having to use one’s second language affect immigrants’ experience of the seeking and obtaining mental healthcare services? Are there factors in immigrants’ social environment that might influence this experience? This thesis investigates the role of second language communication anxiety in the context Russian-speaking immigrants’ use of mental healthcare services in their L2 (HCA2m). First, the link between HCA2m and immigrants’ willingness to use L2 mental healthcare services is investigated. Second, predictive certainty, or immigrants’ confidence in their ability to predict how interactions and treatment in an L2 context will unfold, and their actual predicted outcome are investigated as potential components of the mechanism that underlies the association between HCA2m and willingness. Finally, the role of immigrants’ social networks is investigated in order to understand how social variables might play a role in the hypothesized mediation model. Results indicated that HCA2m was negatively associated with the willingness to use L2 mental healthcare services and that this relationship was entirely mediated by immigrants’ predictive certainty, such that higher HCA2m was associated with lower predictive certainty, which was associated with reduced willingness to use L2 mental healthcare. Finally, the results of this project failed to support the hypothesis that certain characteristics of immigrants social network are associated with predictive certainty, suggesting that perhaps the nature of one's L2 social network does not play a role in modulating the mechanism by which HCA2m affects the willingness to use L2 mental healthcare services.


identifier: Astrologo, Lisa  (2019) The Influence of the Group Context on the Associations Between Social Behaviours and Popularity Trajectories in Pre-Adolescents.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: The objectives of this study were to: a) examine group influences on the associations between popularity and individual behavioural characteristics and b) to assess the trajectory of popularity during the first six months of school. It was expected that the group context would moderate the individual behavioural characteristics associated with popularity. Pre-adolescents (N = 342) in grades five and six (Mage = 11.5) from four schools across Montreal, Quebec completed self-report and peer-nomination items to assess nine behavioural characteristics: care, proactive help, reactive help, justice, relational aggression, physical aggression, collectivism, individualism, and popularity. Popularity was assessed across three time points separated by 8-week intervals from the month of September. A three-level hierarchical linear model was used to examine the behavioural characteristics associated with popularity at the level of the individual and group. The sole predictor at Level 1 was an index of time. The eight measures of individual behavioural characteristics were included as Level 2 predictors. Group means of the behavioural characteristics and a measure of SES and gender were added as Level 3 predictors. Both the intercept and slope were associated with individual characteristics (Level 2) and features of the group context (Level 3). Features of the group context moderated effects of individual characteristics on the intercept and slope. The use of a three-level hierarchical linear model highlights popularity amongst pre-adolescents as a social construct.


identifier: Quijano Xacur, Oscar Alberto / OAQX  (2019) Computational Bayesian Methods for Insurance Premium Estimation.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Bayesian Inference is used to develop a credibility estimator and a
  method to compute insurance premium risk loadings. Algorithms to
  apply both methods to Generalized Linear Models (GLMs) are provided.
  We call our credibility estimator the entropic premium. It is
  a Bayesian point estimator that uses the relative entropy as the loss
  function. The risk measures Value-at-Risk (VaR) and
  Tail-Value-at-Risk (TVaR) are used to determine premium risk
  loadings. Our method considers the number of insureds and their
  durations as random variables.  A distribution to model the duration
  of risks is introduced. We call it unifed, it has support on
  the interval (0,1), it is an exponential dispersion family and it
  can be used as the response distribution of a GLM.


identifier: Balogoun, Malik  (2019) A brief review of support vector machines and a proposal for a new kernel via localization heuristics.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
This thesis deals with a particular problem of binary classification case in the framework of support vector machine. The case displays observations from two classes, and uniformly distributed on a space so that linear separation by a hyperplane is only possible in tiny cubes (or rectangles) of that space. The general approach to classification in the input space is then extended with the design of a new ad hoc kernel that is expected to perform better in the feature
space than the most common kernels found in the literature. Theoretical discussions to support the validity, the convergence to Bayes classifier of the new designed kernel and its application to simulated dataset will be our core
contribution to one a way we can approach a classification problem.
In order to make our way to this goal and grasp the necessary mathematical tools and concepts in support vector machine, a literature review is provided
with some applications in the first four sections of this document. The last and fifth section brings an answer the question that motivates this research.


identifier: Smith, Stephen Damien  (2019) A Continuous Present and a Queer Historiography: Bruce Goff’s Bavinger House.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
The critical historiography of American architect Bruce Goff (1904 -1982) has been, and continues to be, fraught with conflicting narratives regarding his sexuality. Most scholarly and critical accounts of Goff’s work have focused solely on formal analysis of his architecture; yet a significant number have imbricated sexuality into an interpretive analysis of his work, often through the use of a coded language referring to sexuality (specifically homosexuality). Such interpretive approaches to Goff’s work have served to marginalize his inclusion in the canon of mid-twentieth century American modernism. Moreover, recent attempts by critics and scholars to examine Goff under the auspices of Gay and Lesbian Studies and Queer Studies continue to draw from the visual tropes of homosexuality and queerness, thus maintaining the idea of a latent queer sensibility drawn from the signifiers of Camp within Goff’s architecture
Through discourse analysis, a deconstructive approach which aims to examine and unveil language that defines and frames discussion of a subject, this thesis argues that the scholarly approaches to Goff’s oeuvre perpetuate an insubstantial connection between sexuality and interpretive readings of his work. In response to the existing writings on Goff, the author of this thesis proposes instead that Goff drew on a queer genealogy through the writings of Gertrude Stein and the practice of bricolage to construct a space that is actively queer. Refuting essentialized interpretations predicated upon the visual aesthetic signifiers of queerness, a queer sensibility emerges in Goff’s architecture as considered through the lens of queer phenomenology, resulting in a space to be both constructed and physically experienced as queer.


identifier: Mitrofanova, Darya  (2019) Caloric restriction and the nutrient-sensing protein kinase TOR1 alter the pattern of protein phosphorylation in quiescent and non-quiescent cells of Saccharomyces cerevisiae.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: The application of yeast as a model organism for studying eukaryotic pathways, notably mechanisms and processes of chronological aging, has been recognized for decades. In fact, several signalling pathways of longevity regulation are conserved across phyla; humans (and other mammals) have orthologs and homologs of yeast proteins integrated into these pathways. One of such pathways is the TOR pathway that responds to nutrient levels, notably via TORC1 (a complex with protein kinase activity; contains TOR1 as a core protein). My thesis taps into both of those advantageous properties of Saccharomyces cerevisiae: its ease of culturing for chronological aging studies, and well annotated proteome. I study the chronologically aging quiescent and non-quiescent cell populations under caloric restriction or not using wild-type or tor1 single gene deletion mutant strains. I use quantitative phosphoproteomics – by means of mass spectrometry – to assess the differences and similarities between different cell populations. Caloric restriction has previously been shown to extend the chronological lifespan of yeast and other organisms. Reduced TOR1 activity (such as via inhibitors or by gene deletion) is also shown to extend yeast chronological lifespan in literature. Quiescence, an ability of a nutrient-limited post-mitotic cell to re-enter the cell cycle when the nutrient supply is restored, is also a lifespan-extending process. Combining these factors, I compared the phosphoproteomes of quiescent and non-quiescent yeast cells limited or not limited in calorie supply and having or lacking the TOR1 protein. I found that both the diet and the state of quiescence have significant effect on the phosphorylation of proteins. Moreover, I found that a single-gene-deletion mutation that eliminates the TOR1 protein has a significant impact on both the state of quiescence and the cell phosphoproteome.


identifier: Beaudet, Daniel  (2019) A Chromatin-Sensing Pathway Regulates Cytokinesis.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Cytokinesis is the physical separation of a cell into two daughter cells. The core machinery is well-conserved across metazoans, yet the mechanisms that regulate cytokinesis can vary depending on the organism and cell type. Elucidating these mechanisms is important, because cytokinesis failure could lead to cell fate changes and aneuploidy, which are hallmarks of cancer. Cytokinesis occurs by the ingression of an actomyosin contractile ring that assembles between the segregating chromatids, and pinches in the plasma membrane. The mitotic spindle provides spatiotemporal signals that regulate the cytokinetic machinery. However, a number of studies have shown that spindle-independent pathways also regulate cytokinesis. The focus of my thesis is on the characterization of a Ran-GTP pathway that spatially regulates the contractile ring in response to chromatin position. During mitosis, there is a gradient of Ran-GTP with high levels around chromatin and lower levels toward the cortex. Ran-GTP competes importin(s) from the nuclear localization signal (NLS) of proteins, and we hypothesize that importin-binding to cortical proteins could regulate their function. In support of this hypothesis, we found that anillin, a key component of the contractile ring, contains an NLS within its C-terminus that is required for importin-binding and for its function during cytokinesis. Importin-binding facilitates anillin’s cortical recruitment, possibly by stabilizing an open conformation. Interestingly, the NLS is autoinhibited by the adjacent RhoA binding domain (RBD), and binding to active RhoA relieves this inhibition. I also found that feedback between the RBD and C2 domain, which contains the NLS, is required for optimal RhoA-binding and cortical recruitment. Thus, integrating a signal from chromatin could ensure that the contractile ring remains positioned between segregating chromatids. This mechanism could be crucial for the asymmetric division of polarized cells, or cells with aneuploidy.


identifier: Miles, Danielle Aimée  (2019) Still Questioning the Ideal: Possibilities for the Critical Curation of Classical Antiquities at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Although Survey Museums are slowly becoming more receptive to the possibility of creating exhibitions using critical frameworks, Mediterranean archaeology collections within these institutions are overwhelmingly presented using a grand narrative of idealization of the Classical world. These exhibitions of the Classical world not only negate the diversity of realities of the Classical past, but also deny the existence of problematic discourses within the fields of art history and archaeology thereby contributing to the perception of a Western supremacy inside and outside of the museological context. This thesis examines art historical and archaeological discourses surrounding Mediterranean archaeology, and the impact of its presentation as art or artifact, historically and within the context of the Survey Museum, as a starting point for the curation of a new exhibition of Mediterranean Archaeology at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts due to open in the fall of 2019. This examination is then countered with an overview of relevant Critical Museological theory and Institutional Critique artistic practice in order to suggest a possible critical curatorial methodology for the display of Mediterranean archaeology. Using this curatorial methodology, the proposal for the new exhibition of the Mediterranean Archaeology collection at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts is presented, including all didactic panels, object labels and images.


identifier: Baba, Mira  (2019) The Point(e) of the Interstices: Tensions between Community and Capitalist Appropriation over Interstitial Spaces.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Following the shift from an industrial economy to a capitalist and consumerist one, the legacy of an industrial past has left its marks on the landscape of North American cities in the form of disused train yards, spaces on street edges, spaces under infrastructure lines, and abandoned industrial sites. These spaces are often referred to as interstitial spaces (Matos, 2009). While city governments, urban planners and developers see them as an opportunity for urban regeneration and capitalist investment, community members view them as an opportunity to cater their needs and desires. These different visions around the re-purposing of interstitial spaces has rendered them sites of tension. In this study, I seek to understand the tension between the capitalist and community appropriation of interstitial spaces, explore how the community manages this tension and examine the factors that are affecting how the tension is being dealt with.  Drawing from ethnographic fieldwork based on urban walking, in-depth interviews as well as online content analysis, and building on literature around the topics of assemblage, the right to the city, production of space and interstitial spaces,  I explore these questions in Pointe Saint Charles, a post-industrial neighborhood in the Southwest of Montreal, undergoing rapid gentrification and known for its community activism. Analysis revealed that interstitial spaces grappled with the clashing objectives of each force and its subsequent vision for the use of space. In particular, interstitial spaces acted as sites of tension between profitability vs. affordability, identity erasure vs. identity reinforcement and separation vs. inclusion of the population. To navigate these tensions, the community of Pointe Saint Charles deployed a set of tactics that either prevented a certain use of space, reconciled both uses or responded to a certain use. The thesis concludes by providing implications that consider assemblage as a main interpretational tool to study the contested nature of interstitial spaces as more than a simple dichotomy between capitalist and community appropriation. It also reconceptualized the perception of interstitial spaces from meaningless static gaps in the city to dynamic and complex sites.


identifier: Baptiste, Anne Diamyla  (2019) Observed Social Competence in At-Risk Children: Associations with Informant Reports of Children’s Behaviours and Maternal Childhood Characteristics.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Children’s social competence has been largely assessed using informant reports, yet few studies have explored how these ratings reflect real life behaviours, and how maternal childhood characteristics influence the latter. In the present study, children between 9- and 13-years-old were observed discussing a source of conflict with their mothers. Children’s engagement in behaviours classified as socially competent (e.g., smiling, cooperating) and incompetent (e.g., interrupting, confronting) during the discussion were coded. The associations between children’s observed social competence and informant ratings of children’s social competence were examined. Informants were children’s mothers, teachers, and themselves. In addition, maternal childhood characteristics (i.e., aggression, social withdrawal, likeability) and their associations with children’s social competence were explored in a sub-sample of participants. Results indicated that mothers’ ratings of children’s social incompetence as well as higher levels of maternal childhood aggression or social withdrawal predicted less child engagement in socially competent behaviours. Teachers’ ratings of children’s social incompetence predicted greater child engagement in socially incompetent behaviours. Furthermore, higher levels of maternal childhood aggression were associated with children’s greater use of socially incompetent behaviours for mothers low in childhood likeability, and children’s lesser use of socially incompetent behaviours for mothers high in childhood likeability. Results from this study take a first step in investigating how informant reports reflect children’s engagement in specific socially competent and incompetent behaviours within a naturalistic interaction. Moreover, our results contribute to the literature on maternal childhood histories and the intergenerational transfer of risk.


identifier: Wood, Megan Alyson  (2019) Social Media Use and Emotional Experiences During Adolescence: Predictors and Results Across Cultural Contexts.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: A five-week longitudinal study conducted with a cross-national (Canada/Colombia) community-based sample of 173 adolescents was used for a series of three studies. For Study 1, four new measures were developed to create and evaluate measures of anxiety and depressed affect related to social media (SM) use. Specifically, social media anxiety, fear of missing out (FOMO), social media depressed affect (mood), and social media depressed affect related specifically to concerns about identity (cognition). For Study 2, these newly created measures were used to assess intersections between SM use, specifically Facebook, and anxiety and depressed affect. Study 3 used a process-oriented approach to assess how anxiety directs Facebook use and motives for using Facebook. All of the studies assessed for cross-cultural comparisons. For Study 1, confirmatory factor analyses revealed (a) strong support for our a-priori four-factor measurement model, (b) no more than moderate levels of association between the newly developed measures of anxiety and depressed affect, and (c) clear evidence of invariance across the two cultural groups. Gender differences were found for general and social anxiety with scores being more highly elevated for girls. SM-related depressed affect was also higher for girls. For Study 2, findings indicated that general anxiety, social anxiety, Facebook-specific anxiety, and FOMO deterred Canadian adolescents from having Facebook but not for Colombians. Anxiety and depressed affect were predictive of each other over time and across contexts, particularly Facebook anxiety, which was a positive predictor of all negative outcomes related to anxiety and mood. Specifically, Facebook anxiety was a predictor of anxiety (general, social, and FOMO) and depressed affect (general, Facebook-specific, and Facebook self-image problems). Interactions between anxiety and depressed affect lead to increases in anxiety and depressed affect in both places. For Study 3, Facebook anxiety and FOMO were strongly associated with motivations for using Facebook (connection, entertainment, shared identity, and lurking) cross-culturally with stronger effects for North American adolescents. Cultural differences in motives for Facebook use were consistent with collectivistic and individualistic values. These findings point to the utility of these measures for promoting research on the intersection between SM use and forms of internalizing problems.


identifier: Campbell, Margaret  (2019) “Nobody Is Asking What I Can Do!”: An Exploration of Disability and Sexuality.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: This doctoral research explores the various ways in which people with physical disabilities access opportunities for sexual expression and exploration. Through conducting qualitative interviews with twenty-four people with physical disabilities I identify barriers to sexual expression that participants faced and examine how participants negotiated, maintained, and created opportunities for sexual expression in spite of these barriers. The findings of this study show that persons with disabilities continue to encounter alienation, stigmatization, and discrimination, particularly in terms of their sexuality. However, the findings of this study also illustrate the creative ways that disabled people can reject, subvert, and challenge the desexualization that they routinely experience.


identifier: Zhang, Qi  (2019) Skewed Spatial Modeling for Arsenic Contamination in Bangladesh.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Bangladesh has been facing serious problem in arsenic contamination for more than two decades. Drinking and irrigating contaminated water put the health of more than 85 million people at risk. The project “Groundwater Studies for Arsenic Contamination in
Bangladesh” led by British Geological Survey had been conducted during 1998 to 2001. A few studies have been carried out from different perspectives. The district Comilla is considered to be the most severed region with highest arsenic-related deaths according
to Flanagan, Johnston, and Zheng, 2012.

In this thesis, we examine the arsenic groundwater concentration in Comilla district. We propose spatial models for making inference under Bayesian framework. We demonstrate that models based on the gamma distribution with spatial structure capture the characteristics of arsenic levels, appropriately compared to other models. We also perform spatial interpolation (kriging) to describe the situation of the arsenic levels across all Comilla.


identifier: Hunter-Loubert, Hunter  (2019) Rewriting the Game: Queer Trans Strategies of Survival, Resistance, and Relationality in Twine Games.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: This thesis explores how a selection of video games, created by transgender people using the free software Twine, create space for the survival and flourishing of queer and trans subjects through visions of transformative relationships. It deploys the lenses of queer theories of failure (Halberstam, The Queer Art of Failure), disidentification (Muñoz, Disidentifications), and utopianism (Muñoz, Cruising Utopia) to perform close readings of the techniques of narrative and game mechanics used as strategies for survival, resistance, and relationality in anna anthropy’s Encyclopedia Fuckme and the Case of the Vanishing Entree and Queers in Love at the End of the World, Porpentine Charity Heartscape’s With Those We Love Alive, and ira prince’s Queer Trans Mentally Ill Power Fantasy. The analysis focuses on games produced in and around the moment of the “Twine revolution” (Harvey) that aimed in the early 2010s to radically re-envision video games as spaces for minoritized subjects to thrive. Even as the transformation of video games culture as a whole remains an unrealized ideal, this paper argues for the importance of revisiting the under-examined queer strategies these games depict and enact in order to imagine possibilities for “rewrit[ing] the game” (Halberstam in Halberstam and Juul), and through this for “rewrit[ing] the map of everyday life” (Muñoz, Cruising Utopia 25), possibilities which can allow for the flourishing of queer and trans modes of relationality within and against toxic and exclusive norms in game play and design.


identifier: Jung, Katie  (2019) Productivity Without Productivity: Crip Theory, Interspecies Collaboration, and Material Art Practice.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Productivity Without Productivity aims to imagine new futures for disability by performatively reading crip theory’s non-assimilation version of disability studies in new and unconventional ways into the methods of art practice. I develop research-creation as crip method that enacts crip theory as a non-normative method for art practice in order to see what new forms and modes of living it can produce. Rather than making accommodations to do things in normalized ways, what non-normative practices can be produced? I examine this question through a series of experimental projects: Tidelines/Field-guide, a print-based project that explore processes of transformation and disappearance through trace-making and cartography techniques; Spoons Dog, an ongoing collaboration between myself and my service dog, Spoons; Flowers of outre-vie, an ongoing, ritual practice of making brooms from discarded funeral flowers; and Shifting Objects, a process-based project informed by DIY, artisanal ceramic repairing techniques. Engaging the generative intersection of crip theory, interspecies collaboration, and material art practice, these crip-creation projects cultivate time-consuming, quotidian, ritual practices of living and care, object repair, listening, conversation (with human and nonhuman others as well as materials) that do not require assimilation into efficiency-driven disciplinary norms. Together these projects develop an account of “productivity without productivity” that unhinges neoliberal structures of productivity and value, while cultivating desire for what disability disrupts. In so doing, my interdisciplinary projects contribute new avenues of material exploration for crip theory and critical disability studies, while providing a crip theory framework for material art practice.


identifier: Farnsworth, Laura  (2019) Rejecting Stigma – Embracing ‘Living Flat’: Motivations for Resisting Breast Reconstruction and Prosthetic Breasts After Mastectomy.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
ABSTRACT

Rejecting Stigma – Embracing ‘Living Flat’:  Motivations for Resisting Breast Reconstruction and Prosthetic Breasts After Mastectomy

Laura Farnsworth

‘Going flat’ and ‘living flat’ following mastectomy for the treatment or prevention of breast cancer has become an emerging option that could be considered the zeitgeist of breast cancer culture in the 21st century. ‘Going flat’ is the informal term used when a woman does not undergo breast reconstruction after this breast removal surgery or has her reconstruction reversed for various reasons. Trending in popular and social media in the Western world, some social media platforms and mass media are increasingly sharing and reporting on these women’s lived experiences -- their narratives, photographs, filmed images and philosophy. What motivates the actions and behaviors of the women who are part of this growing subculture of mainstream breast cancer culture? Why are women deciding to say ‘no’ to breast reconstruction? Why do they also decide to forego wearing prosthetic breasts in public and ‘live flat’? What role do tattoos play in their ‘new normal’ body image? How are these women able to resist breast reconstruction as well as the wearing of prostheses and, in essence, reject Goffman’s very notion of spoiled identity-stigma itself? In effect, are these women using their agency to de-colonize the medically colonized female body -- thus normalizing ‘living flat’ as a respected post-mastectomy choice? Academic research that explores and endeavors to answer these questions has scarcely been undertaken, demonstrating an existing gap in the literature. By drawing on and analyzing data using thematic analysis from media interviews conducted with various media interviewees in multi-media -- published and available in the public domain on the Internet such as newspaper, magazine, organizational and dot.com websites, online videos, podcasts and documentary film – this thesis aims to contribute to the growth of knowledge and research in this under-researched area.


identifier: LeBlanc, Lindsay  (2019) Nicolas Schöffer and the Scattered Origins of Cybernetic Art History.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Cybernetics appeared first in America in the 1940s and ’50s as an experimental scientific field, which attempted to understand networked systems through studying channels of feedback and communication. However, its relevance to the period was quickly felt beyond its first home in mathematics, including by some in the plastic arts. French-Hungarian artist Nicolas Schöffer (1912-1992) is the first artist documented as incorporating cybernetic principles into modern art. With the help of engineers, he was able to develop new responsive technologies to realize his artistic vision. The resulting cybernetic artworks, built to respond to their environments in various ways, are defining examples within the history of art, science, and technology collaboration.

This thesis uses a selection of Schöffer’s sculptural cybernetic works originally produced between 1950 and 1970 as case studies for the unique materiality of responsive machine art, and considers how cybernetics impacted the foundations of art and technology discourse. The author invokes Schöffer’s art as a tool for navigating broader methodological questions: What does the content of cybernetic art have to teach us about writing and history? And, how can we write about machines more accurately and responsibly? The shifting material lives of Schöffer’s cybernetic artworks are analyzed alongside past and present studies of them, demonstrating one approach to understanding the rhetorical complexity of cybernetic art history and what its significance might be today.


identifier: Mazgareanu, Iulia  (2019) A GIS- and field-based investigation of main channel morphological sensitivity to tributary inputs at the watershed scale in Québec.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Confluences are key nodes of river networks, as a result of the dynamic mixing of water, sediment, wood or ice between tributaries and receiving channels. Geomorphically active tributaries have the potential to disrupt the balance of erosional and depositional processes along main river channels, thereby resetting downstream longitudinal patterns. In turn, main channels respond to or absorb these changes as a function of their spatial and temporal sensitivity, which varies with topography, energy conditions and the system’s capacity to recover following major past events. Consequently, confluence zones are areas of increased spatial heterogeneity, with important implications for the resilience of river ecosystems and their management. However, due to their complexity, tributary-main channel interactions represent a relatively understudied component in fluvial geomorphology. The objectives of this study are to 1) improve our understanding of the morphodynamics of active confluences characterized by high sediment load tributaries based on field observations in Gaspésie, Québec and 2) propose a novel semi-automated GIS model that uses a fuzzy approach to integrate multiple key factors (unit stream power, valley confinement and sediment connectivity potential) to assess main channel confluence morphological sensitivity (CMS) to active tributaries at the scale of whole watersheds. The model was tested using digital elevation models (DEM) in Coaticook and Gaspésie watersheds, Québec. Results of the field survey showed that despite all confluences being located in a generally homogeneous geological setting, considerable disparities in the morphological effect of tributaries exist. The fuzzy GIS model was able to identify sensitive locations along the main channel associated to geomorphically active tributaries and has thus the potential to be used as part of watershed geomorphic assessments, particularly when high-resolution (LiDAR) DEMs are available. These findings highlight the spatially contingent distribution of resisting and impelling forces along main channels, including tributary-main channel interactions, in influencing river behaviour.


identifier: Sera, Eric  (2019) Race as a Global Political Category: Empire and the Paradox of Emancipation in Mid-Nineteenth Century and Early Twentieth Century Palestine.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: This thesis explores how the perception of race, influenced by Enlightenment concepts of the nation and the political, was deployed as an operative category by the British Empire in nineteenth century Palestine. It will show how a racialized political hierarchy was substantiated through the humanitarian rhetoric of “protection” of minorities in late Ottoman Palestine. This line of thinking would be appropriated by the British Empire again in the twentieth century, and guided British policy-makers, such as the man under discussion in this thesis, Sir Mark Sykes. By studying Sykes’ diplomatic decisions as the “British expert of the Middle East” throughout World War I, which engendered the creation of new nation-states based on ethno-national lines in the former Ottoman territories, this thesis shows how a process laid out by proto-Zionists and British officials in the nineteenth century, culminated with the espousal of the Balfour Declaration in November, 1917. The declaration guaranteed British support for the “Jewish National Home” as a fulfillment of emancipation, but paradoxically erased Palestinians not only from a new international political reality, but from historical narratives as well.


identifier: Pyne, Cherie  (2019) Melodramatic Children: A Play.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

title: Melodramatic Children: A Play

abstract: This play is the product of a five-year creative process in which I was determined to knit together a story from the wildly-contradictory narratives of my mother and father about their brief but stormy and compelling relationship. I began with many questions about the ethics of writing about living people but was also cognizant that I had been shamed out of speaking honestly about my own perspective and experiences due to my parents' fears. I wondered where the line can or should be drawn between one's own clan narrative and that of one's parents. While seeking the truth was key to my research, I recognize that the notion of truth is always complicated by the nature of memory, by ulterior motives and wishful thinking, and by the unconscious denial of trauma. This play became fiction as the characters developed, and as they evolved, I named them to reflect that they exist only to fulfill a story I need to tell, which is about a family broken apart by deceit and desperate to reconnect but held in stasis by denial. Creation can be sorcery, a magic ritual that has a good laugh at our attempts to separate life from art. In queer witchcraft, there must be an undoing before a doing. To reclaim our power, we have to be willing to step on some toes, and sometimes bite the hand that feeds us.


identifier: Pisanelli, Jesse  (2019) Agency, Economy, and Sovereignty on the Periphery of Empire: “Capitalisms” and Interactions Surrounding the Establishment of a British Exchange Bank in Bahrain, 1900-1920.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Between 1900 and 1920, there was a tense debate surrounding the establishment of a British bank in the Persian Gulf with special attention paid to Bahrain - a small but significant location in terms of grand strategy and commerce. After years of multilateral negotiations between a plethora of variegated groups and a messy ensemble of intertwined and discrete interests – a branch of |Eastern Bank Ltd. was established on the island. The purpose of the bank was ostensibly to facilitate trade between Britain and British India, as well as global trade passing through the Western Indian Ocean. However, what this paper shows is that the establishment of this bank is intimately tied to the processes that underpin British Imperial consolidation in the Gulf via a slow but steady encroachment on other modes of economics, exchange, and life. Through understanding British concerns and vantage point, and thinking economy and political economies of the region through a historical lens, we can begin to see capitalism as a concept, and some of the assumptions associated with it, dilate and dissipate. The arrival of the bank does not represent the arrival of capitalist modernity or embody the ideals of economic liberalism - it is first and foremost a tool of empire, employed at a moment where control over capital and commodity flows are quickly becoming the conditions of possibility for political control.


identifier: Mazhjoo, Nina  (2019) When Mithras Came to Rome: The Cultural Transmission of Mithras from Persia to the Hellenistic and Roman Worlds.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Scholars of Mithraic studies disagree on the origins of the Roman mystery cult of Mithras. Iranologists have largely insisted on a Persian origin of the cult. Alternatively, Roman historians emphasize the separation between the Persian Yazāt Miϑra and the Roman cult of Mithras; they interpret the cult as a Roman production informed by ancient astrology and Neoplatonic philosophy. Recent scholarship has addressed how Greco-Roman appropriation of the god Miϑra, included a process of selection and instrumentalisation of Persian tradition which informed how the Roman Mithraists developed a novel religious expression. Building on this recent approach that attends to the complex dynamics of cultural transmission, this dissertation argues that the Hellenistic reception of the god Miϑra coupled with Roman ideals of Persia can be traced in Mithraic art and its ritual language. This thesis suggests a new model for the development of Roman Mithraic imagery and visual language, and its complex relationship to Persian antecedents.
This study has four main objectives: The first objective is to establish a visual and textual inventory of the Persian Miϑra that provides an ample account for comparing the oriental manifestation of the god with his Roman counterpart Mithras. The second account is to explore the Greek depictions of the Zoroastrian Miϑra that transmitted the Persian figure of the god to Rome as the result of Rome’s interest in the Orient. The third objective is to demonstrate how the Mithraic Mystagogues embraced the Greek imagination of “handsome Oriental” as well as Greek depictions of Zoroastrian Miϑra to invent an esoteric iconography and visual language for their novel religiosity in the Roman cultural milieu, which was a novel visual language that affected the descriptions of those intellectuals who had no personal engagement with the Roman cult. The last objective is to examine the appearance of Mithras cult in the broader context of Rome’s imperial ideology and the attendant idea that Rome is defined by its openness to others and outsiders, particularly in terms of cultic life. It concludes that this cultural transmission and borrowing on the part of Romans should be understood in relation to Rome’s imperial ideology and cultural identity.


identifier: Taylor, Nicole  (2019) The Fantasy of Embodiment: Afrofuturism, Cosplay and the Afrodiaspora.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

format: text video

abstract: Cosplay, or costume play, refers to the act of dressing up as characters from Japanese manga and anime, television, film, comics, cartoons and video games. Costumes are infused with the imaginative power capable of transporting cosplayers into different realms of existence. Cosplayers step into the narratives of the characters that they dress up as. For people of colour (POC), most especially those who belong to the Afrodiasporic community, cosplay can be understood as a social experiment that creates a discursive space to play with preconceived racial stereotypes. Commonly, cosplay is described as being an expressive realm to show passion for a fandom, but by melding cosplay subculture with Afrofuturist theories on play, the power of the imagination, and the creation of alternative systems of being and belonging, it can be conceptualized as a tool that possesses the capability to (re)signify and (re)present blackness by encouraging cosplayers to take control of self-visualization. Along with building from the theoretical framings of Afrofuturism, this project makes use of interviews with Afrofuturist scholars and artists, as well as cosplay participants to interrogate the relationship between cosplay and authentic visual representation. This work culminates in a research-creation project that depicts a visual and interactive guide that expounds on how conceiving cosplay, as an Afrofuturist tool, can encourage a desire to play with embodiment to create new narratives that allow for greater expression from and for racialized cosplayers.


identifier: Collette, Marc  (2019) Charge Transport in Hexagonal-Phase Core Silicon Nanowires.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
We built an atomically engineered laboratory inside a silicon nanowire (SiNW) to study fundamental transport mechanics and correlate results with crystal structure. We quantify the effects of ordered stacking faults (OSFs) present in SiNWs on their
electrical transport capabilities. We use Raman spectroscopy to characterize the hexagonal-phase core structure of the Si crystal in our novel nanowires caused by the OSFs.
Our results indicate that electrical current is prevented from
owing within the hexagonal-phase core. Using OSFs to tune crystal structure in SiNWs can be used to control the effective cross-section of the nanowire without the need to change its
physical dimensions. We find that the channel conductivity of field-effect transistors formed using these nanowires is decreased substantially compared to the familiar cubic phase counter-part (from roughly 100 to 1 mu*S/cm). This result indicates that modulating crystal phase can be effective in tuning material conductivity, offering an additional degree of freedom in device engineering. We also show that hexagonal-core SiNWs have larger
effective Schottky barriers with gold electrode contacts (from 0.48 to 0.67 eV), which increases device contact resistance.
Having a cubic-phase portion and a hexagonal-phase portion in series within a single kinked SiNW exploits this barrier asymmetry to create excellent gate-controlled and temperature-dependent rectifiers with rectifying ratios exceeding 100. Our transport model explains how the kink region also acts as a 10-nm scale diode.
These results indicate that controlling OSF density could be exploited in new device architectures and help optimize SiNWs for applications in high-impedance Schottky barrier rectifying transistors.


identifier: Melin, Gareth  (2019) Spatial Dependence of Photocurrent & Photogeneration Mechanisms in Graphene Field Effect Transistors.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Graphene is a fascinating 2D material, known for its unique charge transport and optical properties due to its low dimensionality and unique band structure. Although photocurrents in graphene have been heavily studied, there is little consensus on the photogeneration mechanisms contributing to photocurrents in applied graphene devices. There are two primary contributors to photocurrent that we investigate herein: the photovoltaic effect and the photothermoelectric effect. For short-circuit measurement configurations, the photobolometric effect is negligible due to requiring a non-zero bias voltage. Understanding the role each mechanism plays can aid in the design and operation of graphene-based photodetectors. If the mechanisms’ contributions are tunable, we can design a photodetector such that the most photoresponsive mechanism dominates, resulting in greater photosensitivity.

We report simultaneous photocurrent and micro-Raman measurements in mono- and bi-layer graphene rectangular transistors of at least 2 μm width and 4 μm length, on Si substrate with 300 nm SiO2 layer at room temperature and ambient pressure in source-drain configuration, seeking to disambiguate the contribution between photovoltaic and photothermoelectric
effects from spatial and power dependencies. Devices presented demonstrated photoresponsivities of up to (229.4±2.5) μA W−1 for bilayer and (159±2) μA W−1 for monolayer when comparable in size and shape. To ensure consistent and comparable results throughout our experiments, we measure Raman spectra during the photoresponse measurements, as well as gate sweeps before each set of measurements. We found that in order to yield reproducible results without a vacuum, we must employ a laser-annealing technique to reduce the influence of surface moisture. Adsorbed water molecules dope the graphene with holes, affecting transport, but through laser annealing we can ensure that the sample is in the same initial state before each experiment. We measured the photocurrents while observing their dependence on laser spot position on the sample and on laser power intensity. The photocurrent exponents extracted ranged from 0.6 to 1.1, indicating that likely both photovoltaic and photothermoelectric effects contribute to the total photocurrent in varying amounts, with photovoltaic being the dominant effect close to the contacts, likely due to limitations of the electron mean free path of around 7-200 nm and laser spot FWHM between 0.3 μm and 0.4 μm. We also noted that some sample properties evolved over the course of hours or days, suggesting perhaps a shift in charge density during the course of longer experiments experiment.


identifier: Storms, Matthew  (2019) Electromechanical Resonances in Suspended Bilayer Graphene.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Bilayer graphene is a promising material to explore the physics of two-dimensional Nanoelectromechanical Systems (NEMS) due to its mechanical strength and low-onset nonlinearity. We describe a procedure to fabricate and anneal bilayer graphene NEMS (BG-NEMS) which are nearly disorder free (charge mobility μ ≈ 76000 cm2/V s, charge doping n0 < 6.6 × 10−9 cm−2, mass density ρ ≈ 1.01 ρgraphene).
We calibrate a current mixing measurement circuit for simultaneous resonance actuation, resonance detection, and conductivity measurement in annealed BG-NEMS. Using our circuit, we detect high-quality and reproducible BG-NEMS resonances with frequencies in the range f0 = 137MHz to f0 = 220MHz and quality factors of Q > 3000 at amplitudes between δz = 50 pm and δz = 1 nm.
Our data show significant Duffing nonlinearity (α ≈ −1.0 × 1035 Hz2/m2). When the resonators are strained, we observe anomalous frequency tuning. At higher powers our data show mode mixing with high cooperativity (C ≈ 4 and C ≈ 36). The mode mixing (α12 ≈ 6.9 × 1033 Hz2/m2 and α12 = 3.3×1036 Hz2/m2) matches the Duffing parameter and suppresses mobility (low μ) and electromechanical dissipation (high Q).
Disordered morphology of the samples accounts for decreased mobility (lattice disorder associated with ripples and wrinkles), mode mixing (nonlinear mode coupling to ripples), and anomalous membrane dispersion (catenary wrinkle deformation).


identifier: Jobby, Akhil  (2019) Multiple Sequence Alignment of Transmembrane Beta-Barrel Proteins.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
The two main types of transmembrane proteins are transmembrane alpha helices (TMAH)
and transmembrane beta-barrels (TMBB). From literature, we know that both are responsible for diverse biologically important functions. Since there is plenty of sequence and
structural data available on various TMAH proteins, many techniques have been developed
to analyze their sequence. On the contrary, not many TMBB proteins have been identified
or studied. One of the most powerful sequence analysis techniques used for identifying
and annotating the biological sequences is “Multiple Sequence Alignment” (MSA). It is
often used for phylogenetic analysis, identification of conserved regions in the sequences,
prediction of the topology of proteins, etc.
High-throughput sequencing methods generate huge volume of sequence data, but they
remain largely unannotated. Hence an MSA method for TMBB would be important for
sequence-based studies and identifying more of such proteins. In this thesis, we apply a
method called homology extension to the MSA and adjust the strategy applied by TMCoffee, a state of the art MSA method tested for TMAH, to make it suitable for TMBB
proteins. We focus on extensively evaluating this method and comparing it with popular
MSA tools.


identifier: Osei Mireku, Emmanuel Sekyere  (2019) Worst-Case Valuation of Equity-Linked Products Using Risk-Minimizing Strategies.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
The global market for life insurance products has been stable over the years. However, equity-linked products which form about �fifteen percent of the total life insurance market has experienced a decline in premiums written. The impact of model risk when hedging these investment guarantees has been found to be significant�. We propose a framework to determine the worst case value of an equity-linked product through partial hedging using quantile and conditional value-at-risk measures. The model integrates both the mortality and the financial risk associated with these products to estimate the value as well as the
hedging strategy. We rely on robust optimization techniques for the worst case hedging strategy. To demonstrate the versatility of the framework, we present numerical examples
of point-to-point equity-indexed annuities in multinomial lattice dynamics.


identifier: Girgis, Nader  (2019) Experimental investigations on temperature-dependent mechanical properties of artificially frozen sandy clay soils.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Long term records indicate that on-going global warming has resulted in the thawing of some permafrost regions, which led to extensive geological disasters including slumps and ground settlements that were causing damage to infrastructures. An accurate characterization of the temperature-dependent mechanical properties of frozen clay soils is critical for predicting and preventing geological disasters in cold regions. This thesis presents the experimental investigations on measuring mechanical properties of two artificial frozen clay soils (kaolinite-sand and bentonite-sand) at different temperatures. A practical approach for preparing artificial frozen clay soils samples is proposed. The reason for using artificial frozen clay is to enable control and repeatability. The approaches of split cylinder test and double punch test are applied to measure the tensile strength. Uniaxial compressive tests are used to measure the uniaxial compressive strength, Young’s modulus, Poisson’s ratio, and stress relaxation characteristics. The tests are conducted at different deformation rates in a temperature-controlled cold room.
The results show that the double punch test approach is more effective in measuring the tensile strength of artificially frozen clay soil when compared with the split cylinder approach. The effects of temperature and deformation rates on the sample’s tensile and compressive strengths are significant. Low temperature and a high deformation rate tend to generate brittle failure with post-peak softening behavior. A temperature close to the frozen fringe and a low deformation rate results in a diffuse failure associated with strain hardening. The temperature-dependent mechanical property relationships for the frozen kaolinite-sand and frozen bentonite-sand are modeled using a power-law function which covers a broad temperature range from -15°C to 0°C. The parameters for the modeling function are highly dependent on the applied deformation rates. Since the artificial frozen clay soils have pre-determined mineralogical composition, stress history, water content, and pore fluid salinity, these experimental results can be used as a considerable data resource for theoretical modeling the failure behavior of frozen clay soils.
Keywords:  Artificially frozen clay soil, double punch test, tensile strength, temperature-dependent properties, strain rate effect, uniaxial compressive behavior.


identifier: Rahimi, Alireza  (2019) Thermal Spray Coating of Polymeric Composite Materials for De-icing and Anti-icing Applications.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Proper removal of accreted ice from the structures that are usually in contact with the harsh and cold weathers has always been a big challenge for the industry. Different methods and technologies have been adopted for ice management in wind turbines and aircraft. The purpose of this thesis is the fabrication of an electro-thermal heating element, as de-icer or anti-icer, for polymer-based composites. In this study, the plasma spray technique was utilized for the deposition of a nickel-chrome-aluminum-yttrium (NiCrAlY) coating layer as a heating element on top of a glass fiber-reinforced polymer composite (GFRP). For the fabrication of a high-quality and appropriate heating element coating layer, three types of composite samples with different surface types were manufactured. The first composite type was fabricated by the stacking of 16 GFRP prepregs, the second type was fabricated by the stacking of 16 GFRP and a 200 stainless steel mesh cloth as the top layer, and the last composite type was fabricated by the stacking 16 GFRP prepregs and a 400 stainless steel mesh cloth as the top layer. Moreover, to find the NiCrAlY powder with the proper particle size distribution for the generation of a heating element, two types of NiCrAlY powder with the fine and coarse particle size distributions were used for the coating of the composite samples. After coating of the composite samples with different spray parameters, and examining them under an optical microscope, it was found that using a 200 stainless steel mesh as the top layer of the composites makes a significant improvement in the uniformity, adhesion, deposition efficiency, and quality of the coatings. For more analysis, several tests were conducted on the coated samples for determining their mechanical and electrical properties. It was found that using a proper surface modification method and set of spray parameters could result in improving the coating bonding strength significantly. The electrical and thermal analyses of the coated samples also showed that the coated samples have a high capability in the generation of heat and acting as a heating element.


identifier: Al-Shdaifat, Mohammad  (2019) SMART CONSTRUCTION MATERIALS INCORPORATING MICROENCAPSULATED PHASE CHANGE MATERIALS.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Canada has a cold climate that experiences freezing temperatures over long periods of the year,
which impedes in-situ construction activities or puts them to a halt, resulting in considerable
socioeconomic losses. Hence, construction companies have shifted to precast concrete systems in
order to continue work throughout this harsh weather condition. However, applying heat curing
and controlling the concrete temperature during the fabrication process at a favorable temperature
of 10°C to 32°C is the main challenge for the precast concrete sector. Therefore, in this dissertation,
mixtures for selected construction materials related to precast industry (i.e. cement-based and
alkali activated concrete) were optimized/developed to have less energy intensive curing process
with the aid of phase change materials (PCMs). Microcapsulated phase change materials (MPCMs)
were used in order to avoid chemical interaction between PCMs and binding materials. The
experimental program focused on evaluating fresh, mechanical, thermal and durability
performance for these construction materials with different types and additional rates PCMs.
Mixtures without PCMs were also test for comparison purpose. Results illustrated the role of
MPCMs in storing and releasing the heat either generated from the hydration process or applied
during curing process. The changes in heating rates during hydration reaction induced by MPCMs
had influence of hydration kinetics for used binding materials. The performance of MPCMs will
be alerted based on the binding materials. Thermal properties for tested construction materials,
especially heat capacity, had enhanced by the addition of MPCMs. However MPCMs addition had induced reduction in strength, adjusting mixtures design and producing dense microstructure would help in minimize this adverse effect. It is anticipated that these results will pave the way for wider implementation for PCMs in construction materials, which in turns will result in both economic and environmental benefits on the industrial and social levels. On the industrial level, this advance will speed up the production process while saving costs associated with heat curing leading to high production-cost efficiency and maximized profits. On the social level, it will reduce the carbon footprint for the precast concrete industry through decreasing its energy demand and fossil fuel consumption leading to a better life quality for Canadians.


identifier: Cressey, Jennifer  (2019) Entangled Affects: Site-responsive Experiments Using Actor Training Methods.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
This thesis is an ethnography and critical analysis of a practice as research project that I conducted in the Fall of 2017 to investigate three interstitial sites nested around the Concordia University campus in downtown Montreal. I began with the premise that the body, sensitive and responsive to a site, could engage with it through movement and in so doing, render important aspects of the site palpable. I asked: if the body is available to being moved by the site’s affect, what may be understood about the site through that engagement? In order to explore this notion, I conducted a series of experiments which facilitated participants’ site-responsive movements, as generated through exercises drawn from theatre acting training and from a class in somatic approaches to movement.

This interdisciplinary research is grounded in my theatre practice and informed by theory based in the empirical study of performance methods. By applying the training methods towards engagement with the site, I extended them towards a framing as spatial practices, thus creating a platform for critiquing the site. Through this study, I seek to illuminate connections between the site’s social, historical, and economic contexts, its materiality, and the affects that thread into the participants’ experiences. I aim to underline the importance of affect in interstitial spaces, to demonstrate the potential of embodied performance practices to engage with that affect, and to contribute a methodology for generating and analysing qualitative, embodied, site-responsive data.


identifier: MirsaeediFarahani, SeyyedEhsanEdin  (2019) Mitigating Turnover with Code Review Recommendation: Balancing Expertise, Workload, and Knowledge Distribution.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Developer turnover is inevitable on software projects and leads to knowledge loss, a reduction in productivity, and an increase in defects. Mitigation strategies to deal with turnover tend to disrupt and increase workloads for developers. In this work, we suggest that through code review recommendation we can distribute knowledge and mitigate turnover with minimal impact on the development process. We evaluate review recommenders in the context of ensuring expertise during review, Expertise, reducing the review workload of the core team, CoreWorkload, and reducing the
Files at Risk to turnover, FaR. We find that prior work that assigns reviewers based on file ownership concentrates knowledge on a small group of core developers increasing risk of knowledge loss
from turnover by up to 65%. We propose learning and retention aware review recommenders that when combined are effective at reducing the risk of turnover by -29% but they unacceptably reduce
the overall expertise during reviews by -26%. We develop the Sophia recommender that suggest experts when none of the files under review are hoarded by developers but distributes knowledge when files are at risk. In this way, we are able to simultaneously increase expertise during review with a ΔExpertise of 6%, with a negligible impact on workload of ΔCoreWorkload of 0.09%, and reduce the files at risk by ΔFaR -28%. Sophia is integrated into GitHub pull requests allowing developers to select an appropriate expert or “learner” based on the context of the review. We release the Sophia bot as well as the code and data for replication purposes.


identifier: Ireland, Kierla  (2019) Is Earlier Better? Investigating Sensitive Periods for Musical Training in School-Aged Children.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Sensitive periods for musical training have been proposed, such that starting lessons in earlier childhood predicts better rhythm and melody skills in adult musicians. The goal of this thesis was to evaluate the effects of age of start (AoS) in musically trained children. We assessed whether children with an early AoS showed advantages over those who began later, with equivalent training. An inherent psychometric challenge with children is controlling for maturation. We started with tasks developed in our lab for adults, adapted them for school-aged children, and administered them to 213 children with and without music training. We calculated age-based scores, and estimated reliability and validity (Study 1). We then used age-based scores to assess contributions of AoS, training, and cognitive abilities to performance (Study 2). In Study 1, the children’s Rhythm Synchronization Task (c-RST) and Melody Discrimination Task (c-MDT) were found to have adequate convergent validity with adult analogues. Further, musically-trained children outperformed those without training, replicating findings of a ‘musician advantage’ for auditory tasks. The effect of age on task performance was largest for the c-RST, which poses the highest demands on auditory-motor integration. In Study 2, we investigated the influence of AoS on task performance at three cutoffs (AoS of 5, 6, and 7). We controlled for music training and other variables that predict musical engagement and task performance. We found a statistically significant effect of AoS and global cognitive ability, but only for the easiest task condition, Simple Melody discrimination. No AoS effects were found for the more difficult Transposed Melody discrimination, or for the c-RST, and these two were independently predicted by auditory-verbal working memory. Taken together, our results support a multidimensional model of musical task performance in childhood that includes the interaction of developmental, training-related and cognitive factors. The knowledge gained in this thesis may facilitate the application of musical training to other cognitive domains including language. Music and language share neural substrates and develop according to similar principles. The underlying mechanisms of language and music, and potential applications of our tasks to research on transfer effects, are discussed.


identifier: Hawej, Muamer ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3875-6124 <https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3875-6124>  (2019) Channel Estimation in Massive Multi-User MIMO Systems Based on Low-Rank Matrix Approximation.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
In recent years, massive Multi-User Multi-Input Multi-Output (MU-MIMO) system has attracted significant research interests in mobile communication systems. It has been considered as one of the promising technologies for 5G mobile wireless networks. In massive MU-MIMO system, the base station (BS) is equipped with a very large number of antenna elements and simultaneously serves a large number of single-antenna users. Compared to traditional MIMO system with fewer antennas, massive MU-MIMO system can offer many advantages such as significant improvements in both spectral and power efficiencies. However, the channel estimation in massive MU-MIMO system is particularly challenging due to large number of channel matrix entries to be estimated within a limited coherence time interval. This problem occurs in a single-cell case where both dimensions of the channel matrix grow large. Also, It happens in the multi-cell setting due to the pilot contamination effect.
In this thesis, the problem of channel estimation in both single-cell and multi-cell time division duplex (TDD) massive MU-MIMO systems is studied. Thus, two-channel estimation namely “nuclear norm (NN)” and “iterative weighted nuclear norm (IWNN)” approximation techniques are proposed to solve the channel estimation problem in both systems.
First, channel estimation in a single-cell TDD massive MU-MIMO system is formulated as a convex nuclear norm optimization problem with regularization parameter γ. In this study, the regularization parameter γ is selected based on the cross-validation (CV) curve method. The simulation results in terms of the normalized mean square error (NMSE) and uplink achievable sum-rate (ASR) are provided to show the effectiveness of the NN proposed scheme compared to the conventional least square (LS) estimator. Then, the IWNN approximation is proposed to improve the performance of the NN  method. Thus, the channel estimation in a single-cell TDD massive MU-MIMO system is formulated as a weighted nuclear norm optimization problem. The simulation results show the effectiveness of the IWNN estimation approach compared to the standard NN and conventional LS estimation methods in terms of the NMSE and ASR.
Second, both previous estimation techniques are extended to apply in a multi-cell TDD massive MU-MIMO system to mitigate pilot contamination effect. The simulation results in terms of the NMSE and uplink ASR show that the IWNN scheme outperforms the NN and LS estimations in the presence of high pilot contamination effect.
Finally, a novel channel estimation scheme namely “Approximate minimum mean square error (AMMSE)” is proposed to reduce the computational complexity of the minimum mean square error (MMSE) estimator which was proposed for multi-cell TDD massive MU-MIMO system. Furthermore, a brief analysis of the computational complexity regarding the number of multiplications of the proposed AMMSE estimator is provided. It has been shown that the complexity of the proposed AMMSE estimator is reduced compared to the conventional MMSE estimator. The simulation results in terms of the NMSE and the uplink ASR performances show the proposed AMMSE estimation performance is almost the same as the conventional MMSE estimator under two different scenarios: noise-limited and pilot contamination.


identifier: Dokania, Harshil  (2019) What makes Variation in Investment Decisions in Similar Firms: A Materiality Perspective.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: What makes similar firms respond differently to the emergence of a new institutional logic? I draw on practice theory to study the differences between firms that are largely similar in the conventional macro-institutional differentiators such as position, structure and governance. To do so, I conducted a qualitative study inside two firms in the automobile industry in Jamshedpur, India and discuss that in conjunction with the cognitive (head) aspects of strategy making, the daily practices may (hands) provide a complimentary understanding. I find, surprisingly, that a machine can have an agentic role to play in a firm's response to a new institutional logic and this response could vary depending on the impact that a firm's materials have on its supply chain practices, organizational practices and the mindset of top management. Finally, my model of the centrality of materiality conceptualizes the inter-relatedness of the role of materiality, cognitive aspects and daily practices within an organization.


identifier: Sultana, Bipasha  (2019) Threatening the Body Politic: Negotiating the boundaries of national belonging for Canadian foreign fighters.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Entrenched by borders, citizenship is more than an affiliation with a nation denoted by birth or documentation – it can be an indication of belonging, identity and value. Nowhere is the nebulousness of citizenship more apparent than in the case of returning foreign ISIS fighters. This thesis undertakes analyses of the discussion of foreign fighters across three distinct, but closely related arenas, namely: Canadian news articles on foreign fighters between the years 2000-2016, two video clips featuring debates between the Prime Minister and Members of Parliament on the topic, and comments posted in response to two CBC News articles. This thesis explores how these different permutations of news media become sites of contestation, wherein key players - journalists, politicians and the Canadian public - negotiate, oppose or align with the discourse of rehabilitation and reassimilation. Framing the act of leaving and re-entering Canada’s borders as treason, some propose solutions that are diametrically opposed to rehabilitation, namely, containment (via imprisonment), expulsion (via deportation) or annihilation. Ultimately, this thesis uncovers how the mediatization of returning foreign fighters sparks discussions that reignite nationalistic moral panic, whereby the boundaries of national belonging become tightened when Canada’s body politic is threatened.


identifier: Colatriano, David  (2019) Investigating marine microbial metabolism and diversity of Arctic ecosystems.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

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abstract:
The world’s oceans are essential for sustaining life on Earth and harbour a vast diversity of organisms. Marine microbes play crucial roles in global biogeochemical cycling and are at the base of marine food webs. Due to the technical difficulties associated with sampling northern marine systems, relatively little is known about the microbial community composition and metabolism of these ecosystems.

In this thesis work, the community composition and metabolism of northern marine ecosystems, including the Saint Lawrence Estuary, North Water and Canada Basin were described using meta-omic techniques. In the Saint Lawrence Estuary, differences in microbial community structure, metabolic lifestyles and carbon and nitrogen processing pathways were observed between the surface and deep waters. In the North Water, two distinct microbial communities with different taxonomic compositions and differing nutrient acquisition and resource allocation strategies were identified on either side of the polar mixed layer, and a third distinct community was described in the bottom waters. Functional and taxonomic analyses of the North Water polar mixed layer communities suggest a microbial community more typically associated with waters that undergo pulses of primary production on the Canadian side, while the community on the Greenland side was more typical of waters associated with a more steady level of primary production. In the Canada Basin, metagenomics was used to construct 360 Arctic Ocean metagenome assembled genomes. The analysis of six Chloroflexi MAGs revealed their potential for terrestrial derived aromatic compound degradation and that this metabolic capacity was acquired, at least in part, by lateral gene transfer from terrestrial organisms. To facilitate the meta-omic analyses performed in this thesis, a novel method to isolate microbial community DNA and proteins from the same environmental sample preserved in RNAlater was also developed.

	This thesis not only describes the microbial community composition and metabolism of northern marine systems over a broad geographic range, but also adds to the growing metagenomic and metaproteomic resource-base that can be used to develop and test hypotheses about northern marine microbial systems. Additionally, this work has implications for our understanding of how climate change may affect northern marine ecosystems.


identifier: Maduro, Alexandra  (2019) A qualitative analysis of elementary school students' school engagement using photo-elicitation interviews.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
School engagement is a personal characteristic that is multidimensional and composed of emotional, behavioral and cognitive components (Fredricks, Blumenfeld, & Paris, 2004). Students’ patterns of motivation influence outcomes such as their style of engagement and their quality of learning (Gottfried, 1990; Russell, Ainley, & Frydenberg, 2005; Saeed & Zyngier, 2012). Therefore, understanding student engagement and its influence is important for understanding student academic performance and educational trajectories. Due to research indicating a decline in engagement after elementary school, research focusing on contextual factors impacting student motivation and engagement in childhood is critical (Fredricks et al., 2004; Mo & Singh, 2008).
The current research sought to understand students’ motivation and engagement in school using a qualitative participatory research methodology, which allowed for the analysis of students’ first-hand accounts of their schooling experiences. Five participants were selected from a grade five class based on their self-reported engagement in school. Over six research sessions, they provided experience sampling data and completed auto-driven photo-elicitation interviews, responding to prompts targeting their emotional, behavioral, and cognitive school engagement. This interview style offered participants autonomy regarding the themes and information they shared throughout the research process.
Findings from this study shed light on the role of contributing factors to student engagement. Common themes introduced by participants included students’ relationships with parents, teachers, and other influential adults, classroom environments, and specifics of the school curriculum. These results also helped explain how students’ personal motivational styles, which are not always clearly defined, related to their styles of school engagement.


identifier: Fulton, Gwynne  (2019) Taking Life: Sovereignty, Spectrality, and Images of Death.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Ever since Plato’s Republic banned the poetics of mourning from the ideal polis, political power has been thought in relation to images of death. In recent years, theorists such as Foucault, Mbembe, and Derrida have examined the inextricability of sovereign power and the field of the visible, yet, their specific linkages remain undertheorized. In response, Taking Life draws on intersecting fields of photographic, critical race and poststructural theory, as well as curatorial practice, to develop an account that connects sovereignty to images. I demonstrate that the concept of sovereignty we have inherited from political modernity is “phantasmatic” insofar as it imagines itself as pure life cut off from death. This phantasm is governed by a double logic that I aim to expose through an analysis of images of death circulating in contemporary art and media. My account shows that sovereignty is made possible by the alterity of death and time, which it nonetheless attempts to repress and control when it “takes life,” for example, by executing a death penalty or by representing death in spectral images. Yet, images also amplify death and finitude in ways that render sovereignty fragile and precarious.

I formulate this double logic as general infrastructure that, following the work of Derrida, I call the “optic of spectrality.” I use this optic to read a series of discrete visual provocations, including death penalty photography in the analogue era and beyond; bystander recordings of antiblack police violence circulated on mobile platforms; and works by Harun Farocki that interrogate image operations in the context of global electronic warfare. These counter-histories of visuality agitate for an understanding of sovereignty that is exposed to death and spectral time. In exploring intersecting themes of sovereignty, spectrality, finitude, and technicity, I argue for the continued relevance of deconstruction for debates in visual cultures about visibility and violence, spectacle and surveillance, and the aesthetics of necropolitics. Focusing questions about the status and power of images in our post-photographic era of global media, Taking Life contributes to debates about capital punishment, drone warfare, and the trajectories of radical Black politics.