identifier: Barnet, Frances  (2016) Cusp.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

title: Cusp

abstract:
Cusp is a collection of seven short stories exploring the experiences of early adulthood and coming of age among young women. The stories explore themes such as sexuality, familial strains and relations, loss, and disillusionment. Though each story was written separately and is intended to operate as its own text, as a collection the pieces form a work which investigates complex reactions to trauma. Though characters of Cusp vary in terms of age, locations, motivations and histories, their experiences and reactions are ultimately meant to blend into and borrow from each other, creating a multifaceted depiction of female coming of age in western society.
Aspects of the collection borrow significant tropes from the fairy tale genre, most notably through their rejection of conventional reality. The collection’s dynamic interpretation of “reality” ranges from “Lace in Three Days,” set in conventional versions of Montreal and Edmonton, to “What I Was Looking For,” set in a Montreal infested with turtles, to “Rot,” and “Trees, the Ocean, Girls, Toes,” both set in absurd and fable-like landscapes. Despite the often humorous tones of the collection, each story is grounded in an emotional realism developed through the intimate proximity Cusp’s narrative maintains with its characters.


identifier: Salucci, Vanessa  (2016) Finding a Link Between the TRPV4 Ion Channel and Angiogenesis: A potential Therapeutic Target for Ischemic Heart Disease.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

type: Thesis NonPeerReviewed

abstract: Angiogenesis is the physiological process of creating new blood vessels. It is the body’s natural healing response to restore blood flow to damaged tissue. For people dealing with chronic diseases such as ischemic heart disease, the angiogenic response can be compromised. Calcium ions play an important role in several cellular processes, including cell proliferation. Transient Receptor Potential cation channel subfamily Vanilloid member 4 (TRPV4) is moderately permeable to Ca2+ and can be found in endothelial cells, which make up the inner lining of blood vessels. This study investigates the link between the TRPV4 channel and angiogenesis using an Aortic Ring Assay (ARA) on a mouse model. By exposing the rings to specific ion channel agonist (GSK1016790) and antagonist (HC067047), measurements of length and number of new blood vessel outgrowth were taken. Significant findings from this study can provide pertinent information on TRPV4 playing an important role as a mediator for intracellular signaling and can potentially be a therapeutic target for vascular remodeling to improve cardiac function and increase perfusion to ischemic areas.


identifier: MacDonald, Cheryl  (2016) “Yo! You Can’t Say That!”: Understandings of Gender and Sexuality and Attitudes Towards Homosexuality Among Male Major Midget AAA Ice Hockey Players in Canada.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
“Yo! You Can’t Say That!”: Understandings of Gender and Sexuality and Attitudes Towards Homosexuality Among Male Major Midget AAA Ice Hockey Players in Canada

Cheryl MacDonald, Ph.D.
Concordia University, 2016

        This doctoral research examines male Major Midget AAA ice hockey in Canada as a site for the changing perceptions of, and attitudes towards, homosexuality in boys’ and men’s hockey. Qualitative and quantitative surveys, interviews, and a social media content analysis were used to identify and analyze the ways in which gender and sexuality are understood amongst the players as well as how their attitudes towards masculinity and homosexuality are shaped and presented in their interactions with teammates and the individuals closest to them.  Major Midget AAA is the most elite level at which youth between the ages of fifteen and eighteen can play before moving on to Junior hockey in Canada. This level is a unique site for an investigation of this nature because the players occupy a unique nexus through which they participate in a sport where homosexuality has been historically unacceptable, yet they are also considered members of a generation that is understood to be much more accepting of homosexuality than its predecessors because it is increasingly visible to them on television, the internet, and perhaps even amongst their families and friends.
            The study situates itself within a contemporary body of literature that is divided regarding the current status of homophobia in sport. On the one hand, boys’ and men’s ice hockey in Canada is characterized in academic literature as encouraging stereotypically or traditionally masculine traits such as aggression, mental and physical toughness, defiance of authority, and anti-femininity. On the other hand, there is evidence that sport is not fully responsible for this kind of socialization and some scholars have begun to argue that male athletes are becoming increasingly open to other presentations of masculinity that diverge from the stereotypical and traditional ones, including a higher rate of acceptance of gay male athletes. The findings of the study occupy a position between these two camps, suggesting that although young male ice hockey players may not be entirely averse to the idea of homosexuality in ice hockey, some have reservations about the potential of having an openly gay teammate.


identifier: Moreno Bustamante, Lina María  (2016) Talking About Images; Possible Conversations in Art Education.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: In this thesis I developed a conversation exercise that explored the convergence between talking and making, which have traditionally been differentiated in visual arts curricula, enabling diverse interpretative and creative possibilities in relation to images. This exercise was revised and adjusted throughout three workshops: two with a group of students from the Art Education department at Concordia University and a third one with a different group from the same program. In this exercise, talking was understood as a creative activity where students could reshape their conversations and explore their relation to certain images. More than discussing what a picture represented, I proposed a mapping/talking exercise where we looked at the connections between images and between interpretations. Since the understandings found through conversation are interdependent –they are built in the interactions among the group– talking could enable meanings that individuals would not have been able to achieve on their own. This resulted in a sense of commonality where others’ opinions were not just valid but were also part of a collective creation of meaning and an opportunity for peer-to-peer learning.


identifier: Brown, Christopher  (2016) Elsewhere and Other Stories.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

title: Elsewhere and Other Stories

abstract:
Elsewhere and Other Stories
Christopher Brown

	Elsewhere and Other Stories is a collection of short fiction that explores notions of selfhood as they relate to space and place.  Within these stories, characters struggle internally with alienation, aimlessness, and self-doubt, but it is through interactions with the external (or natural) world that they are able to contemplate the elusive – and sometimes detrimental – aspects of their identities.  Whether it be from inside a house to the backyard, or from Kingston to Banff National Park, what enables each character’s quiet self-discovery is the movement from one place to another; in a sense, each character must be uprooted in order to grasp an interior sense of belonging.  As the stories are predominantly set outdoors, they often depict encounters between protagonists and the wilderness in ways that reflect how fleeting moments can have the most richly complicated effects on the individual’s perception of the world.  Bears, crows, trees, mountains—these representatives of the foreign and unfamiliar are what lead the characters of the Elsewhere and Other Stories to a better understanding of home, direction, and selfhood.


identifier: Leithman, Gillian  (2016) Aging in the 21st century workplace: The career motivation of mature workers.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
The current thesis examined the late career motivation of older workers. Specifically, I sought to explore the willingness of mature employees to share their knowledge and experience with younger colleagues, and their intention to continue working as opposed to retiring. Three studies were conducted using qualitative and quantitative approaches. The objective of the first qualitative study was to investigate how people felt about sharing their knowledge with their younger counterparts and whether or not this motivation changed as people transitioned from work to retirement. Findings based on 16 interviews indicated that the majority of participants wanted to share their knowledge however, this desire could only be actualized in an organizational environment that valued older workers. Results also suggested that individual motives such as the need for achievement, power and affiliation have an impact upon the decision to continue working or retire.
	Using the propositions that emerged from Study 1, The Late Career Motivation Scale was developed in Study 2. One hundred and eighty two participants completed a survey measure, and an exploratory factor analysis revealed a four-factor model: two factors focused on reasons for retirement, and two factors focused on reasons for continued work.
   	 In Study 3, I used an online survey to examine the links between the organizational environment and knowledge sharing behaviour, as well as the relationships between individual motives and the likelihood of continued work. The factors of the Late Career Motivation Scale were proposed as mediators between the predictor and outcome variables. One hundred and forty seven participants filled out the on-line survey. Findings revealed that having supportive colleagues predicted knowledge sharing behaviour. Moreover, this relationship was mediated by workplace generativity and the affiliation motive. In addition, achievement motivation was related to the intention to continue working, whereas the power motive was not. Overall, findings indicate that mature employees want to share their knowledge with their younger counterparts, however, an organizational environment that nurtures and values expertise is essential for knowledge sharing to occur. Practical implications are discussed.


identifier: Ali, Abdallah  (2016) Design of an Exhaust Gas Energy Recovery System for Internal Combustion Engines.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: The current research paper presents the experimental findings following exhaust runner heat exchanger tests as well as a realistic theoretical proof of concept for steam turbocharging by using said results. A preliminary heat analysis was completed in order to first assess the magnitude of recoverable energy from the spent exhaust gases. Through experimentation, actual heat absorbed by the water was successfully obtained and was higher than predicted. The proof of concept was then completed by inputting the experimental engine parameters into a turbocharged Otto cycle combined to a Rankine cycle using experimental figures for the heat input stages of the assessment. The theory ultimately resulted in peak improvements of 7.446% in engine thermal efficiency and an interesting reduction in brake specific fuel consumption of 6.930% near 2500 RPM. Furthermore, through the use of steam turbocharging, brake engine power can theoretically be improved by 35.00%, resulting in a 13.73% increase in the current experimental engine’s power density. The test engine was mounted onto a hydraulic engine dyno and a baseline of its power and torque output was recorded for final confirmation that the heat recuperated via this energy recovery system was not being negated elsewhere in the combined cycle. Finally, a preliminary steam turbine was designed and the optimal system configuration was presented for future use. The obtained results clearly demonstrate that steam turbocharging is a novel energy recovery system with great potential.


identifier: Popp, Alexandru  (2016) Reducing waiting time for elective surgeries.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Currently, the positioning of patients on elective surgical procedures wait lists is carried out through a decentralized approach involves a complex set of interactions between hospital capacities and patient demands in Quebec.
The primary goal of the research is to determine if a centralized vs. the present decentralized organizational system is beneficial for the patients, in such a manner that the priority on the waiting lists of patients is updated to reflect the amount of time they have waited. The current study combines quantitative computer simulations and qualitative interviews that help in the understanding and interpretation of the simulations’ results. The qualitative and quantitative results are triangulated in order to provide better analysis of the results.
The qualitative portion of this examination, based on different literature reviews as well as on 12 interviews performed with the hospital’s staff, aims at understanding the environment and what pressures the hospital staff face in their procedures to create the elective surgeries schedule. The results show that different surgical units within the same hospital have different methods to plan the surgical schedule.
The quantitative analysis is based on simulating a centralized planning method of elective surgeries planning for five different surgical units in order to provide different perspectives vis-à-vis the current decentralized planning method. The difference between the approaches is provided in order to obtain the best method that minimizes elective surgery waiting time, taking in consideration certain factors.
The results of the simulations show that centralization is beneficial for certain surgical units and for specific indicators, where decentralization is beneficial for other units and/or indicators. However, there is no definitive overall conclusion that centralization is better than decentralization or vice-versa.


identifier: Gabriel, Amanda  (2016) Development of Accelerated Solvent Extraction - Solid Phase Microextraction Method for the Analysis of Brevetoxins in Sediment Samples.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
The inability of modern harmful algal bloom detection techniques to identify past K. brevis events has left the field without access to almost 300 years of historical data essential to the assessment of their apparent increase in frequency and intensity. As such, the marine sediments underlying K. brevis affected areas, and the final sink of the brevetoxins they produce when in bloom, represent the only means of establishing the spatial and temporal history of past occurrences.

        In this work, a novel accelerated solvent extraction - solid phase microextraction method has been developed and optimized for the extraction and quantification of brevetoxins from marine sediments. Although the extraction method requires further optimization to improve its extraction efficiency and robustness, the method provides an effective means of recovering brevetoxins from most normal marine sediments, with total recoveries of spiked sediments as high as 62.0 ± 9.5% for brevetoxin-2 and 61.6 ± 6.5% for brevetoxin-3. The development of the method has allowed for several procedural pitfalls to be identified, including the potential presence of several contaminants and interferences detrimental to the precise and accurate quantification of brevetoxin using mass spectrometry. The most important among these limiting factors is the presence of high concentrations of co-extracted hydrophobic organic carbon, which affects the extraction efficiency of brevetoxins through the entrainment and sedimentation of extracted brevetoxins from the sediment extract by the formation of organic matter-rich flocculates. A strong relationship exists between organic carbon concentration and brevetoxin recoveries, which allows correcting for the effect of flocculation.


identifier: Alinia, Sahar  (2016) REAL TIME POSE CONTROL OF PARALLEL ROBOT.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Parallel robot is a kind of robot that uses several computer-controlled serial chains to support
a single platform, or end-effector (EE). It has been widely used in the various applications such as
aircraft simulator, high precision machining and aerospace manufacturing, etc. However, achieving
high precision pose control of 6-DOF parallel robot makes a challenge for robotic researchers due
to the lack of dynamic modeling of robot and accurate measurement of pose. The present research
study aims at controlling the pose of end-effector (EE) of 6-RSS parallel platform in real time.
In this thesis, the kinematics of the robot including the inverse and forward kinematics are presented.
The numerical solution of forward kinematics model is provided and the forward kinematic
model is implemented in the Simulink to serve as the parallel robot for the pose control design.
A Simulink model is built in order to simulate and implement the pose controller for the parallel
robot.
The parallel robot consists of six Brush-Less DC (BLDC) actuators. Both linear and nonlinear
dynamic models of the DC motors are derived. The parameters of linear dynamic models are
identified using Genetic Algorithm (GA). Also, the parameters of nonlinear actuators’ dynamic
model are identified using the multi-objective optimization method. Then a proportional-integralderivative
(PID) controller is used to control the EE and track the desired trajectory. The simulation
results demonstrate an outstanding tracking performance for the designed PID controller.
To further validate the designed pose controller in the real time experiment, we use the photogrammetry
sensor–C-track from Creaform Inc. to obtain the pose of EE. By comparing the
desired pose with the current measured pose by C-track, the inverse kinematic model of the parallel
robot is validated and the experimental results demonstrate that the inverse kinematic model is
accurate enough for the subsequent real time pose control.
In order to control the pose of the parallel robot, the pose measured by C-track is used to
implement the real time pose feedback control system. Since the C-track is connected to one
computer and the parallel robot is connected to a different computer, it is necessary to transfer
the obtained pose data by C-track from one PC to the other one that controls the actuators of
the parallel robot. A serial port has been used for the real time data transferring. A lot of effort
has been dedicated to the retrial of the pose data in the real time pose control Simulink blocks.
Finally, six PID controllers are applied to track the pose of the EE. The experimental results show
an acceptable pose tracking control of the system.


identifier: Walker, Cindy  (2016) Transformative Tensions in the Third Age: Mature Students and the Changing Face of Teacher Education.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: The purpose of this study is to investigate the lived experiences of four mature students, Rob, Rosemary, Charlotte and myself (all over 45 years of age) and our return to learning to pursue a professional teaching career. Given the influx of mature learners at the postsecondary level, sometimes referred to as ‘third age’ students, more attention is needed on the experiences of this population, particularly in fields of study like teacher education, which has historically targeted younger students. From our stories of returning to learning, three themes emerged that defined our experiences: relationships, values and challenges. Based on these themes, the complexity of being marginalized due to age, yet privileged due to life experience, came to the forefront. As mature learners, we experienced transformative tensions that suggest shifts in postsecondary education are warranted in terms of life-long learning and the capacity of institutions to provide the kinds of personal and professional support needed for mature student success. With particular attention to holistic education, our stories highlight respect, empathy and compassion for others, from which core concepts of duality, ambiguity, dialectic, power dynamics and living curriculum emerged as outcomes of this study. Examining the lived experiences of mature learners in higher education allows rich transformative experiences and innovative learning perspectives to develop concerning the understanding of self, education, and classroom communities, and by extension, creation and transformation of a learning society and culture.


identifier: Taheri Hosseinabadi, Shaghayegh  (2016) Robust Nuclei Segmentation in Cytohistopathological Images Using Statistical Level Set Approach with Topology Preserving Constraint.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Computerized assessments of cyto-histological specimens have drawn increased attention in the field of digital pathology as the result of developments in digital whole slide scanners and computer hardwares. Due to the essential role of nucleus in cellular functionality, automatic segmentation of cell nuclei is a fundamental prerequisite for all cyto-histological automated systems. In 2D projection images, nuclei commonly appear to overlap each other, and the separation of severely overlapping regions is one of the most challenging tasks in computer vision.
In this thesis, we will present a novel segmentation technique which effectively addresses the problem of segmenting touching or overlapping cell nuclei in cyto-histological images.
The proposed framework is mainly based upon a statistical level-set approach along with a topology preserving criteria that successfully carries out the task of segmentation and separation of nuclei at the same time. The proposed method is evaluated qualitatively on Hematoxylin and Eosin stained images, and quantitatively and qualitatively on fluorescent stained images. The results indicate that the method outperforms the conventional nuclei segmentation approaches, e.g. thresholding and watershed segmentation.


identifier: Polin, Aleiya  (2016) On the Stylistic Constraints in Literary Translation: A Case Study of the Translation of J.M.G. Le Clézio’s Histoire du pied et autres fantaisies into English.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: J. M. G. Le Clézio was the recipient of the 2008 Nobel Prize in Literature. His Histoire du pied et autres fantaisies was published in 2011. It is a breathtaking collection of short stories which paints the portraits of women determined to fight off the difficulties they encounter. These tales have yet to be officially translated into English. The aim of this thesis was threefold—while being a translation into English of Histoire du pied, it set out to provide a better understanding of the subject of stylistics in relation to literary translation. It also posited that due to stylistic “constraints” (Boase-Beier 2006: 54), literary translators leave inevitable “fingerprints” (Baker 2000: 244) and resort to “textual deformation” (Berman 2000: 286), partly naturalizing the target text in the process. I focused on the stylistic issues—namely issues pertaining to sentence structure and syntax, diction and figurative language, encountered during my translation. My stylistic choices left traces in the target text, inevitably combining authorial and translational style.


identifier: Campbell, Zachariah  (2016) Re-Dreaming China: Reflexivity, Revisionism, and Orientalism in the Wuxia Cinema of Chor Yuen.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Although significant scholarship has been devoted to Hong Kong martial arts cinema in recent decades, with emphasis on King Hu and Change Cheh as key creative figures, relatively little attention has been devoted to Chor Yuen, who directed over forty-seven feature films for the Shaw Brothers studio between 1971 and 1985, most of them in the wuxia genre. In this paper I argue that a critical investigation of Chor Yuen’s work through an auteurist lens reveals a director with a distinct vision and formal sensibility, and encourages a reconsideration of his role in shaping the development of the genre. Through a reading of Chor Yuen’s directorial style and his ludic deployment of Chinese cultural tropes in his wuxia films, this paper will illustrate how these produce a form of reflexive and self-orientalizing cinema that both affirmed and subverted the 'dream of China' proffered by Shaw Brothers to the Chinese diaspora. By heightening the factitious, orientalist dimension of this nostalgic production, Chor interrupted its capacity to work in pure ideologically nationalistic terms. Communicating this transmuted ‘dream’ forward, influencing future directors and variations of the genre, Chor Yuen has contributed meaningfully both to the development of Hong Kong’s cultural hybridity, and to promoting new, essentialized, mobile permutations of ‘Chineseness.’


identifier: Gendron, Eliane  (2016) Développement d’un programme de musicothérapie auprès d’adolescents à risque.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: La littérature étant grandissante au sujet des adolescents à risque en musicothérapie, cette étude contribue à faire avancer la recherche à ce propos.  Elle vise à développer un programme d’intervention en musicothérapie pour les adolescents qui sont exposés à des facteurs de risque en lien avec des difficultés psychosociales.  Ce programme d’intervention de huit séances propose des techniques d’intervention musicothérapeutiques incluant l’improvisation, l’utilisation de la voix, l’écoute de musique et la discussion afin de développer l’estime de soi et l’expression des émotions.  Il est basé sur l’analyse de données découlant des écrits en français et en anglais en musicothérapie, musique et psychologie.  Il semble que la musicothérapie pourrait contribuer au plan préventif en maximisant les facteurs de protection, en travaillant l’expression personnelle, l’estime de soi, la capacité d’adaptation et les habiletés sociales.  Le travail sur l’expression personnelle et des émotions sont des aspects récurrents dans les écrits concernant les adolescents et la musicothérapie.  De plus, ce sont deux catégories recensées suite à l’analyse de données, c’est pourquoi les expériences présentées dans le programme découlent de celles-ci.  Suite à la recension des écrits, les données ont été analysées et regroupées par thèmes et catégories, puis le programme a pu être développé.  Les résultats de cette recherche restent au niveau théorique.  Il est recommandé que ce programme soit mis en application, donc de réaliser les autres étapes de la recherche-intervention afin de valider le programme.  Finalement des pistes pour de futures recherches sont aussi discutées.


identifier: Franco, Tanis  (2015) Quarry.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

title: Quarry

abstract: Quarry is a form of deepening the embodiment of queerness. Quarry is to query is to queer the quarrying or extracting of useful material. Quarry is concerned with queer social spaces such as parties and bars, public spaces, private spaces, and contested or abandoned spaces. Sarah Ahmed posits that “spaces are not exterior to bodies” (Queer Phenomenology); bodies interact with space, interact with their landscape, and the queer/trans body further inhabits/disinhabits this space because it is fleeting. The instability of space and territory is inherent to queerness and this collection intends to excavate this notion. The transit of Quarry is the same as the excavation process: the collection moves from the external voyeur in social spaces, to the external excavator in nature, to the internal inquirer. Excavation of space, excavation of self, and voyeurism are ways in which the speaker tries to understand experience, though that experience can sometimes be disjunctive or faceted. The speaker in these poems moves from body to body: at once celebratory/revelatory, at once anxious, at once lamenting for the loss of friendship, love, or community, queer bodies inhabit their intensity and disorientation if only for this moment.


identifier: latiwesh, akrem  (2015) Energy Efficient Spectrum Aware Clustering for Cognitive Sensor Networks.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Combining cognitive radio technology with wireless sensor networks has been introduced in the literature as a solution to the spectrum deficiency problem. Many clustering algorithms have been proposed for wireless sensor networks. However, most of them are not suitable for cognitive sensor networks as they operate on a fixed channel settings. In this work, we propose a low energy spectrum aware clustering algorithm, CogLEACH-C, based on CogLEACH algorithm in order to improve the performance in terms of system lifetime.To accomplish that, energy level of each sensor node should be taken into account during the selection process. CogLEACH-C uses not only the number of channels sensed idle by the node but also the node energy level in determining the probability for each node to be a cluster head. Hence, allows the base station to select K cluster heads that are in a better position for the nodes in the network.

Moreover, as the network consists of primary users (PU) and secondary users sharing the same channels with the priority for the primary users, secondary nodes that are within the coverage of primary users will sense a low number of idle channels depending on the primary user’s activity. As a result, those nodes will experience difficulty to connect with a cluster head and that affects the
performance of the network.In particular, when the probability of a channel to be idle is low and the majority of the channels are within the coverage of the PUs. We provide an analysis of the probability of connectivity of a sensor node in cognitive wireless sensor network when CogLeach-C algorithm is used, and we show how that affects the performance of the network in terms of delay and network lifetime.


identifier: Brown, Sarah  (2016) Dinner with the Lynx.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

title: Dinner with the Lynx

abstract: "Canada is the essence of not being. Not English, not American, it is the mathematic of not being. And a subtle flavour — we're more like celery as a flavour." Comedian Mike Myers' summary reflects a contemporary and pervasive pop-culture interpretation of the country, one which this collection of short stories explores. Dinner with the Lynx is a series of stories interconnected by ideas of "place" in relation to Canadian culture. Setting is a major feature; each story is set in Canada and highlights the localized vernacular and kitsch of its respective city or town. The writing is preoccupied with the Canadian body in its many forms: biological, political, geographic. It fixates on these various iterations, whether explored through a character's body or the body politic of a specific place, as a venue for cultural self-definition. Plotlines play with contemporary hallmarks of Canadiana, from B.C.'s Hastings Street havoc to Saskatchewan's crop circles to the elusive lynx of the Northwest. These stories follow in the footsteps of such Canadian- themed collections as All the Anxious Girls on Earth by ZsuZsi Gartner, Daydreams of Angels by Heather O'Neill, Floating like the Dead by Yasuko Thanh, Hellgoing by Lynn Coady, and Born with a Tooth by Joseph Boyden.


identifier: Incisa della Rocchetta, Caterina  (2016) Love-Rats.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

title: Love-Rats

abstract:
Love-Rats is a short story collection concerned with love and relationships in contemporary society in the United Kingdom and North America.
The tone of the collection is generally ironic, with longer stories allowing for deeper character development and a larger range of tone. The majority of the settings, plots, and characters are dark and absurdist.
Throughout the collection boyfriends morph into different shapes and forms including sloths, rats, and vampires. The recurring theme of anthropomorphism in respect to love allows the stories to explore painful aspects of relationships, or damaging types of relationships, and look at them from a distance.
Many contemporary authors inspired this work, mostly notably Dan Rhodes, Lydia Davis, Amy Hempel, Kurt Vonnegut, and Etgar Keret. In particular, the short shorts by these authors served as a pattern to follow because of their use of minimalist language and humour. Some stories in the collection have also been inspired by nonfiction writing on the subject of romance from various media, including newspapers and magazines (The New Yorker, The New York Times, and the Guardian) as well as blogs and websites (The Toast and BuzzFeed), television shows (Girls and Broad City), and online dating apps (OkCupid and Tinder).


identifier: Zhang, Dingyu  (2016) Organizational Structure and Process—An Analysis in Decision-Making.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
It is known that the performance of an organization is highly related to the process through which activities are organized. However, the dyadic relationship between organizational structure and process along with their influence on performance become complicated
when faced with complex activities. We explore this relationship and its influence by following three lines of study.

First of all, in a setting of product development, we introduce a process model for organizing concurrent activities. We show how to determine an optimal schedule. The results demonstrate the variation of design performance, i.e., lead-time, rework, and total
workload, under a set of different overlapping strategies. Although depending on the setting of case incidences, there generally exists no dominant strategy over all the performance measures. As a result, managers should select the strategy based on preference over the
measures. Secondly, we address the question of how should an organization be structured in a static as well as dynamic process variation. Organizational form will be changed along two dimensions, i.e., departmentalization and assignment, whereas process evolves in terms of complexity. In addition to improving the alignment of organizational structure with a static process, we emphasize and study strategic guidelines of restructuring in the presence of a dynamic environment. The last line of study is geared towards evaluating a group of organizations which differ in preference. In the form of decision process, team specialty, and communication structure, we show the comparative performance between two stylized decision processes, i.e., hierarchy and polyarchy, with or without communication between agents in an environment where each project must be determined by two features.


identifier: Dewan, Kanwaljeet  (2016) Towards an improved understanding of community-based monitoring: A case study of the Wemindji Community Fisheries Program.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Community-based monitoring (CBM) is widely recognised as a cost-effective alternative to conventional externally-driven, professionally executed monitoring. It has the potential to improve understanding of wildlife and ecosystems, enhance local authority and capacity, and contribute to the inter-generational transmission and cross-cultural exchange of knowledge. CBM can take a variety of governance approaches, including three categories of CBM involving indigenous communities: contributory monitoring (limited to local inputs); collaborative monitoring (roughly equal partnerships); and community-led (local control over all aspects). Unfortunately, few assessments of local indigenous perspectives are available within the field of CBM. This thesis addresses this gap by drawing upon the experience of a James Bay Cree First Nations community with one of the longest running subsistence fisheries monitoring programs ever conducted in the Canadian north. Specifically, we identify the benefits and challenges experienced as a result of twenty-three years of the Wemindji Coastal Fisheries Monitoring Program. The study uses semi-structured interviews and participant-based observations to facilitate the identification of program components, with a strong emphasis on the perspectives of local Cree program participants and administrators. It is hoped that my findings can contribute to the design and implementation of locally meaningful, and culturally appropriate, CBM programs that simultaneously maximize knowledge and labour inputs from local indigenous resource users.


identifier: Malik, Mona'a  (2015) Family Business.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

title: Family Business

abstract: Family Business is a short story collection concerned with characters who must deal with an uprooting in both a literal, and an emotional, sense. The characters struggle with the consequences of being dislocated from their place of origin, from their traditions and from their mother tongue. The stories explore the different stages of immigration through generational conflicts, the difficulties in maintaining ties to cultural traditions, as well as the stereotyping and racism that occur within the characters’ Muslim communities. These stories also grapple with ideas about assimilation, and how different people negotiate the act of traversing various cultures. The primary setting, St. John’s, Newfoundland, helps to illustrate the challenges of integrating into a small, isolated town whose traditional population shows little diversity. Some characters find freedom after leaving what they often view as a claustrophobic Muslim community, while others continue their struggle to find a place within that community. Many of the stories adopt a third person, omniscient POV, which allows for a broader context in which to understand these characters, many of who are caught between two, distinct cultural worlds.


identifier: Khosravi, Mohammad  (2016) Receding Horizon based Cooperative Vehicle Control with Optimal Task Allocation.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: The problem of cooperative multi-target interception in an uncertain environment is investigated in this thesis. The targets arrive in the mission space sequentially at a priori unknown time instants and a priori unknown locations, and then move on a priori unknown trajectories. A group of vehicles with known dynamics are employed to visit the targets as quickly and efficiently as possible. To this end, a time-discounting reward is defined for each target which can be collected only if one of the vehicles visits that target. A cooperative receding horizon scheme is designed, which predicts the future positions of the targets and maximizes the estimate of the expected total collectible rewards, accordingly. The problem is initially investigated for the case when there are a finite number of targets arriving in the mission space sequentially. It is shown that the number of targets that are not visited by any vehicle in the mission space will be sufficiently small if the targets arrive sufficiently infrequently. The problem is then generalized to the case of infinite number of targets and a finite-time convergence analysis is also presented. A more practical case where the vehicles have limited sensing and communication ranges is also investigated using a game-theoretic approach. The problem is then solved for the case when a cluster of vehicles is required to visit each target. Simulations confirm the efficacy of the proposed strategies.


identifier: Maqnas, Alaa  (2016) Chemogenomic profiling of the fungal pathogen Candida albicans.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Nosocomial blood stream infections and candidemia caused by the opportunistic fungal pathogen, Candida albicans, represent a serious medical problem. Hence, there is a great need to better understand the signalling and/or regulatory pathways that confers sensitivity and/or resistance to a given class of antifungal agent for this fungal pathogen. The main aim of the present study was to use a modified version of the gene replacement and conditional expression (GRACE) library to study the interactions between anti-fungal drugs (fluconazole, posaconazole and amphotericin B) and a set of non-conditional mutants in non-essential C. albicans genes. Further, the utility of using the modified version (GRACE v1.0) of GRACE library in comparison to the parent GRACE library was assessed. Overall, my findings showed that the chemogenomic profiles within drug classes were highly similar. The small amount of overlap between classes suggests that different drug classes interact with discrete networks of C. albicans genes. Importantly, my findings also demonstrate that screening of compounds, specifically azoles, in GRACE parent library may result in false positive findings possibly due to interaction with tetracycline. Future work involving further characterization of non-essential C. albicans genes is warranted to better understand the biology this model organism.


identifier: Mohammadhosseinpour, Bahareh  (2016) Nitrogen Removal by the Combined Partial Nitrification and Anammox Processes in the BioCAST Technology.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Nitrogen removal from synthetic wastewater through combined partial nitrification (PN) and anammox processes in a new integrated multi-environment wastewater treatment technology called BioCAST was investigated.  Based on the design and operation strategy of BioCAST technology, it was assumed that this technology was suitable for nitrogen removal by the combined nitrification and anammox processes. This is due to the fact that the BioCAST technology contains several zones with different environmental conditions that are required for the growth and activity of both ammonium oxidizing bacteria (AOB) and anammox bacteria. Moreover, the three zones are in physical contact with each other, implying that the byproduct of nitrification; i.e. nitrite will be readily converted by the anammox bacteria to nitrogen gas via the anammox process. The system operated with ammonium concentration in the range of 10 to 350 mg/l for 120 days at hydraulic retention times of 2 and 4 days. The nitrogen loading rates (NLR) during the reported operation period changed in the range of 0.0021 to 0.17 kg/m3.d. The most favorable dissolved oxygen (DO) concentration inside the aerobic, microaerophilic and anoxic zones of the first BioCAST bioreactor was found to be in the range of 0.9-1.2 mg/l, 0.1-0.4 mg/l and 0.0 mg/l, respectively. The most favorable pH during partial nitrification and anammox processes was found to be in the range of 7.5-8.1 in aerobic and microaerophilic zones and 7.8-8.1 in the anoxic zone of the bioreactor.  The BioCAST technology demonstrated ammonia-nitrogen as well as total nitrogen (TN) removal efficiencies up to 85.6% and 81.2%, respectively, through PN and the anammox processes. Furthermore, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) revealed the presence of irregular cauliflower structure of anammox bacteria inside the BioCAST bioreactor. In conclusion, the BioCAST technology with unique characteristics for combined partial nitrification (PN) and anammox processes is suitable for the removal of nitrogen from a synthetic wastewater without the need for organic carbon.


identifier: zhao, kun  (2016) The effects of litigation on mergers and acquisitions.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: This paper investigates whether litigation impacts merger and acquisition outcomes for defendant firms. Our results indicate that being a defendant of a single lawsuit within the last two years appears to significantly increase the premium paid to this firm when it becomes the target of a takeover attempt, while incurring multiple lawsuits over this time frame decreases the premium (albeit not significantly so). Litigation is also correlated with takeover announcements, as incurring lawsuits within the last two years is associated with a significant increase in target firm candidacy (the likelihood of becoming a target), and incurring litigation after the takeover announcement is associated with a significant decrease in takeover completion. We explain our results through investor overreaction and uncertainty avoidance.


identifier: Younes, Amen Mansour Amer  (2016) Semi-analytical Modeling Approach for Flow Boiling Heat Transfer in Uniformly Heated Horizontal Micro-Channels.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Two-phase flow boiling in mini/micro-channels is an essential topic for studying and developing miniature cooling systems which have a wide range of industrial, automotive, nuclear, and aerospace applications, since they insure providing higher heat dissipation and ability to work at surface temperature higher than those provided by conventional channel sizes. Therefore, it has gained much more attention recently and several extensive studies have been carried out for predicting the essential design parameters such as heat transfer coefficient, pressure drop, void fraction, and critical heat flux. However, most of the available predictive methods are mainly empirical correlations and few analytical models. Moreover, several essential and fundamental flow boiling phenomena, such as heat transfer mechanisms, liquid film dry-out, and bubble dynamics, are still unclear and need to be investigated and clarified.
The main objective of the present thesis is to investigate the characteristics of two basic flow patterns, namely, annular flow and slug flow for flow boiling in a single horizontal mini/micro-channel under uniform distribution of heat flux. A one-dimensional semi-analytical model has been developed based on the principle of the separated flow model. It predicts heat transfer coefficient, pressure drop, void fraction, and critical heat flux in the annular flow regime, which is usually observed at medium and high vapor qualities. The basic model equations are derived by applying the mass, momentum, and energy equations for each phase. The obtained equations are initial value differential equations, which are solved numerically by Runge-Kutta method. Furthermore, the influences of interfacial parameters on the main dependent variables have been addressed. Liquid film, trapped between the vapor core and tube inner surface in the annular flow regime, is an essential parameter since the evaporation of liquid film is the dominant heat transfer mechanism in this regime and the critical heat flux (CHF) is identified based on the dry-out of the liquid film. Therefore, the liquid film was fairly predicted, to estimate heat transfer coefficient and CHF in annular flow regime. Moreover, a semi-analytical model for slug flow has been developed based on the principle of drift flux model to investigate the characteristics of slug flow pattern such as bubble velocity, bubble length, liquid slug velocity, liquid slug length, and bubble frequency.
The effects of working fluid properties, mass flux, heat flux, and channel size on the modeled parameters have been taken into account. As a result, it has been found that in the annular flow regime, the CHF increases with the mass flux and channel size, while it is inversely proportional to the critical vapor quality. Furthermore, the results of two-phase flow boiling heat transfer coefficient showed that heat transfer coefficient increases with mass flux and vapor quality, while it decreases when the channel size increases. Regarding the pressure drop results, it has been observed that the pressure drop is inversely proportional to the channel size, and increases with the mass flux and vapor quality. Additionally, it has been shown that void fraction increases with vapor quality and decreases with channel size. Also, the bubble frequency in slug flow regime has been predicted, and it is shown that the bubble frequency increases with vapor quality and mass flux. Furthermore, it has been noticed that the peak of the bubble frequency increases with mass flux.
The proposed flow boiling models have been validated against extensive two-phase experimental data in literature for the critical heat flux (CHF), heat transfer coefficient (h_tp) , pressure drop (dP_tp), and void fraction (α), respectively, for different working fluids (Water, CO2, LN2, FC72, R134a, R1234ze, R245f2, R236fa, R410a, and R113) in horizontal micro-channels with a range of hydraulic diameters of 0.244≤D≤3.1 mm, and a range of the Reynolds numbers of 1,900≤Re_eq≤48,000. The annular flow model predicted the tested experimental data of the CHF, h_tp, dP_tp, and α, with mean absolute error of 20%, 18%, 23%, and 3%, respectively. Furthermore, a good agreement with the experimental data of bubble lengths and bubble frequency has been obtained with MAE of 27.83% and 29.55 %, respectively.


identifier: Yu, Bo  (2016) The Impacts of the Relation between Users and Software Agents in Delegated Negotiation: A Control Perspective.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Software agents are being increasingly applied to e-commerce activities, including commerce
negotiations. Agents can be used to conduct negotiation tasks on behalf of users. When users
delegate negotiation tasks to agents, information technology plays a role in determining social
affairs. The locus of control over social affairs partially shifts from human participants to
technology. When this negotiation approach is adopted, an important question arises: how will
users treat and assess their agents when they delegate negotiations to agents? It is challenging to
develop agents that are able to connect with users in meaningful ways. This thesis argues that users
will not treat their negotiating agents in the same manner as they treat classical computer-enabled
tools or aids, because of the autonomy of the agents. When assessing agents, users will be heavily
oriented towards their relationships with the agents. Drawing on several streams of literature, this
thesis proposes that the notion of control helps to characterize the relationships between users and
agents. Users’ experienced control will influence their assessments and adoption of their
negotiating agents. Users’ experienced control can connect to instrumental control, which is a set
of means that empowers the interaction between users and agents. An experiment was conducted
in order to test these propositions. The experiment results provide support for the propositions.


identifier: Zhu, Lingzi  (2016) Why firms go dark.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

title: Why firms go dark

abstract: Since the passage of the Sarbanes–Oxley Act, regulatory compliance costs have been so burdensome for some companies that they have chosen to go dark. Go-dark firms are those that deregister from the Securities and Exchange Commission and delist from the national stock exchange market but remain public on over-the-counter (OTC) markets. This paper covers 402 US firms that went dark between April 5th, 2010 and April 5th, 2014 and finds that firms with higher leverage and audit fees are more likely to go dark, and that registration announcements have negative effects on the firms’ stock price and liquidity employing logit regression and event study methodology. Most importantly, this paper introduces specific titles of the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act, which might dramatically decrease the number of firms going dark.


identifier: Anderson, Emily  (2016) The behaviour and welfare of zoo-housed Japanese macaques (Macaca fuscata).  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: There have been an increasing number of research projects on zoo animal welfare in the past decades. However, these studies all tend to use the same species (mainly great apes) as subjects. In this thesis, we analyzed the effect of visitor presence and enclosure design on the activity budget and space use of the Japanese macaques at the Zoo de Granby, Granby, QC. In addition, we quantified the shift in the female dominance hierarchy that occurred when members of the two original groups of macaques, observed in the old enclosure in 2014, were merged to form one group in 2015, to later be introduced to a new enclosure. The results suggest that visitor presence may have had a small impact on the activity budget and space use, but its effect on welfare not apparent and trends were not consistent between or within groups. The macaques’ behaviour and space use patterns suggested habituation to the new enclosure, but did not clearly indicate an increase in welfare compared to the old enclosure. It is likely that the changes in hierarchy confounded the effects of the new habitat. Individuals’ ranks changed significantly between groups, and again midway through the 2015 field season. There was evidence that age was an important factor in determining the new rank of an individual, but the order in which the individual was added to the group was not. It is clear from this thesis that both visitor effect and enclosure changes are multifaceted topics which require continued research.


identifier: Javan Roshtkhari, Soroor  (2016) Application of Rhamnolipid and Microbial Activities for Improving the Sedimentation of Oil Sand Tailings.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Densification of oil sand tailings deposited in the tailing ponds and recovering water from them are two major challenges issues in the oil sands surface mining industry. A small increase in the tailing settlement rate (which normally is very slow) can improve the densification of tailings and significantly, reduce water consumption and the volume of tailing ponds. Currently most of the industrial methods for consolidation of oil sand tailings are based on clay particle flocculation methods which use different kinds of agents such as calcium sulfate (gypsum), and polymeric flocculants. In this work, rhamnolipid (JBR 425) was investigated as a flocculating agent and microbial activities by performing the sedimentation experiments to increase the sedimentation of fine tailing particles. It has been found that rhamnolipid increased sedimentation by improving the hydrophobic interaction between the particles. The feasibility of in situ biosurfactant production by indigenous microorganisms, Bacillus subtilis strain and two microbial strains isolated from weathered oil was investigated and it was found that all strains could produce very low amounts of biosurfactant. A mixed culture of two microbial strains isolated from weathered oil increased the sedimentation. Different concentrations of rhamnolipid together with these two microbial strains at 23 ºC ºC could lead to significant increases in sedimentation (by a maximum factor of 3.04), increases in the concentration of larger particles (by a maximum factor of 1.9), particle mean diameter (by a maximum factor of 2.11) and flocculation in the tailings samples amended with them compared to the control. Rhamnolipid (0.5%) together with these two microbial strains at 15 ºC ºC showed significant increases in
sedimentation (by a factor of 5.1), the concentration of larger particles (by a factor of 2.63),
particle mean diameter (by a factor of 2.70) and flocculation in the tailings samples compared to
the control. while the zeta potential is still negative. According to the pH measurements (during
the 50 days) increase in the ionic strength (I) of the pore water and reduction in the thickness of
the DDL of clay particles is not responsible for increasing the sedimentation as dissolution of
MFT carbonate minerals and releasing divalent cations could not occur at pH higher than 7.5.
However there might be a small amount of CH4 production at 15 ºC oC in the deeper layer of
mud. This means that the mechanism of flocculation in these cases could be probably due to
increasing the hydrophobicity of the particles, due to the interaction of biosurfactant and high
molecular weight microbial organic compounds through a bridging mechanism with clay
particles, and to due to forming transient canals from small amounts of CH4 production. Using
rhamnolipid as a flocculating agent could bring the remaining oil and also a small amount of
insoluble heavy metals from the tailing sediment into the water. Dissolved heavy metal ions and
rhamnolipid in water could be removed through micellar- enhanced ultrafiltration (MEUF)
process (between 30% for Cd and 100% for V, and 97.5% for rhamnolipid). This work shows the
potential of using rhamnolipid and microbial culture in order to increase the oil sand
sedimentation through flocculation and microbial activity in a more environmental friendly and
densification process.


identifier: Dehkhoda, Kiana  (2016) Developing a framework on supply chain risk mapping, prioritization and engagement.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Supply chain risk and uncertainty have been drawing much attention in the past few decades. In this thesis, a holistic risk management framework is developed to cope with such risks and uncertainty. The framework assists decision-makers first by detecting internal and/or external risks at early stages. In order to visualize the probability of risks and their impacts, risk-mapping techniques are then proposed. Risk assessment is used to determine risk occurrence and the effects in either quantitative or qualitative terms. Once risks are analyzed, risks relations should be investigated to further adopt risk management strategies for high importance items. Finally, ongoing control of existing and emerging risks requires an appropriate management strategy in order to increase supply chain efficiency. The framework is validated through an application in a small manufacturing company that struggles with outsourcing risk arising from both lead time and demand uncertainties.  We first detect uncertainties, then design a simulation model to illustrate the impact of these uncertainties on the company’s performance, where we use the number of lost customers as the company’s performance indicator. Moreover, we conduct an experimental design to investigate risk relation and their impact on the number of lost customers. The experimental design also allows for comparing various supplier’s performance and indicates which supplier would be most beneficial to work with.


identifier: Cesare, Sabrina  (2016) An Interdisciplinary Cancer Rehabilitation Program In a Tertiary Care Hospital Setting: A Retrospective Analysis of the Impact on Patients’ Health-Related Quality of Life.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
A growing number of patients affected by cancer and its treatments need to improve their physical wellbeing and quality of life. To address these vital needs, cancer rehabilitation programs have been developed to help with the patients’ symptom burden and physical and
psychological status. However, these programs are missing a personalized patient assessment and a systematic categorical intake system placing patients into rehabilitation pathways based upon disease severity. This study retrospectively evaluated the impact of the interdisciplinary
Cancer Rehabilitation (CARE) Program on health-related quality of life, by monitoring the following assessments: the abridged Patient-Generated Subjective Global Assessment,
Edmonton Symptom Assessment System, Fatigue Symptom Inventory, Distress Screening Tool, and the Modified Community Healthy Activities Model Program for Seniors. Cancer outpatients (n=115) were divided into three pathways (Restorative, Supportive or Cachexia) based on their prognosis and needs. The assessments were measured between and within each pathway; at baseline, pre-post program and over time. Baseline differences by pathway were determined by a series of general linear models. Mixed models were used to examine time
differences from pre-post program in all pathways and, as a function of pathway over follow up visits. Overall, patients showed a significant improvement in total malnutrition score and a trend of progress for appetite status, on the account of the program. Quality of life and symptom
profile varied across cancer patients at different stages of their disease. Interdisciplinary cancer rehabilitation programs need to be organized around those characteristics to personalize their interventions and significantly improve patient quality of life.


identifier: Simpson, Isabelle  (2016) “If I’m not a ship, I’m a boat that could be”: Seasteading and the post-social political imagination.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Founded in 2008, The Seasteading Institute (TSI) is a California non-profit organization set up “to facilitate the development of permanent, autonomous cities deriving legal autonomy from their location in international waters – Earth’s last unclaimed frontier” (Hencken, 2013, cited in Barksdale). These floating city-states, or seasteads, would exist on platforms inspired by cruise ships, aircraft carriers and oil platforms and become frontier habitations for aquapreneurs and ocean pioneers wanting to experiment with new systems of governance. The seasteading movement, in line with Silicon Valley’s tech culture and (a)political ethos where individuals are encouraged to exit the political structure (Friedman 2009; Thiel 2009, 2014), is part of a larger trend toward postsociality and depoliticization. Much more than just a new utopian lifestyle on offer, seasteading is part of a digital countercultural movement driven by techno-libertarianism (a libertarian political approach to technology), and anarcho-capitalism. Ultimately, the certitude that technologically advanced, subject-centered, small-scale communities are more appropriate than large democratic political structures as catalysts for social change illustrates a broader shift in the collective imagination from social and political preoccupations to preoccupations with individual enhancement.


identifier: Feldstein, Julia  (2016) Early Childhood Characteristics, Parenting, and Contextual Influences on Preschoolers’ Behaviour and Developing Competencies: An Examination of Behavioural, Academic, and Social Adjustment.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
The present studies were designed to examine early emerging behaviour problems, temperament, parenting, maternal characteristics, and contextual influences on children’s developing competencies in a pooled sample of mother-child dyads, as well as links to academic and social adjustment following preschoolers’ transition to elementary school.  Mothers from three independent Canadian samples participated with their preschool-aged offspring in data collection; questionnaire measures were employed in order to investigate temperament, behaviour problems, parenting, and maternal emotionality in early childhood (children aged 2-6), and classroom behaviour, interpersonal skills, social and attention problems in middle childhood (children aged 6-11).  In addition to maternal and teacher-report questionnaires, report-card marks were collected at the conclusion of the academic year, and children completed standardized measures of verbal ability to assess school achievement and vocabulary, respectively.
Results reflected the significance of child, parental, and familial influences on children’s early behaviour and subsequent adjustment following the school transition. In addition to direct effects, findings demonstrated indirect and interactive relationships between temperament, parenting, maternal emotionality, and familial socioeconomic stress in contributing to the early emergence of externalizing problems, and to academic and social adjustment outcomes in middle childhood.  Further evidence of bidirectional associations between temperament and parenting was also indicated in the context of children’s externalizing behaviour at preschool age.
The results highlight the complexity of relationships across a range of multi-level factors, and their direct, indirect, and interactive contributions to children’s early behaviour and subsequent adjustment at school age. Findings underscore the significance of early childhood in shaping social, behavioural, and academic outcomes, and have important implications for policies and programs that promote positive developmental outcomes. By pooling participants from three independent Canadian samples, results contribute valuable information to the field of early childhood development, and underscore the concurrent and longitudinal influences on preschoolers’ behaviour and school age adjustment.


identifier: Rakhshanfar, Meisam  (2016) AUTOMATED ESTIMATION, REDUCTION, AND QUALITY ASSESSMENT OF VIDEO NOISE FROM DIFFERENT SOURCES.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Estimating and removing noise from video signals is important to increase either the visual quality of video signals or the performance of video processing algorithms such as compression or segmentation where noise estimation or reduction is a pre-processing step. To estimate and remove noise, effective methods use both spatial and temporal information to increase the reliability of signal extraction from noise. The objective of this thesis is to introduce a video system having three novel techniques to estimate and reduce video noise from different sources, both effectively and efficiently and assess video quality without considering a reference non-noisy video. The first (intensity-variances based homogeneity classification) technique estimates visual noise of different types in images and video signals. The noise can be white Gaussian noise, mixed Poissonian- Gaussian (signal-dependent white) noise, or processed (frequency-dependent) noise. The method is based on the classification of intensity-variances of signal patches in order to find homogeneous regions that best represent the noise signal in the input signal. The method assumes that noise is signal-independent in each intensity class. To find homogeneous regions, the method works on the downsampled input image and divides it into patches. Each patch is assigned to an intensity class, whereas outlier patches are rejected. Then the most homogeneous cluster is selected and its noise variance is considered as the peak of noise variance. To account for processed noise, we estimate the degree of spatial correlation. To account for temporal noise variations a stabilization process is proposed. We show that the proposed method competes related state-of-the-art in noise estimation.
The second technique provides solutions to remove real-world camera noise such as signal-independent, signal-dependent noise, and frequency-dependent noise. Firstly, we propose a noise equalization method in intensity and frequency domain which enables a white Gaussian noise filter to handle real noise. Our experiments confirm the quality improvement under real noise while white Gaussian noise filter is used with our equalization method. Secondly, we propose a band-limited time-space video denoiser which reduces video noise of different types. This denoiser consists of: 1) intensity-domain noise equalization to account for signal dependency, 2) band-limited anti-blocking time-domain filtering of current frame using motion-compensated previous and subsequent frames, 3) spatial filtering combined with noise frequency equalizer to remove residual noise left from temporal filtering, and 4) intensity de-equalization to invert the first step. To decrease the chance of motion blur, temporal weights are calculated using two levels of error estimation; coarse (blocklevel) and fine (pixel-level). We correct the erroneous motion vectors by creating a homography from reliable motion vectors. To eliminate blockiness in block-based temporal filter, we propose three ideas: interpolation of block-level error, a band-limited filtering by subtracting the back-signal beforehand, and two-band motion compensation. The proposed time-space filter is parallelizable to be significantly accelerated by GPU. We show that the proposed method competes related state-ofthe- art in video denoising.
The third (sparsity and dominant orientation quality index) technique is a new method to assess the quality of the denoised video frames without a reference (clean frames). In many image and video applications, a quantitative measure of image content, noise, and blur is required to facilitate quality assessment, when the ground-truth is not available. We propose a fast method to find the dominant orientation of image patches, which is used to decompose them into singular values. Combining singular values with the sparsity of the patch in the transform domain, we measure the possible image content and noise of the patches and of the whole image. To measure the effect of noise accurately, our method takes both low and high textured patches into account. Before analyzing the patches, we apply a shrinkage in the transform domain to increase the contrast of genuine image structure. We show that the proposed method is useful to select parameters of denoising algorithms automatically in different noise scenarios such as white Gaussian and real noise. Our objective and subjective results confirm the correspondence between the measured quality and the ground-truth and proposed method rivals related state-of-the-art approaches.


identifier: Lamontagne, Cassandra  (2016) "This change isn't good": Gitga'ata Traditional Ecological Knowledge of Environmental Change.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Increasingly, those studying climate change are recognizing the potential of Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) of Indigenous Peoples for providing insights into sustainable frameworks related to climate change mitigation policy, adaptation planning, and understanding of local-level climate change impacts. TEK has been shown to be highly valuable in identifying long-term trends in climate variables, re-constructing a baseline climate history for a people’s territory, and providing locally-generated hypotheses for the changes taking place and their relation to interacting ecosystem components.

However, it is becoming widely acknowledged that research with Indigenous Peoples must go beyond contributing advances to academic fields and must be jointly developed, performed in a way that is conducive to community values, and result in tangible benefits for the community as well as researchers. Climate change researchers or graduate students might not have the background, tools, or institutional support required to fully participate in collaborative research that is productive and meaningful, but this should be a key goal.

This thesis explores Traditional Ecological Knowledge of climate change through these two lenses in collaboration with members of the Gitga’at Nation of northwestern British Columbia. Gitga’ata people are highly knowledgeable about environmental change in their traditional territory. I document and discuss their observations, and bring these together with climate data to strengthen understanding of local impacts, concluding that Gitga’ata knowledge provides insights into local changes that the biophysical and climate modeling data alone does not capture. I also draw on my experience conducting this research to provide an overview of existing frameworks for meaningful research with Indigenous Peoples, to discuss these frameworks in relation to formal institutional requirements, and to support current recognition that productive research relationships with Indigenous communities are both possible and highly desirable.


identifier: Parwanta, Zohra  (2016) Physical Activity Pattern and Sleep Characteristics in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD).  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Abstract
Background: Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) patients have decreased physical activity (PA) levels compared to healthy controls. Their diurnal PA patterns are much less documented. Disturbed sleep is another common feature in COPD. The relationship between PA and sleep has never been reported in COPD patients. The project’s aims were to characterize objectively measured diurnal PA patterns and sleep quality, and explore the association between PA and sleep in COPD.
Methods: Fourteen patients (aged 71±9 years) with mostly moderate COPD (FEV1: 58±13% predicted) participated. PA and sleep parameters (Sleep Onset Latency[SOL], Wake After Sleep Onset[WASO], Total Sleep Time[TST], Sleep Efficiency[SE%], Fragmentation Index[FI]) were assessed via actigraphy for seven consecutive days, 24 hours/day. Diurnal PA patterns were evaluated by three handling approaches: arbitrary, mealtimes and equal tertiles. The interaction of period of the day by handling approach was tested with two-way repeated-measured ANOVA. Associations between sleep parameters and mean daily PA and PA in each tertile was assessed with bivariate correlations.
Results: There was a significant interaction effect of period of the day by handling approach (p<0.001). Regardless of the approach, PA significantly decreased in the evening compared to morning and afternoon. Participants had, on average: SOL: 22±17min, WASO: 65±29min, TST: 383±59min, SE: 79±9% and FI: 45±23%. Mean daily PA and PA in each tertile showed very weak to moderate associations with sleep parameters (r = -0.50 to 0.42).
Conclusion: PA levels drop in the evening in patients with moderate COPD. The relationship between PA and sleep quality appears modest in these patients, but the PA-sleep relationship warrants further investigation.


identifier: Zhao, Yun  (2016) Predicting Extreme Returns in the Canadian Stock Market.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
This study examines the relationship between volatility and the probability of occurrence of expected extreme returns in the Canadian market. Three measures of volatility are examined: implied volatility from firm option prices, conditional volatility calculated using an EGARCH model and idiosyncratic volatility based on the Fama and French five-factor model. A significantly positive relationship is observed between a firm’s idiosyncratic volatility and the probability of occurrence of an extreme return in the subsequent month for firms. A 10% increase in idiosyncratic volatility in a given month is associated with the probability of an extreme shock in the subsequent month (top or bottom 1.5% of the returns distribution) of 26.4%. Other firm characteristics, including firm age, price, volume and Book-to-Market ratio, are also shown to be significantly related to subsequent firm extreme returns. The effects of conditional and implied volatility are mixed.

Keywords: Extreme return; Implied volatility; Conditional volatility; Idiosyncratic volatility; Five-Factor model; Probit regression;
JEL Codes: G10, G11, G14, G17


identifier: Youssefi, Niloufar  (2015) Asset Risk Management of Electric Power Grids.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
ABSTRACT
Asset Risk Management for Electric Power Grids
Niloufar Youssefi
Civil Infrastructure is essential for the quality of life in developed and developing countries. Since electric power supply is needed for the operation of other vital infrastructure, it is ranked as the highest critical infrastructure. There are substantial adverse impacts on society when power grids fail, resulting in interruption and/or degradation of services. Such failure can cause heavy traffic congestions resulting from nonfunctioning traffic lights, and disturbances for other critical infrastructure elements such as water and sewage treatment plants.
In order to ensure reliability of the bulk power system (BPS) in North America, the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) requires that power companies submit reports when sufficiently enormous instabilities happen within their territories in order to share the experiences and lessons learned, and to suggest solutions that utilities can apply to their procedures during unusual situations. To simplify and organize information, the NERC has divided the BPS of North America into eight zones, three of which consist of both US states and Canadian provinces. The research presented here focuses on the Canadian part of NPCC zone which covers Quebec, Ontario, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.
The main purpose of this research is to identify factors affecting power outages in the eastern Canada and develop a model for predicting the likelihood of power outage occurrences based on weather forecasted data. For this reason, System Disturbances Reports from 1992 to 2009 have been scrutinized to determine the conditions in which an attack on power grids can likely happen. According to these reports, various reasons were found to trigger power outages, including equipment failure, voltage reduction, human error, etc. However, weather conditions are the paramount cause of unavailability of power service in the northeastern district. Weather conditions variables such as wind speed, temperature, humidity, precipitation and lightning are obtained for those same periods from the Environment Canada database. In addition, in two other variables (i.e. electric consumption index and electric network size) are considered as the factors that are likely to impact power outage incidents indirectly.
Based on historical data gathered for weather conditions and power outages, different types of Artificial Neural Network models (i.e. BPNN, GRNN, and PNN) were studied and developed to predict the likely occurrence of power outage utilizing weather forecasted data for four eastern Canadian provinces.  Two types of datasets are used for training the models: Dataset I considers the extreme values for all the weather variables, and Dataset II, which consists the extreme value for wind speed (the most critical factor affecting the power grids) plus the values of the other weather variables at the same time that the wind speed reached its maximum value. The results indicate that the best performing model is PNN that was trained with Dataset I for it provides more accurate results. The model is also trained using Quebec dataset, which indicates that data for a specific location is expected to lead to better results. Social cost for electric power outage are then estimated four sectors; residential, commercial, industrial and agriculture.
As a result, once the average duration of power outage is recognized as well as its likelihood of occurrence, the social cost of that power failure could be estimated in the four sectors. The present research helps power companies to predict the likelihood of electric power outage based on weather forecasting data. Furthermore, they are able to estimate the social cost of electric power failure in advance. This will provide useful information for further actions in risk mitigation, and will aide professionalisms in the process of creating choices to improve opportunities and to lessen threats.


identifier: Beavis, Lori  (2016) to know dibaajimowin a narrative of knowing: art, art education and cultural identity in the life experiences of four contemporary Indigenous women artists.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Beginning with research on the intersection of cultural identity, family history and education, this dissertation investigates how life experiences relevant to art contribute to identity and cultural identity formation. In exploring the lives of four Indigenous women, specifically contemporary women artists, this study makes a link between life experiences, events, art and art education. The research examines how those influences contributed to identity formation and how the selected artists incorporate identity within their artwork. In this research the notion of education as a transformative experience was also investigated.
An Indigenous paradigm frames the qualitative research method of life history research, narrative and story telling. The data, as proposed by Kovach (2010) was gathered through an Indigenous ‘conversational method’. These methods allowed for a focus on the interconnection of experiences related to family and social relationships, schooling and professional practice. The rich stories revealed by the four artists were examined individually and through a cross-case analysis.
The findings indicate that both external and internal factors impact on the development of cultural identity. Identity development, as has been found with artistic identity development, is an accumulative process and education is an important factor. Family, self- awareness and a broadened knowledge of the external world along with a sustained interrogation of their inner world are also essential.
 	The knowledge developed in this thesis will help art educators recognize the value of meaningful cultural exchanges in the classroom, see the need to examine identity in a profound manner and discourage the practice of characterizing abilities and inclinations as cultural traits. Ultimately the particularized case studies will indicate a new direction that inserts itself into a larger narrative regarding Indigenous ways of teaching and learning.


identifier: Chang, Liyong  (2016) A Parametric Design of Ball End Mill and Simulating Process.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Ball end mill cutter is widely used in precise CNC machining as a high efficiency processing tool for complex surface. On the basis of the literature review about mathematical model, grinding machining process, cutting experiment of ball end mills, and the calculation for a ball end mill, a ball end mill parametric design system is built by development technology with CATIA 3D modeling software and Visual Basic. With this system obtaining the model of the ball end mill, the simulation is processed in Third Wave AdvantEdge software.
The main contents of this paper are:
1. On the basis of creating a mathematical model of a ball end mill cutting edge curve, we generate the 3D model of the cutter in CATIA. Moreover, the conditions of the engagement between the grinding wheel and rake surface to avoid interference are proposed. As a result, the grinding wheel center location and orientation axis are defined.
2. A modeling program for ball end mills is developed in Visual Basic, and the parameter modification can be visualized in the interface of this program .In addition, the model is simulated in Third Wave AdvantEdge to analyze the temperature of the cutter and the cutting force distribution.
KEY WORDS: Ball End Mill, Parametric Design, CATIA Secondary Development, Simulation


identifier: Zhu, Jiapu  (2016) Parametric Modeling Program of Fillet End Mill.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
ABSTRACT

Parametric Modeling Program of Fillet End Mill

Jiapu Zhu

    End-mill cutter is the most commonly used cutting tool in metal machining industry, especially flat end-mill and fillet end-mill, which provide significant influence on machining efficiency and quality.
Nickel-based high temperature alloy is widely used in aerospace industry due to its excellent performance of mechanical property under rigorous situation. However, it possesses poor machinability and rEqires very high cutting force during milling process. In addition, vibration is another factor which should be taken into consideration.
Variable pitch end-mill is one kind of end-mill cutters that have different parameters in pitch and flute. In this category of design, each integrated cutting feature, namely, bottom, fillet, side, flute and gash are different. Meanwhile, it also can reduces the vibration effectively.
FEA simulation is a time saving and cost saving way in the field of cutting tool design and optimization. An efficient and accurate modeling method is demanded due to the complexity geometry of end-mill cutter.
A lot of research was conducted on end-mill modeling previously. However, most of them focused on symmetric geometry end-mill and there were no introduction about gash modeling. Based on the above reasons, a feature-based modeling method with parametric design is proposed. According to the characteristic of end-mill and based on the mathematic Equations, each feature is designed and modeled individually. Constraints of gash are analyzed and applied. In addition, a customized program is developed with the combination of Visual Basic user interface and CATIA macro programing technique. Finally, a simulation example of the model is conducted to analyze the dynamics during cutting process.


identifier: Crespo Neira, Elva Luz  (2016) Influence of cognitive, geographical, and collaborative proximity on knowledge production of Canadian nanotechnology.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
We address the question of whether or not geographical, cognitive, and collaborative proximity have an impact on citation probability in the scientific writings of Canadian nanotechnology. Even though a number of studies in the proximity literature deal with the effects of spatial distance, scientific specialization, and social network structure, to our knowledge no one has combined all three to explore the production of academic information.

We generate a feature framework based on measurements from these factors, relying on statistical and classification approaches to assess their influence on effective citations. Specifically, by means of applying binary regression models along with tree-based machine learning algorithms, we found statistical significance proving that these features have both a verifiable impact and predictive potential. Importantly, our work is the first one that we have seen combining these techniques to infer the establishment of positive citation links. Moreover, we employed inductive network analysis comprehensively to examine the co-authorship links between authors publishing in nanoscience, considering additional network metrics to the ones usually adopted in the literature.

Our findings reveal that cognitive proximity, closely followed by the collaborative aspect, are the most important elements inducing Canadian scholars to cite, with geography sometimes acting as their base. Our results enable us to reach better understanding related to the citation behavior of the nanoresearch community in Canada, making our work a valuable contribution to scholarly literature, also giving us ground to make policy recommendations.


identifier: Martin, Julie P.  (2016) Mother-Child Conflict in an At-Risk Sample: Links to Historical and Concurrent Factors and Children's Socio-Emotional Functioning.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Disagreements over mundane, and sometimes more serious, issues represent an integral aspect of day-to-day mother-child interactions that have important implications for children's development.  Investigating mother-child conflict in at-risk families is especially important given the increased probability of psychosocial problems.
	The present dissertation was designed to examine how mothers and preadolescent children manage and resolve conflicts, including associations with problem-solving, maternal risk (childhood histories, concurrent functioning, and education), and children's socio-emotional functioning across contexts (i.e., perceived social competence, internalizing and externalizing problems, and test-taking behaviors).  Participants (n = 95) were mothers and their 9-to 13-year-old children from the Concordia Longitudinal Risk Project; a prospective, intergenerational study of children from low SES neighborhoods screened along dimensions of aggression and social withdrawal and followed into parenthood.  Observational measures were used to code mother-child conflict and problem-solving behaviors during a videotaped conflict task.  A multi-informant approach was employed to assess children's social skills and problems, including children's behaviors during a standardized cognitive assessment.
	Results from Study 1 demonstrated that mother-child conflict is not necessarily aversive and destructive, as well as revealed several core features of mother-child conflict during middle childhood.  Whereas maternal education was uniquely associated with constructive and relatively harmonious mother-child conflict behaviors (controlling for other SES markers), the reverse was found for the effects of maternal distress at the time of testing.  Maternal education also served as a protective factor for mothers with childhood histories of social withdrawal by enhancing their ability to communicate in an assertive and nonthreatening manner.  Results from Study 2 underscored the importance of flexible and problem-focused behaviors in promoting mother-child problem-solving, while highlighting children's role in shaping resolution.  The cross-context applicability of children's positive and negative conflict behaviors was also demonstrated, with variations across contexts and informants.  Maternal childhood histories of aggression or social withdrawal negatively predicted children's IQ scores, which in turn, predicted more careless and disorganized test-taking behaviors.
	Results from this series of two studies advance current knowledge on mother-child conflict in middle childhood and draw attention to contextual variables that influence these conflicts.  Findings elucidate how risk and protective factors interact to contribute to pathways leading to adaptive and maladaptive outcomes in disadvantaged communities.  Together, results have implications for developing policies and programs that promote healthy relationships in vulnerable families and potentially disrupt cycles of intergenerational risk.


identifier: Sadreazami, Hamidreza  (2016) Contourlet Domain Image Modeling and its Applications in Watermarking and Denoising.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Statistical image modeling in sparse domain has recently attracted a great deal of research interest. Contourlet transform as a two-dimensional transform with multiscale and multi-directional properties is known to effectively capture the smooth contours and geometrical structures in images. The objective of this thesis is to study the statistical properties of the contourlet coefficients of images and develop statistically-based image denoising and watermarking schemes.
Through an experimental investigation, it is first established that the distributions of the contourlet subband coefficients of natural images are significantly non-Gaussian with heavy-tails and they can be best described by the heavy-tailed statistical distributions, such as the alpha-stable family of distributions. It is shown that the univariate members of this family are capable of accurately fitting the marginal distributions of the empirical data and that the bivariate members can accurately characterize the inter-scale dependencies of the contourlet coefficients of an image.
Based on the modeling results, a new method in image denoising in the contourlet domain is proposed. The Bayesian maximum a posteriori and minimum mean absolute error estimators are developed to determine the noise-free contourlet coefficients of grayscale and color images. Extensive experiments are conducted using a wide variety of images from a number of databases to evaluate the performance of the proposed image denoising scheme and to compare it with that of other existing schemes. It is shown that the proposed denoising scheme based on the alpha-stable distributions outperforms these other methods in terms of the peak signal-to-noise ratio and mean structural similarity index, as well as in terms of visual quality of the denoised images.
The alpha-stable model is also used in developing new multiplicative watermark schemes for grayscale and color images. Closed-form expressions are derived for the log-likelihood-based multiplicative watermark detection algorithm for grayscale images using the univariate and bivariate Cauchy members of the alpha-stable family. A multiplicative multichannel watermark detector is also designed for color images using the multivariate Cauchy distribution. Simulation results demonstrate not only the effectiveness of the proposed image watermarking schemes in terms of the invisibility of the watermark, but also the superiority of the watermark detectors in providing detection rates higher than that of the state-of-the-art schemes even for the watermarked images undergone various kinds of attacks.


identifier: Plenzich, Christopher  (2016) Should I stay or should I go? Host plant quality mediated trade-offs in the forest tent caterpillar.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Group living has both negative and positive effects, and various ecological factors can mediate decisions between remaining cohesive and splitting up. We investigated how food quality mediates the trade-off in Malacasoma disstria, the forest tent caterpillar, between (i) remaining in a group on a known food source, thus benefitting from group basking and group predator defenses, but potentially incurring opportunity costs, and (ii) increasing movement in search of a potentially better quality food source and/or splitting into more numerous groups, risking predation. During laboratory experiments in spring 2013, and field experiments in 2014, groups of caterpillars were reared on the foliage of two different tree species; one of high quality: trembling aspen (Populus tremuloides), and the other of lower quality: sugar maple (Acer saccharum). Results indicate that forest tent caterpillar colonies feeding from maple increased locomotion, traveled farther, took more numerous, but smaller meals, and split into smaller, more numerous groups when compared to colonies feeding from aspen. Though other ecological factors were found to mediate group decisions, namely developmental stage, colony size, and wind speed, the presented experiments suggest that a decision between remaining cohesive or otherwise in the presence of different quality food sources exists. The findings suggest that the potential increase of encountering a predator when increasing movement and decreasing cohesion can increase early larval mortality and may be a contributing factor to the rise and decline of an outbreaking population.


identifier: Bell, Sarah Aileen  (2016) A Music Therapist’s Self-Reflection on her Aboriginal Heritage: A Heuristic Self-Inquiry.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: This heuristic inquiry explored a music therapist’s reflection on her Métis heritage and it’s professional implications. The first five stages of Moustakas’ heuristic inquiry were used as the framework to guide the research. Data was gathered over a five-month period through reflections in the researcher’s personal journal and audio recordings of her referential improvisations. Data analysis involved using Neuman’s coding method (2003) to organize the raw data that emerged from her journal and audio recordings. The results section revealed that two main themes emerged from the data analysis, her thoughts around her Métis ancestral heritage and her identity as a musician. Personal, clinical and research implications are presented and discussed.


identifier: Budin, Radek Eric  (2016) The Effect of Stage of Lactation on the Response of Postpartum Rats to the Administration of Anorectic and Orexigenic Peptides.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: This dissertation investigated the response of female rats in varying reproductive states to the administration of anorexigenic and orexigenic hormones and how behavioural and neural responses to such compounds might be influenced by reproductive state. The first set of experiments examined cycling, early or late stage lactation rats after treatment with various anorexigenics and measured food intake, body, and litter weight. The ability of central leptin administration to induce the phosphorylation of STAT3 in hypothalamic nuclei was also compared in these groups.  Central leptin administration reduced food intake and body weight in all animals tested in a dose dependent way, however this effect was attenuated for food intake in early lactation.  Litters of dams receiving the highest dose of leptin weighed less than those receiving the lowest dose or saline.  Chronic peripheral leptin administration had no effect on any measures in lactating rats.  Central administration of 1µg leptin produced increased PSTAT3-IR in ARC and the VMH across all groups tested, with trend in the PVN.  MTII resulted in a dose dependent suppression of food intake and body weight across all reproductive states, with the higher dose being more pronounced.  MTII administration at both doses reduced litter growth. The second chapter investigated intracerebroventricular (ICV) administration of ghrelin (0, 0.25 µg, 0.5 µg, 1 µg) and its effects on food intake in cycling and mid-lactation females.  In the second  experiment the food intake of cycling rats following the ICV administration of ghrelin (0.25 µg or 1 µg) was compared to rats in early and late lactation. These same reproductive states were compared with regard to food intake following administration of a ghrelin antagonist (JMV 3002, 0.4 µg).  Central ghrelin administration resulted in a dose dependent increase in food intake in cycling rats while rats in mid-lactation showed a peak effect at the lowest dose of ghrelin administered. Cycling, early, and late lactating all responded to ghrelin with increased food intake.  Ghrelin antagonist administration produced greater food intake reductions in late lactation compared to cycling or early lactation rats.  Findings are discussed in relation to other neuropeptides and energy balance during lactation.