identifier: Revington, Nicholas William  (2015) Market Rental Housing Affordability and Accessibility to Rapid Transit in Montreal and Vancouver.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Housing affordability is a major issue in much of urban Canada, and particularly in the largest metropolitan areas. While measurements and rankings of housing affordability are widely publicized, they typically do not capture variations in affordability within metropolitan areas, where prices may vary significantly between, for instance, central cities and outer suburbs. One factor that can affect housing prices is access to mass transit, and rail rapid transit in particular, but existing research has not considered how this may impact affordability. From an ethical stance of redistributive equity, if housing is less affordable in transit-accessible places, low income people will be less able to access the rapid transit system and will be less well-off in comparison to middle and high income groups. This thesis applies a residual income approach – which considers housing affordable if it leaves a household with enough income to cover other basic needs – to data gathered from online rental listings in Montreal and Vancouver. It then examines how affordable market rental housing is distributed spatially within each city, and with respect to household composition and income. Looking through these “lenses,” the picture of affordability is different for different types of households. Indeed, for certain household types, no affordable housing was identified. At the metropolitan scale, housing was less affordable within rapid transit catchments in both cities, while at the level of urban/suburban zones, the results were mixed. The methods therefore present a nuanced measure of affordability that can be adapted in other contexts.


identifier: Qu, Shu  (2015) National Formal Institutions, Regional Informal Institutions and Foreign Entry Mode Decision: Evidence from China.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

type: Thesis NonPeerReviewed

abstract: This dissertation reports the results from an empirical research of factors that influence and moderate the foreign entry mode decision from institutional perspective. To explain the considerably uneven proportions of joint venture and wholly-owned subsidiary in different regions in emerging countries such as China, this study focuses on national formal institution (national regulation) and specific regional informal institutions (regional corruption and regional ethnicity), and explores the moderation effect of regional informal institutions on the relationship between the national formal institution and the entry mode decision. The results of this study show that regional informal institutions not only directly influence the entry mode choice, but also moderate the relationship between the national formal institutions and the foreign entry mode choice.


identifier: Doiron, Kelly  (2015) Co-regulation and the quality of the relationship during face-to-face interactions in full-term and very low birthweight preterm infant-mother dyads.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Interactions with parents form the basis of infants’ social-emotional development. Co- regulation during interactions occurs when partners adjust behaviour based on cues from each other. Research has examined co-regulation in low-risk populations, however co-regulation in the context of dyads’ relationships in at-risk populations has yet to be explored. The present study investigated co-regulation and quality of relationships between mothers and their 6-month- old full-term (n = 43) and very low birthweight/preterm (VLBW/preterm; n = 44) infants.
The objectives were to examine: (1) how co-regulation changed following a perturbed interaction, (2) how co-regulation differed between full-term and VLBW/preterm infant-mother dyads, and (3) the association between co-regulation and the quality of the mother-infant relationship.
Mother-infant interactions were coded for time spent in patterns of co-regulation using the Revised Relational Coding System (Fogel et al., 2003). Quality of the mother-infant relationship was assessed using the Emotional Availability Scales examining maternal and infant dimensions (Biringen et al., 2014; Carter, Little, & Garrity, 1998). Dyads participated in the Still-Face (SF) procedure (Tronick et al., 1978) consisting of two 2-minute face-to-face interactions with a 2-minute period in between where mothers assumed a “still face” and refrained from interacting with their infants. Following the SF period, dyads engaged in more active and disruptive patterns of co-regulation. While full-term dyads engaged in more sequential-symmetrical, VLBW/preterm dyads engaged in more resonant-symmetrical co- regulation. Infant responsiveness, maternal sensitivity, and parental stress were associated with co-regulation. The results highlight the importance of co-regulation and the influence of risk status and relationship quality on co-regulation.


identifier: Yari, Farid  (2015) Computational Procedures for Robust Nonblocking Supervisory Control of Discrete-Event Systems.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
The concept of robust control arises in control theory in dealing with modeling uncertainties and model changes. In the study of supervisory control of discrete-event systems (DES), one approach to robustness is to assume that the exact plant model is unknown but it belongs to a finite family of DES models. The design objective is to find a supervisor such that any of the plant DES models in the aforementioned family, under the supervision of the designed supervisor, meets its design specifications. The set of solutions of the robust nonblocking supervisory control problem (RNSCP) is available in the literature in terms of a class of languages. For the case of control with full event observation, RNSCP has an optimal (maximally permissive) solution. In the case of control under partial event observation (RNSCP-PO), a maximally permissive solution does not necessarily exist; however suboptimal solutions (in terms of normal languages) that are generally more suitable for computational procedures have been identified.
In this thesis, computational algorithms are developed for finding the solution of RNSCP in the form of finite-state automaton. First, a computational algorithm for supremal G-nonblocking languages is presented. Next this algorithm is used to develop an iterative algorithm that obtains the maximally permissive solution of RNSCP as the largest fixed point of a suitable operator. It is shown that the algorithm converges in a bounded number of steps for finite-state plant models and regular specification languages. The computational complexities of the algorithms are also derived. The resulting algorithms have been implemented in MATLAB environment using Discrete Event Control Kit (DECK) and applied to solve a problem of control and fault recovery in a simplified spacecraft propulsion system. Next the computational algorithm for RNSCP is extended to the case of control under partial event observation. In this case the maximally permissive solution of RNSCP-PO among the solutions that have the normality property is obtained.


identifier: El-Jiz, Michael  (2015) Guidance, control, and navigation of a quadrotor choreography for a real-time musician-in-the-loop performance.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
This thesis proposes a systematic methodology for the guidance, control, and navigation, of a quadrotor to perform a choreographed dance in real-time as a function of the music performed by a musician.

The four main components of a human choreography (namely the notions of space, shape, time and structure) are analyzed and mathematically formulated for a robotic performance. This allows for a real-time interaction with a musician without prior knowledge of the music, and based on the pitch of the acoustic signal. A novel approach for mapping music features to trajectory parameters is proposed, as well as the design of a trajectory shaping filter based on two coefficients that are set in real-time by an artist through a MIDI foot-pedal board. The two coefficients are inspired by a mathematical description of acoustic signals. The proposed approach maps motion parameters and the music to trajectory motifs that are then switched in harmony with the music chord structure. The mathematical formulation of a quadrotor choreography is simulated. The simulation relies on the linearized dynamics and the physical properties of a quadrotor, and produces a graphical representation of the quadrotor choreography. To validate the control system, the position of the quadrotor is compared with the desired position. To measure the effectiveness of the link between music and the position of the quadrotor, the trajectory generator system is inverted to generate a sequence of music pitches. The melodic phrase generated by the position of the quadrotor is played back to the musician. A real-time musical interaction occurs between the musician and the quadrotor.
Simulation results show that the proposed methodology yields an effective real-time performance for a quadrotor choreography.


identifier: Negahishirazin, Mahdi  (2015) Efficient Use of Partially Overlapping Channels in WMNs.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
There has been growing interest in using Wireless Mesh Networks (WMNs) because of their advantages such as easier to scale up and self-organization. We instigate whether increasing the number of available channels through the use of Partially Overlapping Channels (POCs) is always useful for improving the Quality of Service (QoS) of WMNs namely the throughput or delay. For the purpose of this thesis, we design a set of algorithms for: i) Channel assignment; ii) Transmission Configurations (TCs) which is a set of links with the ability of sending data simultaneously; iii) power control; and iv) delivery of packets to their destination in order to take advantage of POCs in WMNs.
We evaluate our proposed algorithms by a comprehensive set of numerical experiments. Numerical experiments indicate that using POCs leads not only to increase throughput of networks, but also it can decrease delay of packet delivery.


identifier: Zhu, Hong  (2015) Program-Induced Mood Effects on Purchase Intention to Buy Counterfeit Luxury Brands.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
This thesis focuses on how different combinations of advertisement types and program-induced mood affect customers’ purchase intentions to buy counterfeit luxury brands.
Marketing researchers have been working on containing the counterfeit luxury market and many variables were found to be indicators of counterfeit product purchases. This research mainly focuses on the advertising aspect. Empirical studies suggested that certain types of advertisements (social-adjustive types and value-expressive types) can either increase or decrease customers’ purchase intentions toward counterfeit luxury products through delivering different attitudes (Wilcox, Kim, & Sen, 2009).
It is essential to examine how the characteristics of the program influence customers’ purchase intentions toward commercial products. Program-induced mood (valence) may affect information processing of the advertisements. Negative valence may lead to more detailed information processing compared to positive valence (Shapiro, MacInnis, & Park, 2002).
Due to the different information processing levels caused by program-induced moods (positive versus no-mood versus negative), customers will have different levels of attitude function (social-adjustive and value-expressive), resulting in different purchase intentions towards counterfeit luxury products.
Theoretically, this thesis aims to find the best combination of advertisement type and program valence (positive versus no-mood versus negative) through experiments. Moreover, as previous studies focused mainly on the effect of advertisements without giving them a context (program), it adds program-induced mood effects as an additional indicator of counterfeit purchase.
Practically, marketers are able to use different types of advertisement (social-adjustive and value-expressive) under different contexts to decrease counterfeit luxury brand purchasing intentions. The findings suggest using value-expressive advertisements during negative valence programs to reduce customers’ counterfeit luxury purchase intentions.


identifier: Bou-Harb, Elias  (2015) Approaches and Techniques for Fingerprinting and Attributing Probing Activities by Observing Network Telescopes.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
The explosive growth, complexity, adoption and dynamism of cyberspace over the last decade has radically altered the globe.  A plethora of nations have been at the very forefront of this change, fully embracing the opportunities provided by the advancements in science and technology in order to fortify the economy and to increase the productivity of everyday's life. However, the significant dependence on cyberspace has indeed brought new risks that often compromise, exploit and damage invaluable data and systems. Thus, the capability to proactively infer malicious activities is of paramount importance. In this context, generating cyber threat intelligence related to probing or scanning activities render an effective tactic to achieve the latter.

In this thesis, we investigate such malicious activities, which are typically the precursors of various amplified, debilitating and disrupting cyber attacks. To achieve this task, we analyze real Internet-scale traffic targeting network telescopes or darknets, which are defined by routable, allocated yet unused Internet Protocol addresses.

First, we present a comprehensive survey of the entire probing topic. Specifically, we categorize this topic by elaborating on the nature, strategies and approaches of such probing activities. Additionally, we provide the reader with a classification and an exhaustive review of various techniques that could be employed in such malicious activities. Finally, we depict a taxonomy of the current literature by focusing on distributed probing detection methods.

Second, we focus on the problem of fingerprinting probing activities. To this end, we design, develop and validate approaches that can identify such activities targeting enterprise networks as well as those targeting the Internet-space. On one hand, the corporate probing detection approach uniquely exploits the information that could be leaked to the scanner, inferred from the internal network topology, to perform the detection. On the other hand, the more darknet tailored probing fingerprinting approach adopts a statistical approach to not only detect the probing activities but also identify the exact technique that was employed in the such activities.

Third, for attribution purposes, we propose a correlation approach that fuses probing activities with malware samples. The approach aims at detecting whether Internet-scale machines are infected or
not as well as pinpointing the exact malware type/family, if the machines were found to be compromised. To achieve the intended goals, the proposed approach initially devises a probabilistic model to filter out darknet misconfiguration traffic. Consequently, probing activities are correlated with malware samples by leveraging fuzzy hashing and entropy based techniques. To this end, we also investigate and report a rare Internet-scale probing event by proposing a multifaceted approach that correlates darknet, malware and passive dns traffic.

Fourth, we focus on the problem of identifying and attributing large-scale probing campaigns, which render a new era of probing events.  These are distinguished from previous probing incidents as (1) the population of the participating bots is several orders of magnitude larger, (2) the target scope is generally the entire Internet Protocol (IP) address space, and (3) the bots adopt well-orchestrated, often botmaster coordinated, stealth scan strategies that maximize targets' coverage while minimizing redundancy and overlap. To this end, we propose and validate three approaches. On one hand, two of the approaches rely on a set of behavioral analytics that aim at scrutinizing the generated traffic by the probing sources. Subsequently, they employ data mining and graph theoretic techniques to systematically cluster the probing sources into well-defined campaigns possessing similar behavioral similarity. The third approach, on the other hand, exploit time series interpolation and prediction to pinpoint orchestrated probing campaigns and to filter out non-coordinated probing flows.

We conclude this thesis by highlighting some research gaps that pave the way for future work.


identifier: Alemam, Abdulbaset Mohamed Elhabib  (2015) Eco-Design Improvement at the Conceptual Design Stage: Methodology and Applications.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
While quality tools are familiar to industries for the continuous improvement of products, the associated tools can be adopted to make significant contributions that address environmental concerns. This aligns eco-design with the product improvement process. This thesis proposes an eco-design improvement method, in which the eco-design tools are systematically integrated for the purpose of reducing environmental impacts. In this context, this work focuses on the adaptations of quality tools for supporting the generation of new eco-design concepts.
The developed methodology consists of three major phases. The first phase is concerned with the development of a relational matrices model. This phase is intended to explicitly capture the information of an existing design via relational models. These models are based on the integration of quality function deployment (QFD) and functional analysis (FA). The QFD process requires mapping quality attributes and design attributes to identify the attributes’ relationships to the existing design. The integration approach used is based on developed relational matrices to capture the relationships among environmental requirements, engineering metrics, design functions and physical components. In addition, FA focuses on functional decomposition of a design to support the generation of design concepts. One important feature of this phase is to connect the environmental requirements to the design functions.
The second phase is concerned with the generation of design concepts. In this phase, after identifying the functions that are responsible for reducing environmental impacts, a morphological chart is used to support the synthesis of new design concepts. The third phase considers environmental impact assessments and concept selection. In this phase, two methods are developed: Pugh chart and fuzzy assessment. The Pugh chart is intended to evaluate the newly generated concepts via the delegated engineering metrics. As well, fuzzy assessment is intended to capture the imprecise design information at the conceptual design stage. To address this research problem using fuzzy assessments, the trapezoidal fuzzy numbers are first applied to capture imprecise design information for each design concept. A decision guide is also proposed to suggest a course of action based on the results of fuzzy assessments. This phase is also concerned with ways to incorporate such imprecise information with eco-indicators for decision making.
Finally, for the demonstration and validation, the proposed methodology is applied to three case examples. These examples are in two different contexts. The methodology is first applied to home appliances, which are a coffee maker and hair dryer. Then, the suggested methodology is extended to the forming processes, specifically, the diaphragm forming process (DFP). This application of the diaphragm process is demonstrated through the assessment of the energy consumption of the usage stage. The developed methodology illustrates potential reduction in energy consumption for the generated designs of the applied examples. The results show the applicability of the proposed methodology.


identifier: Maamoun, Karim  (2015) The Use of Financial Hedging in Supply Chain Risk Management.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Supply chain risk management deals with the identification and control of potential risks along the supply chain.
With business growth and the emergence of new markets presenting new opportunities for companies, the scope of the supply chain has grown along with the exposure to possible risks. The potential for higher gains has paved the way for higher losses too, which might not be sustainable for a business to survive.
Companies face many uncertainties in the form of demand, exchange rates, commodity prices, production, etc., and have started to consider using financial risk management tools such as financial derivatives which were traditionally used by the financial firms.
A literature review of existing material showed the different operational, financial and integrated hedging strategies used and proposed by practitioners and academicians. Surveys covering the use of such financial hedging instrument among non-financial entities showed that these tools are gaining traction. However, they also cite a great deal of confusion among those practitioners on how and when these risk management tools should be used, indicating the need for more research on the topic.
By considering the case of a manufacturer that uses a certain commodity in its production process; a practical guide is developed to assist managers with the decision making process of choosing which financial derivatives, according to the different commodity price scenarios it can face, is the most suitable one that meets their risk approach and financial capabilities.
Through a simulation-based optimization model, the manufacturer is exposed to both price and demand volatility, where four metrics are used to measure the performance of each strategy; the average profit, standard deviation, Value-at-Risk (VaR) and Conditional Value-at-Risk.
The results shed some insight on the use of financial derivatives under different pricing schemes, such as that they perform better when facing high levels of price volatility. In addition to that, financial hedging is more successful when used under a risk averse approach maximizing the profit VaR, than when trying to raise the average return. Financial hedging can still benefit the manufacturer with the risk neutral approach, but when there is a trend in the commodity price.


identifier: Bdiri, Taoufik  (2015) Mixture Models for Multidimensional Positive Data Clustering with Applications to Image Categorization and Retrieval.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Model-based approaches have become important tools to model data and infer knowledge. Such approaches are often used for clustering and object recognition which are crucial steps in many applications, including but not limited to, recommendation systems, search engines, cyber security, surveillance and object tracking. Many of these applications have the urgent need to reduce the semantic gap of data representation between the system level and the human being understandable level. Indeed, the low level features extracted to represent a given object can be confusing to machines which cannot differentiate between very similar objects trivially distinguishable by human beings (e.g. apple vs tomato). Such a semantic gap between the system and the user perception for data, makes the modeling process hard to be designed basing on the features space only. Moreover those models should be flexible and updatable when new data are introduced to the system. Thus, apart from estimating the model parameters, the system should be somehow informed how new data should be perceived according to some criteria in order to establish model updates. In this thesis we propose a methodology for data representation using a hierarchical mixture model basing on the inverted Dirichlet and the generalized inverted Dirichlet distributions. The proposed approach allows to model a given object class by a set of components deduced by the system and grouped according to labeled training data representing the human level semantic. We propose an update strategy to the system components that takes into account adjustable metrics representing users perception. We also consider the "page zero" problem in image retrieval systems when a given user does not possess adequate tools and semantics to express what he/she is looking for, while he/she can visually identify it. We propose a statistical framework that enables users to start a search process and interact with the system in order to find their target "mental image". Finally we propose to improve our models by using a variational Bayesian inference to learn generalized inverted Dirichlet mixtures with features selection. The merit of our approaches is evaluated using extensive simulations and real life applications.


identifier: Sunidhi, Azad  (2015) Foraging Algorithms for Robotic Swarms.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

title: Foraging Algorithms for Robotic Swarms

abstract:
Foraging is the process of looking for food or other resources to survive in an unknown
environment. Various animals exhibit foraging behavior to fend for themselves in the
wild. We study group foraging by a swarm of robots, which involves collectively
searching for an object of interest and bringing it back to a central location.
We assume n robots start at the center of a g x g grid, called the nest. They are
looking for some units of food placed at an unknown location in the grid. When the
food is found by one of the robots, it must communicate its location to the other
robots, which then collectively transport the food back to the nest. We divide the
task into three phases: the exploration phase, in which the robots search different parts
of the grid for the food; the communication phase, in which robots communicate the
location of the food to each other; and the transportation phase, in which the robots
transport the food back to the nest. We give five novel algorithms for the exploration
phase, and analyze their competitive ratios. For the transportation phase, we give two
different approaches, and give a theoretical analysis of a simple case. We implemented
all our algorithms and compared their performance to an existing algorithm in the
literature.


identifier: Wen, Bowei  (2015) Market effects associated with different financial restatements announcement strategies by Canadian firms.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Canadian firms generally use one of two different announcement strategies when they detect the possible need to issue financial restatements; namely: single-announcement restatements (directly uploading and disclosing the financial restatements) and multiple-announcement restatements (initially announcing the possibility of accounting problems through press releases or firm reports before the later issue of the final restatements). We find that error-related single-announcement financial restatements are associated with significant negative market impacts in a two day event window [0, +1]. The median idiosyncratic volatility associated with error-related single-announcement restatements increases significantly following the announcements. For multiple-announcement restatements we observe significant market impacts at the intention announcement day and additional market impacts prior to but not on the official restatement dates. In the in-between period after the intention to restate is announced, bid-ask spreads increase and trading volumes, trading values and the idiosyncratic volatilities decrease significantly. After the official restatement is announced, trading volumes, trading values and idiosyncratic volatilities increase significantly. We observe higher total market impacts for multiple versus single announcement financial restatements.


identifier: Osadebey, Michael Eziashi  (2015) Noise Estimation, Noise Reduction and Intensity Inhomogeneity Correction in MRI Images of the Brain.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Rician noise and intensity inhomogeneity are two common types of image degradation that manifest in the acquisition of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) system images of the brain.  Many noise reduction and intensity inhomogeneity correction algorithms are based on strong parametric assumptions. These parametric assumptions are generic and do not account for salient features that are unique to specific classes and different levels of degradation in natural images.

This thesis proposes the 4-neighborhood clique system in a layer-structured Markov random field (MRF) model for noise estimation and noise reduction. When the test image is the only physical system under consideration, it is regarded as a single layer Markov random field (SLMRF) model, and as a double layer MRF model when the test images and classical priors are considered.

A scientific principle states that segmentation trivializes the task of bias field correction. Another principle states that the bias field distorts the intensity but not the spatial attribute of an image. This thesis exploits these two widely acknowledged scientific principles in order to propose a new model for correction of intensity inhomogeneity.

The noise estimation algorithm is invariant to the presence or absence of background features in an image and more accurate in the estimation of noise levels because it is potentially immune to the modeling errors inherent in some current state-of-the-art algorithms. The noise reduction algorithm derived from the SLMRF model does not incorporate a regularization parameter. Furthermore, it preserves edges, and its output is devoid of the blurring and ringing artifacts associated with Gaussian and wavelet based algorithms. The procedure for correction of intensity inhomogeneity does not require the computationally intensive task of estimation of the bias field map. Furthermore, there is no requirement for a digital brain atlas which will incorporate additional image processing tasks such as image registration.


identifier: Wang, Yanan  (2015) Antecedents of organizational commitment in young generation with Chinese family business background.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: This study examines the antecedents of commitment of Chinese potential successors based on organizational commitment theories and Chinese culture. The analysis of 65 later-gens from Mainland Chinese family firms indicates that individual’s identity alignment and career interests alignment are positively related with their affective commitment. Loyalty to Confucian culture is associated with normative commitment. Financial cost and social cost can encourage later-gens to be committed to their family business. Finally, later-gens with the higher normative commitment or higher continuance commitment exhibit the lower intent to leave their family firms. Theoretical and practical implications are also discussed in this thesis.


identifier: Li, Zhu  (2015) The Roles of Sectoral Moderator – A Combination of Environmental Munificence and volatility – in the relationship between corporate social responsibility and financial performance.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: The relationship between corporate social responsibility and financial performance has been the topic of a long-standing debate among researchers. Controversial conclusions are drawn from different methodologies and ways of thinking. This study finds a persuasive jurisdiction to explain why the preceding results have been inconclusive by using a new moderator – the sectorial moderator. According to environmental munificence and volatility, I divide all industries into four sectors – Ideal, Crisis, Catastrophe, and Inertness. Industries sharing similar levels of munificence and volatility are grouped as a sector, and the magnitude of munificence and volatility moderates the significance of the relationship between corporate social responsibility and corporate financial performance  link. Moreover, the CSR effect on financial performance in different sectors is distinctive. The empirical results reveal that the CSR effect on financial performance is highest in the sector with high munificence and low volatility, and vice versa. The present article provides a good explanation of the discrepancy in the CSR-CFP link and establishes a new avenue for future research.


identifier: Di Labbio, Giuseppe  (2015) On the Evolution of Flows in Straight Circular Pipes subject to a Localized Transverse Impulsive Body Force.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: In blunt traumatic aortic injury, it is highly debated whether an abrupt deceleration alone is sufficient to cause aortic rupture. Motivated by this debate, this fundamental study investigates the effects of a localized transverse impulsive body force acting on a straight circular pipe through numerical simulation for both constant and pulsatile inlet velocity profiles. Application of this impulsive force results in a transverse pressure gradient which skews counterclockwise with flow acceleration. This pressure gradient induces two counter-rotating streamwise vortices at the boundaries of the forced section with secondary flows developing in conjunction which act to restore the unforced velocity profile. The development of the secondary flow was observed to occur later for an accelerating flow and earlier for a decelerating flow. A dimensionless parameter, Ψ, was developed to characterize flows based on the ratio of transverse to streamwise pressure gradients. Lower Reynolds number flows (higher Ψ), were observed to be most readily affected by the body force. Maximum skewing of the velocity profile occurred during the impact rather than at the end except for a decelerating flow, with larger skewing occurring for higher Ψ. The temporal decay of kinetic energy was observed to be faster for larger Reynolds numbers and is governed by a power law decay. An alternating exchange in energy between the axial and secondary flows was also observed.


identifier: Ahmed, Essmeil  (2015) Optimization-Based Simulation of Container Terminal Productivity using Yard Truck Double Cycling.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
ABSTRACT
The growth of global trade transiting over the ocean has been continually increasing. A new generation of large vessels has recently been introduced to the transhipment system. These large vessels can carry more than 16000 twenty-foot equivalent container units (TEUs), maximizing shipping productivity. Container terminals must improve their productivity to meet the rapid increases in trade demand and to keep pace with developments in the shipbuilding industry. Reducing vessel turnaround time in container terminals increases the capacity for world trade. This time reduction can be achieved by improving one or more container terminal major resources or factors.
The objective of this research is to maximize container terminal productivity by minimizing vessel turnaround time within reasonable hourly and unit costs. A new strategy is introduced, employing double cycling to reduce the empty travel of yard trucks. This double-cycling strategy still requires the use a single-cycle strategy before the trucks can be incorporated into double-cycle scheduling. The single-cycle start-up is necessary in order to create enough space to begin loading a vessel if there is no other space.
The strategy is based on combining the efforts of two quay cranes (Unloading and Loading quay cranes) to work as a unit. The technique optimizes the number of trucks in terms of time and cost, minimizing yard truck cycles by minimizing single cycle routes and maximizing double cycle trips. This requires five steps. First, a good knowledge base of a container terminal’s operation and of the behaviours of the Quay cranes (QCs), Yard trucks, and Yard cranes needs to be constructed. Second, analysis of the collected data is required to simulate the container terminal operation and to implement the Genetic algorithm. Third, the double cycling truck strategy is simulated, tested and verified.  Fourth, sensitivity analysis is performed to rank and select the best alternatives. Optimization of the selected alternatives in terms of productivity and cost as well as verifying the results using real case studies comprises the fifth step.
Genetic Algorithm is used to optimize the results. Some selection approaches are implemented on the set of the nearest optimum solutions to rank and select the best alternative. The research offers immediate value by improving container terminal productivity using existing facilities and resources. Simulating the yard truck double cycling strategy provides container terminal mangers and decision makers with a clear overview of their handling container operations. Optimizing fleet size is a key factor in minimizing container handling costs and time. The simulation model reveals a productivity improvement of about 19% per QC. A reasonable cost savings in terms of the cost index in unit cost was achieved using yard truck double cycling operation. The genetic algorithm corroborates the achievements thus gained and determines the optimal fleet size that will result in the maximum terminal productivity (quickest vessel turnaround time) with the minimal cost. A time reduction of more than 26% was achieved in most cases, compared to previous research efforts.


identifier: Mussa, Mohamed Mussa A  (2015) Model Based Test Generation and Optimization.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Abstract

Model Based Test Generation and Optimization

Mohamed Mussa A. Mussa, Ph.D.
Concordia University, 2015

Software testing is an essential activity in the software engineering process. It is used to enhance the quality of the software products throughout the software development process. It inspects different aspects of the software quality such as correctness, performance and usability. Furthermore, software testing consumes about 50% of the software development efforts. Software products go through several testing levels. The main ones are unit-level testing, component-level testing, integration-level testing, system-level testing and acceptance-level testing. Each testing level involves a sequence of tasks such as planning, modeling, execution and evaluation.
    Plenty of systematic test generation approaches have been developed using different languages and notations. The majority of these approaches target a specific testing-level. However, only little effort has been directed toward systematic transition among testing-levels. Considering the incompatibility between these approaches, tailored compatibility-tools are required between the testing levels. Furthermore, several test models are usually generated to evaluate the implementation at each testing level. Unfortunately, there is redundancy among these models. Efficient reuse of these test models represents a significant challenge. On the other hand, the growing attention to the model driven methodologies bonds the development and the testing activities. However, research is still required to link the testing levels.
    In this PhD thesis, we propose a model based testing framework that enables reusability and collaboration across the testing levels. In this framework, we propose test generation and test optimization approaches that at each level consider artifacts generated in preceding testing levels. More precisely, we propose an approach for the generation of integration test models starting from component test models, and another approach for the optimization of the acceptance test model using the integration test models. To conduct our research in rigorous settings, we base our framework on standard notations that are widely adopted for software development and testing, namely Unified Modeling Language (UML). In our first approach, component test cases are examined to locate and select the ones that include an interaction among the integrated components. The selected test cases are merged to generate integration test cases, which tackles the theoretical research issue of merging test cases. Furthermore, the generated test cases are mapped against each other to remove potential redundancies. For the second approach, acceptance test optimization, integration test models are compared to the acceptance test model in order to remove test cases that have already been exercised during the integration-level testing. However, not all integration test cases are suitable for the comparison. Integration test cases have to be examined to ensure that they do not include test stubs for system components.
    We have developed two approaches and implemented the corresponding prototypes in order to demonstrate the effectiveness of our work. The first prototype implements the integration test generation approach. It accepts component test models and generates integration test models. The second prototype implements the acceptance test optimization approach. It accepts integration test models along with the acceptance test model and generates an optimized acceptance test model.


identifier: Kavallos, Haritos  (2015) The Effects of Extra-Curricular Involvement on CÉGEP Student Success: A Correlational Study.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: The topic of extra-curricular involvement has been studied extensively in various forms. However, most research has focused on extra-curricular involvement at the secondary education level with a large number of studies examining after school programs and athletics. Fewer studies have looked at higher education students as a population and those that have returned mixed results. The purpose of this research is to study how involvement in extra-curricular activities (ECAs) affects student success as determined by academic standing. In conducting this study, a modified version of the National Survey for Student Engagement was used as the primary instrument to gather data from 135 students (64.4% male, 35.6% female) enrolled in various academic programs in a Montréal area Anglophone CÉGEP. A quantitative correlational design was used to address several research questions which focused on determining the relationship between ECAs and student success. Furthermore, ECAs were categorized into groupings and tested to ascertain which sets have the greatest impact on student success. Results, limitations, implications, future direction, and conclusions are discussed.


identifier: Saeedi, Azadeh  (2015) Energetic and Hemodynamic Characteristics of Paravalvular Leak Following Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) has emerged as an alternative treatment for inoperable and high risk patients with severe symptomatic aortic stenosis. TAVR short and medium term results are very promising, however paravalvular leak (PVL) post-TAVR still represents a significant complication. PVL post-TAVR is shown to be an independent predictor of short-term and long-term mortality. Despite, its importance and prevalence, with a wide range of reported incidences, only few studies addressed the PVL after TAVR.

In the present study, first, the mathematical lumped parameter model is used to model the simplified circulatory system in presence of PVL and to evaluate the performance of TAVR by computing the variation of the left ventricle stroke work (LVSW) under several pre-TAVR and post-TAVR conditions. Results show that in a large majority of cases, TAVR significantly reduced LVSW. However, in cases with pre-existing aortic stenosis conditions with trace/mild aortic regurgitation, it did not significantly reduce LVSW or even led to an increase.

Second, a three-dimensional (3D) computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation is performed in order to investigate the effect of PVL on the diastolic flow-field characteristics post-TAVR.  Results show that PVL leads to significant disturbances in blood flow, which characterized by high speed jets, coherent structures and markedly elevated shear stress on both sides of the implanted aortic leaflets, which could promote a more rapid degeneration of the valve leaflets.

Results could be useful in understating the hemodynamics of PVL post-TAVR and estimating some important parameters, which could not be obtained during the medical assessment (e.g. wall shear stress).  Also, they could be a help in the process of choosing the appropriate valve for TAVR procedure, based on comparing the pre and post TAVR different scenarios.


identifier: Habibi, Mohammad Reza  (2015) Three essays on social media-based brand communities.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the notion of brand communities that are established on social media platforms. Social media has changed marketing practices from information acquisition to post purchase behavior; therefore, it is necessary for marketing scholars and practitioners to update our marketing knowledge according to this new changes. This thesis suggests the brand community lens as a proper and legitimate perspective to study marketing and branding activities on social media platforms because the essence of social media is associated with collective and community building. The first paper of this manuscript not only supports the existential possibilities of brand communities on social media but also more importantly it explores the unique aspects of social media that could interact with brand community practices and argue why we should examine brand community in this new context of social media.
The first paper conducts an in-depth qualitative study in two rich brand-generated communities on social media and analyzes their brand community elements and practices. The study shows the qualities of brand community elements, structural relationships (McAlexander, Schouten, & Koenig 2002) and value creation practices (Schau, Muniz, & Arnould 2009) within these communities and extract some unique characteristics of the social media based brand communities that differ from their traditional counterparts. The study concludes five unique dimensions that make social media based brand communities (SMBBCs) distinguished from other offline/online counterparts and argues that this is why brand community researchers should treat brand communities on social media differently and study this phenomena separately. We need to update our understanding of brand community to suit the unique aspects of social media.
 The second and third papers employ a quantitative approach to show how these communities can influence important marketing variables such as brand trust, brand relationship quality, and brand loyalty. These are marketing fundamental goals that are considered as a way to measure social media success in terms of increasing return on investment. These papers depict how different elements and building blocks of these communities on social media interact and influence trust and loyalty. The second paper shows the role of community engagement as a moderator while the third paper provides a big picture of consumer behavior in the context of brand communities that are established on social media. Several important measures such as value creation practices are developed in this paper.


identifier: Li, Yuan  (2015) The Impact of Social Connections on Merger Performance.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: This thesis investigates the impact of social connections on merger performance using a sample of U.S. firms. Specifically, we classify connections into four types based on previous literature: Type 1 connections refer to firms with overlapping directors or senior managers (Cai and Sevilir, 2012); Type 2 connections refer to situations where a director or senior manager from the acquirer and another director or senior manager from the target simultaneously serve on a third firm around the announcement date of the deal (Cai and Sevilir, 2012); Type 3 connections refer to situations where a director or senior manager from the acquirer and another director or senior manager from the target share a common educational tie or a past employment tie (Ishii and Xuan, 2014); Type 4 connections refer to the existence of cross-holding institutional investors, defined such that an institutional shareholder holds both shares of the bidder and the target around the announcement of the transaction. We find that the many of the conclusions reached by prior literature with respect to the influence of each of these types of social connections on the value creation of acquiring firms are not robust. In particular, they are sensitive to changes in sample period, industries, model specification and sample selection criteria. In addition, our results suggest that, on average, cross-holding institutional shareholders have positive total returns around the merger announcement date, while they tend to realize negative returns once we constrain the sample to the deals with negative acquirer announcement returns. Our results also suggest that cross-holding shareholders have significantly higher returns from the acquirer and the target together than from the acquirer alone, and acquirers with larger percentage of cross-holding shareholders are associated with lower announcement returns. By systematically considering all possible types of connections in the merger context, we find that different types of connections are interrelated to a certain extent.


identifier: Morency, Tyler  (2015) RE: Work.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

title: RE: Work

abstract: RE: Work is a collection of stories that revolve around the workplace—an environment where we spend a large part of our waking life. Within the stories, characters contend with themselves, their circumstances, their co-workers—work itself even—in workplaces across a fictionalized Alberta. The stories explore themes of tedium, indignity, malaise, and dread. For the protagonists, work is linked with constructions of purpose, safety, and identity. Set in office spaces, bottle depots, cleaning closets, and sound studios, the stories vary wildly in tone, perspective, and form. “Trail Bottle Exchange” draws heavily on elements of social realism. Meanwhile, “Facilitation” and “NOTICE TO TENANT” are grimly absurd. As a collection of short fiction, RE: Work accounts for the wide variety of paid and unpaid employment that people find themselves in.


identifier: Daftari, Saadi  (2010) Two-dimensional Numerical Simulation of Multiphase Flows in MATLAB.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
A robust and efficient numerical method for the simulation of incompressible, immiscible, two-phase flows in two dimensions is presented. Following a comprehensive literature review, the one-fluid model is selected to account for the discontinuities in material properties across the interface. The model uses the volume-of-fluid (VOF) method and the continuum surface force (CSF) model to track the interface and account for the surface tension forces, respectively. Integration in time is accomplished explicitly through the forward Euler method and the Navier-Stokes equations are discretized in space using a second-order upwind biased oscillation free Total Variation Diminishing (TVD) method for the convective terms and a second-order central differencing method for the viscous terms. The velocity-pressure coupling is done using a two step first-order projection method. The interface is reconstructed geometrically using a piecewise linear interface calculation (PLIC) method and the VOF advection equation is advanced in time using a directional split algorithm. The final numerical algorithm is implemented in MATLAB where the Pressure Poisson Equation (PPE) obtained from the projection method is solved efficiently in a cluster environment using a built-in MATLAB solver. Various benchmark tests are used to validate the algorithm and a grid refinement test is performed to determine its formal order of accuracy. Applicability to practical physical and engineering problems is verified over a wide range of test conditions by using the numerical method for the simulation of the rise of a bubble in a liquid and the falling liquid film flow. For both cases the results compare well with the past experimental and numerical results; the model successfully predicts the shape of the rising bubble and captures the complex wave dynamics of the falling liquid film. In particular, the results are on a par with the numerical results obtained using free-surface flow codes in which the dynamics of the gas phase are ignored in favour of robustness and stability.
Using MATLAB to implement and run the final code proves to be advantageous as the native parallel computing capabilities of MATLAB reduces the computational time of the simulations significantly while the data presentation and visualization is facilitated using the built-in tools that MATLAB provides. The final implementation of the algorithm involves less than 200 lines of code which makes it easy for the code to be maintained and improved.


identifier: Huq, Tasneem Rumman  (2015) An Integrated AC-DC Rectifier Converter for Low Voltage Piezoelectric Energy Harvesting and Constant-Voltage Lithium-Ion Cell Charging Application.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Energy harvesting is probably one the most sought after solutions that is being given attention to and has become of great importance for last few years. Due to advances in microelectronics and growing demand of autonomous devices, researchers have been working on harvesting energy from ambient sources such as solar, thermal, wind and kinetic energy. Also, growth of rechargeable battery technology has resulted in research in ambient energy harvesting for charging purposes. In this field, piezoelectric effect has been identified as a viable solution to address both low power applications and battery charging applications. Piezoelectric effect is described as the phenomenon of generating a voltage from a mechanical stress and vice-versa. Piezoelectric elements have been seen to offer outstanding performance in scavenging energy because of their high power density, which make them suitable for integrated micro-generators. Many vibration-based harvesting technology use piezoelectric transducers as AC power source. This work emphasizes on vibration based piezoelectric energy harvesting from a very low input voltage source. The main objective of the thesis is to design a power converter that can successfully rectify and boost piezoelectric AC voltages from a few hundred millivolts to a stable usable DC voltage without the use of a bridge diode rectifier circuit.
The thesis begins with the introduction to the concept of energy harvesting and piezoelectricity, followed by investigation of a 13x25 mm, 28µm thick, laminated piezoelectric thin film made of Polyvinylidene Fluoride (PVDF) acting as the transducer. The transducer was subjected to a repeated vibration impulse and its resultant voltage response was determined. The thesis then moves towards presenting an integrated AC-DC rectifier converter which eliminates the use of full bridge diode rectifiers that have been known for being inefficient for low power energy harvesting. The stages of operation of the power converter is presented along with the simulation results. The work has also been extended to show the charging application of a Lithium-Ion thin film cell under constant voltage charging scheme using a MATLAB/SIMULINK battery model. A prototype of the converter was also built in the laboratory and presented to show the performance of the integrated AC-DC rectifier converter. A dSPACE controller board was employed to implement the open loop control and the converter switching scheme. Experimental results were presented and assessed before finally moving onto the conclusion and suggested future works.


identifier: Zhao, Chengwei  (2015) Social Media in Quality Management: An Empirical Statistical Research on Hotel Online Review.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Hotel Online review is becoming a more and more popular topic in the hotel industry nowadays. Lots of research has been done and many interesting implications have been investigated. But very little research has been conducted from the different customer group perspective. In my thesis, I conducted a comprehensive statistical analysis mainly from the different customer group perspective and found out some very meaningful implications for the hotel industry. Some key contributions have been summarized as below: First, there exist significant mean differences in terms of six individual ratings and overall rating among different customer groups (Family, Business, Friend, Solo, and Couple). Second, the six different individual review items account for different weights in the overall rating scale. Third, there is a significant positive relationship between six individual review items and overall rating. Fourth, independent hotels are making better performance than chain hotels except for some certain customer group in terms of rooms and sleep quality rating. Also, among the five different customer groups, the ratings of individual and overall given by business customer group are the lowest compared with the other groups. These implications will help hotels allocate their resources more flexible and efficient rather than focus on every single aspect. Especially for those small and medium sized hotels, they may be able to run better business since they now learn where to allocate more resources according to the rank of the importance.


identifier: Méité, Mariam  (2015) An integrated approach for municipal infrastructure interventions management.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: One of the main concerns of municipal infrastructure management is the long term estimation of capabilities to deliver adequate levels of service while restricted by limited resources. Modeling of such problems requires dynamic optimization techniques to identify an optimal set of decision variables related to interventions at different planning periods and scattered across the territory. Although some municipalities count on such strategic analysis tools, most do not consider measures of coordination resulting in repeated service disruptions and premature infrastructures damage. This thesis develops an integral approach to support decision making by connecting all levels of planning through the adaptation of commercial software from forestry. As such it proposes a hierarchical approach in which results from strategic plans are translated into tactical projects leading to operation programs of works. Such a connection requires the allocation of projects and interventions to private contractors by considering their qualifications and quoted cost within an optimization approach. It was found that commercial forestry software REMSOFT is suitable for hierarchical analysis of municipal infrastructure. Results from the software demonstrated the potential to identify the most optimal set of decisions and then to advance or defer them to form projects along corridors or zones. Projects were then allocated to private contractors by considering their capabilities and quoted cost. A case study illustrates the proposed approach.


identifier: Koleva, Katarina  (2015) Komrades to the Rescue: Czechoslovakia in 1968 and Ukraine in 2014 through the Lens of Izvestiia.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: This thesis examines communist and post-communist press texts, as they are represented in the Russian newspaper Izvestiia. Taking a before-and-after approach, two case studies are performed, as well as compared and contrasted. The first examines articles documenting the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968. Using the same newspaper title, the second investigates news coverage of the crisis over Ukraine in 2014. The study employs a Cold War framework to examine and correlate questions about the role and place of journalism then and now, by exploring both similarities and differences, from an explicitly linguistic angle. Applying a framing approach as a type of Critical Discourse Analysis, not only as a method of research, but also as a broader theoretical framework, the thesis aims to articulate a deeper understanding of the operational realities of Russian journalism and its troubled transition from Soviet to post-Soviet times, as well as to uncover its professional techniques in building imaginaries about Soviet and post-Soviet Russia and Russianness then and now.


identifier: Ko, Na Re  (2015) Development of Polylactide-based Reduction-responsive Degradable Nanomaterials for Multifunctional Biomedical Applications.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Polylactide (PLA)-based nanomaterials have been extensively explored in biomedical applications due to their biocompatibility and biodegradability. However, PLA has two main limitations: hydrophobicity and slow degradation rate. My Ph.D. research focuses on the exploration of potential approaches to circumvent these challenges by synthesis of PLA-based amphiphilic block copolymers (ABPs) with stimuli-responsive degradation (SRD) and these ABPs are used to fabricate novel PLA-based nanomaterials.
SRD is highly desirable in the design of multi-functional polymer-based drug delivery systems. SRD involves the incorporation of dynamic covalent bonds into nanomaterials that can be cleaved in response to external stimuli such as light, ultrasound, low pH, and enzymes. This process leads to chemical or physical changes of nanomaterials to enhance the release of therapeutics or tune the morphologies. Reduction-responsive degradation uses disulfide-thiol chemistry. Disulfide linkages are cleaved either in response to a reductive environment or a disulfide-thiol exchange reaction in the presence of thiols. Using this unique system, PLA-based nanomaterials with disulfide linkages can be developed for tumor-targeting drug delivery.
Amphiphilic micellar aggregates have attracted much interest as a promising candidate for effective polymeric drug delivery. Micelles are formed through aqueous self-assembly of ABPs consisting of both hydrophilic and hydrophobic blocks. Hydrophobic cores encapsulate hydrophobic therapeutics and the surrounding hydrophilic coronas enhance colloidal stability. Adjusting this unique structure of ABP is a promising strategy for circumventing the hydrophobicity of PLA. Uniformed micelles in the nanoscale size range can prolong the blood residence and minimize side effects, and possess multiple cargos into a single vehicle, allowing multi-functional drug delivery.
In this thesis, several reduction-responsive degradable PLA-based ABPs have been reported. They were further used to fabricate various nanomaterials including micellar drug carriers; polyplexes; and nanofibers. These ABPs were synthesized by a combination method of ring opening polymerization and atom transfer radical polymerization. Due to their amphiphilic nature, ABPs can be self-assembled to form the micellar platforms possessing hydrophobic therapeutics in the core, which is surrounded with hydrophilic coronas. ABPs with positively charged hydrophilic blocks enable the formation of cationic micellar aggregates. These cationic micelles have subsequently been used as dual delivery carriers of drugs and genes. Furthermore, incorporating dual-located disulfide linkages at both the hydrophobic PLA core and the interface leads to a synergistically enhanced release of encapsulated drugs in cellular environments. Moreover, PLA nanofibers were fabricated via air-spinning technique of high-molecular weight PLAs. Their hydrophobic surface was modified with hydrophilic polymers via facile surface-initiated ATRP. The resulting surface-modified PLA fibers exhibit enhanced hydrophilicity and thermal stability, as well as tunable surface properties upon the cleavage of disulfide linkages. Under a reductive environment, these novel PLA-based nanomaterials are rapidly degraded upon the cleavage of disulfides, leading to controlled release of drugs and genes, as well as change of surface properties. These results suggest the disulfide-labeled PLA-based nanomaterials offer great potential and versatility in biomedical applications.


identifier: Chiarella, Sabrina Sarah  (2015) Infants’ reactions to the unjustified emotions of a model.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
The object of the present dissertation was to examine infants’ abilities to detect unjustified emotions and how this detection influences their selective trust towards unreliable individuals. The focus of the first study was to investigate whether 15- and 18-month-olds react the same way to unjustified (i.e., distress following a positive experience or happiness following a negative experience) and justified (i.e., distress following a negative experience or happiness following a positive experience) emotional reactions. Only 18-month-olds detected the mismatching facial expressions: the unjustified group showed more hypothesis testing across events than the justified group. Older infants in the justified group also showed more concerned reactions to negative expressions than those in the unjustified group.

The second study examined whether 18-month-olds’ helping behaviors, emotional referencing and imitation are influenced by the reliability of an emoter. Infants exposed to an unjustified emoter did more hypothesis testing and showed less concern towards the actor than those exposed to a justified emoter. During the emotional referencing task, the justified group first opened a container towards which the actor expressed “happiness” rather than “disgust”, while the reverse was true for the unjustified group. As expected, no differences were found between the groups on the instrumental helping and imitation tasks, but the justified group needed fewer prompts to help the actor than the unjustified group when emotional help was requested.

The third study examined how 18-month-olds react to someone who displays a neutral facial expression following negative experiences. In one condition, infants saw the actor display sadness, while she remained neutral in the other condition. Then, infants interacted with the actor in emotional referencing, instrumental helping, empathic helping, and imitation tasks. Infants in both groups engaged in similar levels of hypothesis testing. However, infants in the sad group expressed more concerned facial expressions towards the actor than those in the neutral group. No differences were found between the two groups on the interactive tasks.

Taken together, the results from these studies show that 18-month-olds are sensitive to emotions following emotional experiences and that a person’s emotional accuracy modifies infants’ subsequent behaviors towards that person, specifically in the emotional domain.


identifier: Ibrahim, Magdy  (2015) Models for Efficient Automated Site Data Acquisition.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

format: text text

abstract:
Accurate and timely data acquisition for tracking and progress reporting is essential for efficient management and successful project delivery. Considerable research work has been conducted to develop methods utilizing automated site data acquisition for tracking and progress reporting. However, these developments are challenged by: the dynamic and noisy nature of construction jobsites; the indoor localization accuracy; and the data processing and extraction of actionable information. Limited research work attempted to study and develop customized design of wireless sensor networks to meet the above challenges and overcome limitations of utilizing off-the-shelf technologies.
The objective of this research is to study, design, configure and develop fully customized automated site data acquisition models, with a special focus on near real-time automated tracking and control of construction operations embracing cutting edge innovations in wireless and remote sensing technologies. In this context, wireless and remote sensing technologies are integrated in two customized prototypes to monitor and collect data from construction jobsites. This data is then processed and mined to generate meaningful and actionable information. The developed prototypes are expected to have wider scope of applications in construction management, such as improving construction safety, monitoring the condition of civil infrastructure and reducing energy consumption in buildings.
Two families of prototypes were developed in this research; Sensor Aided GPS (SA-GPS) prototype, which is designed and developed for tracking outdoor construction operations such as earthmoving; and Self-Calibrated Wireless Sensor Network (SC-WSN), which is designed for indoor localization and tracking of construction resources (labor, materials and equipment). These prototypes along with their hardware and software are encapsulated in a computational framework. The framework houses a set of algorithms coded in C# to enable efficient data processing and fusion that support tracking and progress reporting. Both the hardware prototypes and software algorithms were progressively tested, evaluated and re-designed using Rapid Prototyping approach. The validation process of the developed prototypes encompasses three steps; (1) simulation to validate the prototypes’ design virtually using MATLAB, (2) laboratory experiments to evaluate prototypes’ functionality in real time, and (3) testing on scaled case studies after fine-tuning the prototype design based on the results obtained from the first two steps.
The SA-GPS prototype consists of a microcontroller equipped with GPS module as well as a number of sensors such as accelerometer, barometric pressure sensor, Bluetooth proximity and strain gauges. The results of testing the developed SA-GPS prototype on scaled construction jobsite indicated that it was capable of estimating project progress within 3% mean absolute percentage error and 1% standard deviation on 16 trials, in comparison to the standalone GPS which had approximately 12% mean absolute percentage error and 2% standard deviation. The SC-WSN prototype incorporates two main features. The first is the use of the Kalman filtering and smoothing for the RSSI signal to provide more stable and predictable signal for estimating the distance between a reader and a tag. The second is the use of a developed dynamic path-loss model which continually optimizes its parameters to cope with the dynamically changing construction environment using Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) algorithm. The laboratory testing indicated the improvement in location estimation, where the produced location estimates using SC_WSN had an average error of 0.66m in comparison to 1.67m using the raw RSSI signal. Also the results indicated 60% accuracy improvement in estimating locations using the developed dynamic model. The developed prototypes are not only expected to reduce the risk of project cost and duration overruns by timely and early detection of deviations from project plan, but also enables project managers to observe and oversee their project’s status in near real-time. It is expected that the accuracy of the developed hardware, can be achieved on large-scale real construction projects. This is attributed to the fact that the developed prototype does not require any scalable improvements on its hardware technology, nor does it require any additional computational changes to its developed algorithms and software.


identifier: Roburn, Shirley  (2015) Shifting Stories, Changing Places: Being Caribou and Narratives of Transformational Climate Change in Northwestern North America.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
In April of 2003, Leanne Allison and Karsten Heuer set out on skis, from north of the Gwich’in village of Old Crow in the Canadian Arctic, to follow the Porcupine caribou herd on its annual migration. The goal of their expedition was to tell the story of the caribou, so that policy makers and ordinary people would understand the importance of protecting their calving grounds, which President George W. Bush had vowed to open to oil and gas leasing. This dissertation traces the Being Caribou expedition story, as told through the Being Caribou film, book, children’s book, website, blog posts, slideshows, and speaking presentations, to analyse its impact in promoting calving grounds protection.
	The research builds upon established forms of film and media analysis by situating the Being Caribou stories within a thousands of years long relationship between caribou and Gwich’in and Inuvialuit people. Taking this long view brings forward the vital role of northern indigenous communities in shaping all aspects of the Being Caribou journey, from the parks and protected areas Allison and Heuer passed through, to the tenor of the expedition’s media products and outreach.
	In the 2004-6 period, the Being Caribou film was systematically used by the Alaska Coalition to build participation and leadership in a broad-based movement to influence crucial Congressional votes on the fate of the Arctic Refuge calving grounds. Through an analysis that combines film and participatory culture research frames with insights from civic engagement literature, this dissertation demonstrates how the storywork of Being Caribou house party and community screenings not only educated individuals about the calving grounds, but moved individuals up an “activist ladder” (Hahn, 2014) of social movement participation. Hundreds of thousands of North Americans who attended Arctic Action Day Being Caribou screenings wrote letters, signed petitions, attended demonstrations, met with their elected officials, and otherwise took leadership to oppose development within the Arctic Refuge. Over time, the Being Caribou film, books, blog posts, slideshows and speaking presentations helped to challenge the dominant values of North American petroculture, growing an ‘ecology of story’ in which the caribou, and their calving grounds, have flourished.


identifier: Wei, Nijun  (2015) Solutions of the Inverse Frobenius-Perron Problem.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: The Frobenius-Perron operator describes the evolution of density functions in a dynamical system. Finding the �fixed points of this operator is referred to as the Frobenius-Perron problem. This thesis discusses the inverse Frobenius-Perron problem (IFPP), which seeks the transformation that generates a prescribed invariant probability density. In particular, we present in detail five different ways of solving the IFPP, including approaches using conjugation and differential equation, and two matrix solutions. We also generalize Pingel's method to the case of two-pieces maps.


identifier: Zhang, Yifei  (2015) Context-aware Non-electronic Service Discovery and Composition.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: In today’s web, many web services are created and updated on the Internet. In many cases, a single service is not sufficient to respond to the user’s request and often services should be combined through service composition to fulfill business goals. Service discovery and service composition can be highly compatible with context, i.e., according to context information, e.g., location, budget and time, services are chosen and composed. Moreover, we include non-electronic services, e.g., restaurants, movie theaters shopping malls and so on, into service composition. Non-electronic services are rarely considered in existing service composition research, however are frequently used in people’s daily life. In this thesis, we provide an approach for using contexts to discover and compose non-electronic services. We present a new context model which is to make it more suitable for service composition. This model is also able to handle both low level sensor data and high level data in predicated logic. Our service composition algorithm uses soft constraints, dissatisfaction of which causes a penalty instead of the fail of planning. With this feature, the service composition algorithm can give the user several “good enough” solutions, instead of null solution. Additionally, a replanning module is developed to refine the solution according to user’s further adjustments of his or her requirements. As a motivating example, a web based Personal Entertainment Planner system is built.


identifier: Chowdhury, Md. Rashadul Islam and Mulligan, Catherine N.  (2015) Removal of Arsenic from Contaminated Water by Granular Activated Carbon Embedded with Nano scale Zero-valent Iron.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

creator:
Chowdhury, Md. Rashadul Islam
Mulligan, Catherine N.

abstract:
This study investigated the removal of arsenic from groundwater by granular activated carbon (GAC) supported nano scale zero-valent iron (nZVI). GAC supported nZVI (nZVI/GAC) composite was synthesized by hydrolyzing a Fe(III) salt on GAC, reduced by NaBH4 and dried under vacuum. Synthesized nZVI/GAC was characterized using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) along with EDS, BET surface area analysis, X-ray diffraction (XRD), and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. The experimental results were produced through the batch and Rapid Small Scale Column Test (RSSCT). The adsorption depends on pH, initial concentration, and reaction time. Arsenite adsorption capacity varies from 800 to 1400 μg/g over the pH 2-11. Arsenate adsorption was higher (3000-3700 μg/g) over the acidic pH range 2-6.5. Among competitive ions, phosphate and silicate affected the most while sulfate, nitrate, chloride, fluoride, manganese, magnesium and calcium had insignificant impact. The experimental data were evaluated with Langmuir and Freundlich isotherms.  The adsorption capacity for arsenate, calculated from Langmuir and Freundlich isotherms, were 5000 and 6000 µg/g, respectively at pH 4.5. The reaction kinetics followed the pseudo-second order model. The initial sorption rate (h), determined from pseudo-second order kinetic model, was 666 µg/g.min. The dynamic behaviour of the RSSCT was predicted by the HSDM model using the software FAST 2.0. From the RSSCT results, it was found that the number of bed volumes treated depends on the empty bed contact time (EBCT) as well as the initial arsenate concentration.
The regeneration of spent nZVI/GAC using 0.1M NaOH was effective as it desorbed 87% of adsorbed arsenic. The solid waste can be safely disposed of in a sanitary landfill without any treatment as the concentration of leached arsenate determined by TCLP was much lower than the regulatory limit.  The arsenic removal mechanism was due to the combination of electrostatic and the complex formation, either monodentate or bidentate, between As(V) and nZVI corrosion products. The results indicated that nZVI/GAC is a promising adsorbent for arsenic removal.


identifier: Chowdhury, Md. Rashadul Islam  (2015) Removal of Arsenic from Contaminated Water by Granular Activated Carbon Embedded with Nano scale Zero-valent Iron.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.


identifier: Dabbous, Amal  (2015) Three Essays In Commodity Price Dynamics.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
This thesis consists of three essays in commodity price dynamics. In the first essay, we embed a staggered price feature into the speculative storage model of Deaton and Laroque (1996). Intermediate goods inventory speculators are added as an additional source of intertemporal linkage which helps us to replicate the stylized facts of the observed commodity price dynamics. The staggered pricing mechanism adopted in this paper can be viewed as a parsimonious way of approximating various types of frictions that increase the degree of persistence in the first two conditional moments of commodity prices. The structural parameters of our model are estimated by simulated method of moments using actual prices for four agricultural commodities. Simulated data are then employed to assess the effects of our staggered price approach on the time series properties of commodity prices. Our results lend empirical support to the possibility of staggered prices.
The second essay investigates the determinants of the percentage change in commodity prices. We apply the dynamic Gordon growth model technique and conduct the variance decomposition for the percentage change in spot commodity prices to 6 agricultural commodities. The model explains the percentage change in spot commodity prices in terms of the expected present discounted values of interest rate, yield spread, open interest and convenience yield. Empirical results indicate that the model is successful in capturing a large proportion of the variability in the 6 agricultural commodity prices. Moreover, we show that yield spread and open interest help predicting changes in commodity prices.
Finally, the third essay evaluates different hedging strategies for eleven commodities. In addition to the traditional regression hedge ratio model (OLS) and the vector error correction model (VECM), we estimate dynamic hedge ratios using the conventional dynamic conditional correlation model (DCC) of Engle (2002) and the diagonal BEKK model (DBEKK) of Engle and Kroner (1995). Moreover, we propose two more advanced models, the DCC model and the DBEKK model that will account for the impact of the growth rate of open interest on market’s volatility and co-movements of commodity spot and futures returns. The empirical analysis shows that adding the growth rate of open interest improves the in-sample hedging effectiveness of the DCC model. Furthermore, the out-of-sample hedging exercise empirical results show that static models present the best out-of-sample hedging performance for 5 of the commodities. The DCC model presents the smallest basis variance for 4 of the commodities. The DBEKK model with the growth rate of open interest performs the best in terms of the basis variance reduction for corn and wheat. Our out-of-sample empirical findings provide important implications for futures hedging and highlight the fact that the use of static models to determine the optimal hedge ratio could be more effective than the use of dynamic hedge ratio models.


identifier: Smith, George  (2015) Combining Input- and Output-Based Instruction in Second Language Learning.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: The view of some theorists in the field of SLA is that comprehension practice is essential for establishing strong form-meaning links in the underlying linguistic system and that language production will invariably result from these representations, entailing that output need not be the focus of grammar instruction (VanPatten, 2004). Others hold that language production is a skill which must be developed separate from comprehension (DeKeyser, 1997) and that output can actually directly contribute to the grammar learning process (Swain, 1985; 1995). These opposing views have resulted in several studies contrasting the effects of comprehension and production practice for the initial learning of different language features (e.g., VanPatten & Cadierno, 1993; DeKeyser & Sokalski, 1996). However, Shintani, Li, & Ellis’ (2013) meta-analysis on the relative benefits of comprehension and production practice concluded that both are effective in promoting the development of receptive and productive abilities. The question has thus moved beyond which type of practice is more beneficial for acquisition to how the benefits of each type of practice can be exploited in different learning contexts. Of particular interest is the potential of combining comprehension and production practice in an instructional sequence. Based on theories of skill acquisition (DeKeyser, 2007), the output hypothesis (Swain, 1985; Izumi, 2003) and attention (Gass, 1997), as well as the results of prior research (Tanaka, 1999, 2001; Izumi, 2002), the present study hypothesized that combining the two types practice would lead to learning gains over an instructional sequence, and that alternating the two practice types would be more effective than delaying production for the development of both receptive and productive grammar knowledge. Fourteen12-15 year old Japanese learners of English received instruction on the regular simple past (e.g., walked, cleaned) in four one-hour lessons. The delayed group (n=7) received two session of comprehension practice followed by two sessions of production practice; the alternating group (n=7) received alternating comprehension and production practice sessions. In a time series design, gains in perception and production of the –ed past were measured at three points in time. Repeated measures ANOVAs demonstrated that both groups improved significantly over the course of the treatment and that both early and delayed production practice were equally effective (no interaction between Time and Group). The results thus point to the benefits of using both comprehension and production practice to promote the learning of second language grammar. The discussion of the findings includes pedagogical implications as well as research design modifications for future investigations of optimal combinations of input-based and output-based instruction to best benefit L2 grammar acquisition.


identifier: Vahdatikhaki, Faridaddin  (2015) Towards Smart Earthwork Sites Using Location-based Guidance and Multi-agent Systems.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
The growing complexity and scope of construction projects is making the coordination and safety of earthwork of a great concern for project and site managers. The difficulty of safeguarding the construction workers is mainly commensurate with the type, scale, and location of the project. In construction operations, where heavy machines are used, various safety and risk issues put the timely completion of a project at stake. Additionally, the construction working environment is heavily susceptible to unforeseen changes and circumstances that could impact the project, both cost and schedule wise. As a response to the looming safety threats or unforeseen changes of working conditions, re-planning is almost always required, in both proactive (preemptive) or reactive (corrective) fashion. In order for re-planning to yield the optimum results, real-time information gathering and processing is a must. Global Positioning System (GPS) and other Real-time Location Systems (RTLSs) have been used for the purpose of real-time data gathering and decision-making in recent years. Similarly, Location-based Guidance Systems (LGSs), e.g., Automated Machine Control/Guidance (AMC/G), have been recently introduced and employed, mainly for the purpose of high-precision earthwork operations. However, currently the application of available LGSs (i.e., AMC/G) is restricted to the machine-level task control and improvement. Also, the high cost of procuring available LGSs, which cost approximately $80,000 for every new piece of equipment, limits the availability of LGSs for small and medium size contractors. Furthermore, the valuable real-time data gathered from various pieces of equipment on site are not effectively utilized to continuously update the simulation models developed at the design phase so that a more realistic view of project progress is available in the execution phase. Finally, despite the growing availability of LGSs, their application for safety is limited to real-time proximity-based object detection and warnings. In view of the ability to control the finest motion of LGS-enabled earthwork equipment, there is a great potential to boost their level of application to the project level, where decisions about the equipment control are made based on the global consideration of a fleet rather that a local view of one single equipment. To the best of the author’s knowledge, a generic methodology that combines real-time data-gathering technologies, LGS and intelligent decision making tools, particularly Multi-agent Systems (MASs), and addresses the safety-sensitive re-planning, is missing.
On this premise, this research pursues a methodology which addresses the issue of coordination and safety improvement through the integration of LGSs and MASs. In a nutshell, this research is dedicated to the pursuit of the following objectives: (1) to enable the project-level coordination, monitoring and control through the integration of a MAS architecture and a LGS to help better resolve operational and managerial conflicts; (2) to provide a method for improving the performance of pose estimation based on affordable RTLSs so that LGSs can be applied to a wider scope of older earthwork equipment; (3) to devise a generic framework for Near Real-Time Simulation (NRTS) based on data from LGSs; and (4) to develop a mechanism for improving the safety of earthwork operations using the capabilities of the LGS, NRTS, and MAS.
In the proposed framework, every staff member of the project is represented by an exclusive agent in the MASs. More affordable positioning technologies, such as Ultra-Wideband (UWB), are utilized to provide accurate real-time data about the location of machines and workers. An optimization-based method is proposed to consider a set of geometric and operational constraints that govern the behavior of the Data Collectors (DCs) attached to the equipment to improve the equipment pose estimation accuracy. NRTS is used to keep track of the progress of the project and fine-tune the schedule based on the data captured from the site. The agents observe the progress of work executed by their associated equipment, and if any anomalies are detected, viable corrective measures are devised and executed. The inputs to this system are: (a) a stream of real-time data, e.g., location data, flowing from the site, (b) the project design data, and (c) the project progress data and the schedule. Furthermore, a two-layer safety mechanism monitors the safe operation of different pieces of equipment. The first layer of this mechanism enables the equipment to plan a collision-free path considering the predicted movement of all other pieces of equipment. The second layer is acting as a last line of defense in view of possible discrepancies between the predicted paths and actual paths undertaken by the operators. Several prototypes and case studies are developed to demonstrate and verify the feasibility of the proposed framework.
It is found that the proposed optimization-based method has a very strong potential to improve the pose estimation using redundancy of more affordable RTLS DCs. Also, the proposed overarching NRTS approach provides a tracking-technology-independent method for processing, analyzing, filtering and visualizing the equipment states that can work with various types of RTLS technologies and under the availability of different levels of sensory data. The proposed safety system is found to provide a balance between economic use of space and the ability to warn against potential collisions in an effective manner using the pose, state, geometry, and speed characteristics of the equipment. Additionally, the safety system demonstrates the ability to provide a reliable basis for the generation of the risk maps of earthwork equipment, using the expected pose and state, and considering the proximity-based and visibility-based risks.
The MAS-based framework helps expand the effective domain of LGSs from machine-level guidance to fleet-level coordination. In the view of the presented case studies, the MAS structure is found to be effective in assigning different operations and tasks of a project to the specific agents that will be responsible for their realization. Using a combination of strategic and tactical planning methods, the MAS is able to effectively provide readily executable guidance/control for equipment operators considering a variety of safety issues.


identifier: Blanchette, Marie-Pier  (2015) Tristan et Iseut : évolution d’un mythe (Variantes de Joseph Bédier, Daniel Mativat et Kevin Reynolds).  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Résumé

Tristan et Iseut : évolution d’un mythe
(Variantes de Joseph Bédier, Daniel Mativat et Kevin Reynolds)
Marie-Pier Blanchette

Dans le cadre de cette recherche, nous nous sommes intéressés à quatre variantes plurimédias du mythe de Tristan et Iseut. On retrouve Le lai du Chèvrefeuille de Marie de France (12e siècle) écrit en ancien français, le Tristan et Iseut à valeur de canon de Joseph Bédier (1900), la version romancée Ni vous sans moi, ni moi sans vous : la fabuleuse histoire de Tristan et Iseut de Daniel Mativat (1999) ainsi que l’adaptation cinématographique Tristan + Yseult de Kevin Reynolds (2006). Les variantes de Marie de France et de Bédier nous ont permis de déterminer les éléments essentiels du mythe. Grâce auxdits éléments, nous avons réussi à déterminer et à analyser les actualisations qui se trouvent dans les itérations modernes du mythe. Nous avons également tenu compte des changements de médias de ces actualisations dans notre mémoire. Pour ce faire, nous avons d’abord eu recours aux théories de Michel Collot sur l’analyse thématique des thèmes et archétypes Éros et Thanatos. Enfin, les théories narratologiques de Vladimir Propp et Gérard Genette ainsi que celles de Joseph Campbell, en ce qui a trait au monomythe et au héros-amant, nous ont permis d’interpréter nos données. Une de nos conclusions est que, d’après une interprétation sociohistorique des récits, on peut en apprendre autant sur l’époque de production de la variante que sur celle où l’histoire est censée prendre place, tout particulièrement en ce qui a trait à la représentation de la femme dans le récit.

Abstract

Tristan et Iseut : évolution d’un mythe
(Variantes de Joseph Bédier, Daniel Mativat et Kevin Reynolds)
Marie-Pier Blanchette

This research takes a look at four mixed media versions of the myth of Tristan et Iseut. There are Marie de France’s Le lai du Chèvrefeuille (12th century) written in old French, Joseph Bédier’s Tristan et Iseut (1900), Daniel Mativat’s novelized version Ni vous sans moi, ni moi sans vous: la fabuleuse histoire de Tristan et Iseut (1999), and Kevin Reynolds’ film adaptation Tristan + Yseult (2006). With the help of Marie de France and Bédier’s versions, we found the myth’s essential elements. Then, we managed to determine and analyze the updates found in our modern variations of the myth. We also took into account the changes of mediums in our research. In order to do this, we used the theories of Michel Collot to look at the themes and archetypes of Eros and Thanatos. Finally, we used Vladimir Propp and Gérard Genette’s theories on narratology as well as those of Joseph Campbell about the monomyth and the hero as a lover to interpret our data. According to a sociohistorical interpretation of our versions, one of our conclusions is that we can learn as much about the time of production of one of the myth’s variations than about the time when that variation is supposed to take place – a fact particularly important for the “modern” representation of women in our four versions.


identifier: Shami, Ahmad  (2015) Ground Penetrating Radar-based Deterioration Assessment of Bridge Decks.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
The ASCE report card 2013 rated bridges at a grade of C+, implying their condition is moderate and require immediate attention. Moreover, the Federal Highway Administration reported that it is required to invest more than $20.5 billion each year to eliminate the bridge deficient backlog by 2028. In Canada 2012, more than 50% of bridges fall under fair, poor, and very poor categories, where more than $90 billion are required to replace these bridges. Therefore, government agencies should have an accurate way to inspect and assess the corrosiveness of the bridges under their management.
Numerical Amplitude method is one of the most common used methods to interpret Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) outputs, yet it does not have a fixed and informative numerical scale that is capable of accurately interpreting the condition of bridge decks. To overcome such problem, the present research aims at developing a numerical GPR-based scale with three thresholds and build deterioration models to assess the corrosiveness of bridge decks. Data, for more than 60 different bridge decks, were collected from previous research works and from surveys of bridge decks using a ground-coupled antenna with the frequency of 1.5 GHz. The amplitude values of top reinforcing rebars of each bridge deck were classified into four categories using k-means clustering technique. Statistical analysis was performed on the collected data to check the best-fit probability distribution and to choose the most appropriate parameters that affect thresholds of different categories of corrosion and deterioration. Monte-Carlo simulation technique was used to validate the value of these thresholds. Moreover, a sensitivity analysis was performed to realize the effect of changing the thresholds on the areas of corrosion. The final result of this research is a four-category GPR scale with numerical thresholds that can assess the corrosiveness of bridge decks. The developed scale has been validated using a case study on a newly constructed bridge deck and also by comparing maps created using the developed scale and other methods. The comparison shows sound and promising results that advance the state of the art of GPR output interpretation and analysis. In addition, deterioration models and curves have been developed using Weibull Distribution based on GPR outputs and corrosion areas. The developed new GPR scale and deterioration models will help the decision makers to assess accurately and objectively the corrosiveness of bridge decks. Hence, they will be able to take the right intervention decision for managing these decks.