identifier: Suchowlansky, Mauricio Daniel  (2009) Spectacular tumults : Machiavelli's Florentine Histories and the notion of Tumulto.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: I propose that the notion of tumulto in Machiavelli's Florentine Histories should be recognized as having a representational character, meant to provide Machiavelli's readership, the Medici family, with the necessary perspective to build a solid political understanding of the 'movements' of the Florentine Republic. Machiavelli 'spotlights' three tumultuous events -the riots that led to the fall of the tyranny of Walter de Brienne, The Ciompi revolt, and the riots that followed the so-called Pazzi conspiracy- to present the parochial fact that Florence needed a new (Republican) government. Machiavelli employed this history writing as a political device, showing his task as a pedagogue to advice his patrons that political success involved a socially accommodating perspective, which encompasses a republican lesson of political accessibility rather than the elimination of opposition in the vain hope of social harmony and political domination. This 'perspective' of the various social discords of the city is particularly coherent with the context of Florence during the post-1512 Medici regime: the political disenfranchisement of the Ottimatti sectors, the co-optation of the merchant middle sectors, the lack of political leadership and political knowledge on the part of the remaining members of the clan.


identifier: Freire, Manuelle  (2009) A case study of curricula design and teaching strategies for educating tomorrow's new media artists.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

type: Thesis NonPeerReviewed

abstract: This study investigates the curricula of three studio-based courses in an undergraduate Computation Arts program, and examines how the instructors implement the curricula. I analyzed the courses' structure and content, I interviewed the instructors and conducted an in-class observation: in one of the courses. Central to this examination are the pedagogical objectives and teaching strategies' adopted to articulate the three headings of new media art education: the technical expertise in multiple tools, the critical and analytical discourse and the rapidly evolving technology and new media theory. I found - that although the teachers are building on traditional models of art education, they also incorporate into their pedagogical practices the processes of media production and consumption that are defining the contemporary new media art paradigm. The findings were juxtaposed to the ideas of educators who write about the development and adoption of new directions for training artists in the necessary skills to engage effectively with the future technological and cultural change.


identifier: Wu, Ai Hua  (2009) OO-IP hybrid language design and a framework approach to the GIPC.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Intensional Programming is a declarative programming paradigm in which expressions are evaluated in an inherently multidimensional context space. The Lucid family of programming languages is, to this day, the only programming languages of true intensional nature. Lucid being a functional language, Lucid programs are inherently parallel and their parallelism can be efficiently exploited by the adjunction of a procedural language to increase the granularity of its parallelism, forming hybrid Lucid languages. That very wide array of possibilities raises the need for an extremely flexible programming language investigation platform to investigate on this plethora of possibilities for Intensional Programming. That is the purpose of the General Intensional Programming System (GIPSY), especially, the General Intensional Programming Compiler (GIPC) component.  The modularity, reusability and extensibility aspects of the framework approach make it an obvious candidate for the development of the GIPC. The framework presented in this thesis provides a better solution compared to all other techniques used to this day to implement the different variants of intensional programming.  Because of the functionality of hybrid programming support in the GIPC framework, a new OO-IP hybrid language is designed for further research. This new hybrid language combines the essential characteristics of IPL and Java, and introduces the notion of object streams which makes it is possible that each element in an IPL stream could be an object with embedded intensional properties. Interestingly, this hybrid language also brings to Java objects the power which can explicitly express context, creating the novel concept of intensional objects, Le. objects whose evaluation is context-dependent, which are therein demonstrated to be translatable into standard objects. By this new feature, we extend the use and meaning of the notion of object and enrich the meaning of stream in IPL and semantics of Java.  At the same time, during the procedure to introduce intensional objects and this OO-IP hybrid language, many factors are considered. These factors include how to integrate the new language with the GIPC framework design and the issues related to its integration in the current GIPSY implementation. Current semantic rules show that the new language can work well with the GIPC framework and the GIPSY implementation, which is another proof of the validity of our GIPC framework design.  Ultimately, the proposed design is put into implementation in the GIPSY and the implementation put to test using programs from different application domains written in this new OO-IP language


identifier: Young, Chris  (2009) "Sous les balles des troupes fédérales" : representing the Quebec Ciry riots in francophone Quebec (1919-2009).  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: This thesis examines the various representations of the 1918 Quebec City anti-conscription riots over the course of the last hundred years in francophone Quebec. It argues that the riots had been largely ignored by Quebec's professional and amateur historical communities until the Quiet Revolution. As the social and intellectual forces changed in the 1960s, some of the amateurs, the most important being Jean Provencher, re-discovered the story of the riots. Provencher's Québec: sous la loi des mésures de guerre 1918 and his subsequent play Québec, Printemps 1918 (1973) were written to honour the four victims who were deemed unfairly killed, as well as to commemorate those Quebecers who chose to fight for, what the author believed, was a worthy cause. Additionally, his work also meant to correct the perceived historical wrong of a tragic event that seemed to have been forgotten by Quebecers. Although he claimed his works were "objective", Provencher wrote this history with a political message and accordingly selected, interpreted, and manipulated documents in order to strengthen his argument. Since then, Quebec's francophone historians, mostly amateurs, have parroted Provencher's works contributing very little that is new on the topic. Consequently, although the story of the riots is widely represented today in Quebec, it continues to be told through a tragic and simplistic narrative of victimization.


identifier: Zangger, Catherine  (2009) Formation and outcome: the political discourses of the New Zealand Prostitution Reform Act, 2000-2003.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: The aim of the thesis is to explore language use in the social processes of law reform. Between 2000 and 2003 New Zealand (NZ) underwent a major legal amendment and provides an ideal context for such an analysis. During that period, social policies surrounding the sex industry underwent a legal change: from criminalization to decriminalization. The specific research undertaken for my MA thesis is an analysis of NZ parliamentary debates surrounding the Prostitution Reform Bill (PRB) that led to that change. Using critical discourse analysis (Fairclough 1993) to examine the NZ parliamentary debates, I discuss the discursive framings which allowed the enactment of the PRB. Furthermore, I examine other government documents relating to the legal change in 2003 and newspaper articles to contextualize it. The NZ parliamentary transcripts, govemment documents, and news clippings, which are available free on-line, provide a rich starting point for studying the relationship between language use, law reform, and judicial policy surrounding the politics of sex work. By analysing the NZ political debates in relation to the PRB, the thesis demonstrates that Members of Parliament (MPs) opposing the law reform capitalized on the moral order rhetoric to highlight the divide between public and private spheres and to argue for added protection for the community instead of sex workers. Those in support also used this dichotomy but to promote the rights of sex workers. This created discursive divides among MPs and changed the content of the PRB. These tensions are discussed in order to use this political phenomenon to further inform the debate surrounding social movement and outcome.


identifier: Fallahi, Ali  (2009) Thermal performance of double-skin façade with thermal mass.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: In order to mitigate the overheating problem in the warmer seasons, and thereby to improve thermal performance and energy efficiency of the Double-Skin Façade (DSF) system, this study introduced an innovative design approach involving the integration of thermal mass with the air channel of the conventional DSF. Then it proposed a numerical procedure to assess the thermal performance of DSF, and finally investigated the effect of thermal mass on the energy efficiency of such system.  The initial step in the assessment procedure proposed the development of base-case models, which were able to predict temperature distribution in the DSF with a venetian blind. So too were the base-case models able to determine heating/cooling loads of the perimeter room for both the mechanically and naturally ventilated DSFs. In this procedure, building energy simulation software was used for base-case development; two distinct models were generated: an airflow model and a thermal model. The nodal, unidirectional airflow network method was applied in the case of the naturally ventilated DSF. The thermal model was a transient control volume method which found temperature distribution in discretized air-channel.  The base-cases were verified at two levels: inter-model verification and verification relying on measurements from mechanically and naturally ventilated outdoor test-cells. At both levels, a generally fair agreement was obtained. After this, parametric studies pertaining to the energy performance of the system were conducted on the effect of thermal mass in unison with different air-channel configurations.  Considerable energy load reductions were found when thermal mass was used in the air-channel, replacing venetian blind slats for mechanically ventilated DSFs; this held true during both summer and winter. In this configuration depending on the airflow path direction, energy savings from 21% to 26% in summer and from 41% to 59% in winter are achievable in compared with conventional DSF with aluminum venetian blind. The savings were found higher in sunny days than cloudy days. On the other hand, naturally ventilated DSFs combined with thermal mass were not found to be energy efficient in winter due to stack effect and airflow rate increase within the air channel


identifier: Deschênes, Jonathan  (2009) Exploring the wish factory : ethnographic insights into the charitable business of wish granting.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: In the last decade or so, the number of charitable organizations that offer various activities and programs dedicated specifically to "light up" the life of ill children through the granting of wishes has grown by leaps and bounds. In parallel, dozens-if not hundreds-of companies in various industries are collaborating with these charities through sponsorship and partnership programs. With their help, wish granting organizations now raise impressive sums of money and fulfill the wishes of children throughout the world.  Despite the importance of this major social and economic phenomenon, little research exists to date, that documents and reflects upon it. I studied this phenomenon by asking the following question: How can we conceptualize and understand ill children's wish granting and its impact on and relationship among the various actors, as they are deployed throughout the process? To do so, I used an 8-month full-time ethnographic fieldwork (complemented by 2 years of sporadic data collection) to immerse myself in the world of the Children's Wish Foundation of Canada. The Foundation grants approximately 1,000 wishes Canada-wide per year and granted its 15,000 th wish in the summer of 2oo9.  This dissertation explores the phenomenon mainly from the perspective of Actor-Network Theory , as proposed by Bruno Latour (2005). It investigates which I call the Wish Factory through an in-depth analysis of the wish granting process (how wishes come to be developed), the actual fulfillment of the wishes, and finally the wish's after-life. Reflections on the relationship between charities, beneficiaries and the marketplace are woven into the analysis. The Wish Factory manifests itself as a process that engages a large and diversified network of actors, all involved in the creation of an extraordinary event for families facing the turmoil of childhood illness. In creating the extraordinary wish, the actors (principally the beneficiary families, the charity and the marketplace) must deal with tensions arising from the opposing forces of the unique and the plain commercial. The notion of regimes of value (Appadurai, 1986) is proposed as a way to explain how such tensions are resolved at the micro and macro levels.


identifier: Saridakis, George  (2009) Think & learn rich: applying accelerated learning to higher education.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Universities are being called upon to evolve their teaching approaches to foster higher-order thinking in learners. Elaborate constructivist solutions abound; however, professors lack the resources to implement them. This study explored an alternative, leaner approach called accelerated learning (AL) to resolve the issue. AL is a corporately and commercially adapted constructivist model that distinguishes itself, in its preparation phase, by its attention to emotional engagement; a quality that research admits has been greatly underutilized in higher education. Coupled with AL's meaningful presentation of curriculum, its in-class practice , and outside-the-class performance activities to an experience in learner's lives, it was hypothesized that this model was capable of eliciting sought-after critical thinking skills by virtue of offering value and enjoyment to learners, all the while demanding little resources from the professor. AL was thus applied to a Master's level Cybernetics course, with the author acting as the teaching assistant. Students all confirmed that they received both value and enjoyment from the course. Evidence of critical thinking was less ubiquitous, and believed to be notably compromised by insufficient adherence to the performance phase. Nevertheless, the apparent learning gains exhibited in some cases warrant formatively evaluated iterations of AL, with some refinements, and ideally, future teaching assistants.


identifier: Côté, Julie  (2009) Enhancing problem-solving skills for childhood internalizing and externalizing disorders.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: The following theoretical research will present, based on a concise literature review, the outline for a new art therapy program intended for latency-aged children diagnosed with internalizing disorders with or without comorbid externalizing features. Grounded in a cognitive-behavioral model and informed by positive psychology, the proposed program will aim to strengthen resilience and increase problem-solving skills through short-term, solution-focused group interventions. The rationale for developing such a new art therapy program is based on literature suggesting that most existing treatment programs are devised primarily for either internalizing or externalizing disorders despite the well documented comorbidity of such childhood mental issues. Furthermore, literature supports the need to devise more age-appropriate interventions for latency-aged clients based on the recognition that many effective intervention programs fail when applied to pediatric populations as these programs may not be suited to meet the developmental needs and cognitive abilities of this young age group.


identifier: Byrnes, Shannon  (2009) Art and story : an art therapy program for women who have experienced breast cancer.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: The goal of this research was to create an effective art therapy program that could address the need for ongoing care for women who are survivors of breast cancer. The program, entitled Art and Story is rooted in feminist and narrative theory and on the current literature in art therapy and cancer care. This research first explores a body of literature on breast cancer history, physical, psycho-social perspectives, feminist and narrative theory and theory from art therapy. The final component of the research is the program based on themes extrapolated from the literature and also is built from my own experience in working with cancer patients as an intern art therapist. The aims of the Art and Story program are: to encourage empowerment through creative storytelling, to provide opportunities for making meaning from one's illness experience, to promote healing of body and mind through creative activity, and to break feelings of isolation by building a group culture. The eight week program incorporates a variety of arts-based interventions designed to meet these goals. This program is a preliminary guideline as to how an art therapist could work with a group of women who have experienced breast cancer.


identifier: Spike, Sara  (2009) "Photos of the school group of this place and others" : an itinerant photographer pictures rural education in Nova Scotia, c1912.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: In June 1912, itinerant photographer Frank Adams travelled northeast through central Nova Scotia, making class portraits at the small rural schools along his way. The resulting photographs and other like them are at the centre of this thesis. School photographs have been the subject of only passing critical interest to historians, yet they are eagerly collected by local historical societies who use them as key tools in their efforts to imagine the pasts of their communities. This avid collection underscores the fact that these seemingly innocuous artifacts speak volumes about community identities.  Despite the wide circulation of his photographs, Adams himself has been almost entirely forgotten. The reciprocal relationships that he had with the communities he visited have not been archived along with the images he made. This thesis begins by piecing together some of the fragmentary traces that Adams left behind on his travels through the province. It then positions his school photography in the particular environment of rural Nova Scotia in 1912. In the context of widespread education reform in the period, this thesis argues that Adams's unique class pictures were at odds with the standardized vision of education that was being imposed on rural communities by government and reform agendas. Adams's particular talents and representational choices, along with his position as an itinerant photographer, working outside the bureaucracy of the school system, made him uniquely suited to create images with local significance


identifier: Tlili, Syrine  (2009) Automatic detection of safety and security vulnerabilities in open source software.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Growing software quality requirements have raised the stakes on software safety and security. Building secure software focuses on techniques and methodologies of design and implementation in order to avoid exploitable vulnerabilities. Unfortunately, coding errors have become common with the inexorable growth tendency of software size and complexity. According to the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), these coding errors lead to vulnerabilities that cost the US economy $60 billion each year. Therefore, tracking security and safety errors is considered as a fundamental cornerstone to deliver software that are free from severe vulnerabilities. The main objective of this thesis is the elaboration of efficient, rigorous, and practical techniques for the safety and security evaluation of source code. To tackle safety errors related to the misuse of type and memory operations, we present a novel type and effect discipline that extends the standard C type system with safety annotations and static safety checks. We define an inter-procedural, flow-sensitive, and alias-sensitive inference algorithm that automatically propagates type annotations and applies safety checks to programs without programmers' interaction. Moreover, we present a dynamic semantics of our C core language that is compliant with the ANSI C standard. We prove the consistency of the static semantics with respect to the dynamic semantics. We show the soundness of our static analysis in detecting our targeted set of safety errors. To tackle system-specific security properties, we present a security verification framework that combines static analysis and model-checking. We base our approach on the GCC compiler and its GIMPLE representation of source code to extract model-checkable abstractions of programs. For the verification process, we use an off-the-shelf pushdown system model-checker, and turn it into a fully-fledged security verification framework. We also allow programmers to define a wide range of security properties using an automata-based specification approach. To demonstrate the efficiency and the scalability of our approach, we conduct extensive experiments and case studies on large scale open-source software to verify their compliance with a representative set of the CERT standard secure coding rules.


identifier: Al Janaideh, Mohammad Farhan  (2009) Generalized Prandtl-Ishlinskii hysteresis model and its analytical inverse for compensation of hysteresis in smart actuators.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Smart actuators such as piezoceramics, magnetostrictive and shape memory alloy actuators, invariably, exhibit hysteresis, which has been associated with oscillations in the open-loop system's responses, and poor tracking performance and potential instabilities of the close-loop system. A number of phenomological operator-based hysteresis models such as the Preisach model, Krasnosel'skii-Pokrovskii model and Prandtl-Ishlinskii model, have been formulated to describe the hysteresis nonlinearities and to seek compensation of the hysteresis effects. Among these, the Prandtl-Ishlinskii model offers greater flexibility and unique property that its inverse can be attained analytically. The Prandtl-Ishlinskii model, however, is limited to rate-independent and symmetric hysteresis nonlinearities. In this dissertation research, the unique flexibility of the Prandtl-Ishlinskii model is explored for describing the symmetric as well as nonlinear hysteresis and output saturation properties of smart actuators, and for deriving an analytical inverse for effective compensation.  A generalized play operator with dissimilar envelope functions is proposed to describe asymmetric hysteresis and output saturation nonlinearities of different smart actuators, when applied in conjunction with the classical Prandtl-Ishlinskii model. Dynamic density and dynamic threshold functions of time rate of the input are further proposed and integrated in the classical model to describe rate-dependent symmetric and asymmetric hysteresis properties of smart actuators. A fundamental relationship between the thresholds of the classical and the resulting generalized models is also formulated to facilitate parameters identification. The validity of the resulting generalized Prandtl-Ishlinskii models is demonstrated using the laboratory-measured data for piezoceramic, magnetostrictive and SMA actuators under different inputs over a broad range of frequencies. The results suggest that the proposed generalized models can effectively characterize the rate-dependent as well as rate-independent hysteresis properties of a broad class of smart actuators with output saturation. The properties of the proposed generalized models are subsequently explored to derive its inverse to seek an effective compensator for the asymmetric as well as rate-dependent hysteresis effects. The resulting inverse is applied as a feedforward compensator and simulation results are obtained to demonstrate its effectiveness in compensating the symmetric as well as asymmetric hysteresis of different smart actuators. The effectiveness of the proposed analytical inverse model-based real-time compensator is further demonstrated through its implementation in the laboratory for a piezoceramic actuator.  Considering that the generalized Prandtl-Ishlinskii model provides an estimate of the hysteresis properties and the analytical inverse is a hysteresis model, the output of the inverse compensation is expected to yield hysteresis, although of a considerably lower magnitude. The expected compensation error, attributed to possible errors in hysteresis characterization, is analytically derived on the basis of the generalized model and its inverse. The design of a robust controller is presented for a system preceded by the hysteresis effects of an actuator using the proposed error model. The primary purpose is to fuse the analytical inverse compensation error model with an adaptive controller to achieve to enhance tracking precision. The global stability of the chosen control law and the entire closed-loop system is also analytically established. The results demonstrated significantly enhanced tracking performance, when the inverse of the estimated Prandtl-Ishlinskii model is considered in the closed-loop control system.


identifier: Cruchon, Melissa  (2009) The benefits of integrating mindfulness and yoga in the elementary classroom.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: This study investigates the benefits of a mindfulness/relaxation and yoga program on 20 students from a Grade 1 class in the Montreal area. The students included 14 boys and 6 girls ranging from 6 to 7 years of age. Terry Orlick (2004) explained that the earlier children learn strategies to deal with stressors, the better off they will be at dealing with them throughout their lives. Yoga and mindfulness/relaxation were the two strategies used in the classroom to help children deal with daily stressors. The short version of the Multidimensional Anxiety Scale for Children (MASC-I0) (March, 1997) was used prior to the intervention to assess the anxiety levels in the children. Student journal writing, teacher-researcher journal writing, a mid-treatment questionnaire to see which the children preferred, yoga or mindfulness/relaxation, and a Mood Inventory were the instruments used in this study. Results suggest that children benefitted somewhat from the yoga and mindfulness/relaxation sessions. Children also enjoyed the activities. The findings support the integration of such programs in the daily lives of the children through the school curriculum.


identifier: Vujicic, Milos  (2009) Automatic semantic annotation of Web documents.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Ontologies are the most important construct of the Semantic Web. From the first attempt of using simplified RDF syntax to the advanced features of the OWL languages, ontologies have arisen as the most viable technology offering solutions to integrate various Web resources into a more intelligent Web. The work presented in this thesis is a contribution to the new generation of the Web, which should be readable and interpreted not only by humans but also by machines, such as software agents. In order to allow ontologies to achieve their role of "animating" the traditional Web into this next generation Web, it is essential to find an efficient way to map all existent Web resources onto their corresponding ontology classes. In this thesis, we propose an approach for automatic semantic annotation of Web documents which is an effective way to make the Semantic Web a reality. Such an integrated Web would greatly improve the accuracy of search engines, bring a new generation of intelligent Web services, push the limits of multi-agent technologies and improve many other areas of human activity that we cannot even imagine today. Considering the size and the speed of the growing Web, it is clear that this task cannot be achieved manually. Semi-automatic and automatic annotations of Web documents using statistical text classification methods seem to be the most promising solution. This work is focused on an approach based on Naive Bayes text classification adapted to some characteristics that are particular to Web documents. A complete software solution is developed to allow testing feasibility of such an approach. Furthermore, different variations of the text classification algorithms are tested and analysed in order to identify the most optimal approach to semantically annotate Web documents. Notably, the usage of Web documents hierarchy is explored as an option to improve the accuracy of semi-automatic and automatic annotations of Web documents. The results of each tested method are presented and commented. Finally, some aspects that could possibly be improved or approached in a different way are identified for future work.


identifier: Humes, Catherine  (2009) Beyond left and right: women priests, new feminists, and the search for common ground among catholic women in North America.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: This thesis examines debates among Catholic feminists, from both the political left and right, about women's ordination. It argues that these debates emerged in North American Catholic circles in response to the explicit prohibition by the Vatican against women's ordination in 1976, which led to a growing divide among Catholic women. This thesis asks: can this "stalemate" be breached, and what resources might there be within the Catholic tradition to do so? Further, what potential might such attempts to seek a common ground offer for revitalizing the Catholic Church in North America?  The bulk of the thesis examines the writings of Rosemary Radford Ruether and Sara Butler as representatives of "liberal" and "conservative" voices within the Church. Their theological reflections are framed as starting points to move beyond the divisions that have informed arguments about women's ordination and contributed to tensions among North American Catholics. The final chapter turns to theologian Tina Beattie, who occupies a theological middle ground between Ruether and Butler. It argues that Beattie's emphasis on Catholic tradition and sacramentality offers the greatest potential for initiating dialogue and renewal in liturgical and communal life for Catholic women. Ultimately this thesis suggests an initial starting place from which to draw together women across the political spectrum, beyond right and left, by tapping into the rich theological and liturgical resources of their shared Catholic tradition.


identifier: Gibbs, Charles  (2009) Learner-controlled captioning: a new frontier? : Exploring the impact of learner control on the development of listening skills in a multimedia environment (or, The importance of eating your vegetables).  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Much research has demonstrated that the addition of text to videos, films or television programs can benefit second language learning. However, when the goal of using such materials is to develop listening comprehension skills, the addition of captions or subtitles may not lead to the anticipated results because learners may have a tendency to read the script, rather than to develop listening skills. It is not easy for learners to adjust their listening environment to suit their changing needs. This research explored the impact of giving learners control over their listening environment. Thirty-one adult students of English in Montréal, Québec viewed nine web-based videos over a two-week period. One group was given control over the use of captions, while the second group was exposed to captions on a continual basis. It was hypothesized that the learners who were given control would avoid the pitfalls of reading captioned videos, and in so doing would develop listening comprehension skills that could be transferred to materials without captions to a greater extent than the learners who were not given such control. Scores on post-treatment comprehension tests were higher for the group that had been given control over captions during the treatment, but these results were not significant. However, significant results were found when the participants were grouped by initial listening ability. Weak listeners were more likely to improve their listening skills, while stronger listeners learned more new words. The paper concludes by elaborating on the future direction of learner-controlled captioning.


identifier: Zaryabi Langaroudi, Arash  (2009) Resource allocation and optimal release time in software systems.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Software quality is directly correlated with the number of defects in software systems. As the complexity of software increases, manual inspection of software becomes prohibitively expensive. Thus, defect prediction is of paramount importance to project managers in allocating the limited resources effectively as well as providing many advantages such as the accurate estimation of project costs and schedules. This thesis addresses the issues of statistical fault prediction modeling, software resource allocation, and optimal software release and maintenance policy.  A software defect prediction model using operating characteristic curves is presented. The main idea behind this predictor is to use geometric insight in helping construct an efficient prediction method to reliably predict the cumulative number of defects during the software development process. Motivated by the widely used concept of queue models in communication systems and information processing systems, a resource allocation model which answers managerial questions related to project status and scheduling is then introduced. Using the proposed allocation model, managers will be more certain about making resource allocation decisions as well as measuring the system reliability and the quality of service provided to customers in terms of the expected response time. Finally, a novel stochastic model is proposed to describe the cost behavior of the operation, and estimate the optimal time by minimizing a cost function via artificial neural networks. Further, a detailed analysis of software release time and maintenance decision is also presented.  The performance of the proposed approaches is validated on real data from actual SAP projects, and the experimental results demonstrate a compelling motivation for improved software quality


identifier: Budawara, Nasma  (2009) Key performance indicators to measure design performance in construction.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: The performance of the design activities for a construction project can have a significant impact on the overall performance and efficiency of the project. Design activities need to be monitored to measure performance of the design process. Performance indicators can be used in this process. The Indicators can: i) measure the degree of success of a project or organization; ii) predict, control and measure the performance of design processes; iii) benchmark performances of different projects within the same- company or with other firms; iv) track and demonstrate long-term development and improvement, thereby decreasing design and construction cost and time and increasing the quality of the design product. In the context of Canada, specific construction performance indicators to assess construction project performance across project phases have yet to be formulated and documented. Therefore, there is a need to develop such indicators for the Canadian consulting engineering. From this perspective, the present research introduces practical framework and describes a model that measure the performance of the design activities for Canadian construction projects.  The main objectives of this research are the following: i) to identify key indicators that affect the design performance of construction projects; ii) to develop a model for Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to measure the performance of design activities in the Canadian construction industry; and iii) to examine the possibility of their use in the construction industry. The methodology adopted for this research is based on review of the existing literature on design processes, review of the existing literature on design performance indicators, questionnaire surveys, interviews with practitioners, and case studies. The questionnaires along with the interviews with designers and managers from the Canadian consulting engineering are mainly conducted to explore and indentify indicators affecting the design performance. The case studies are used to validate and amend the use of these indicators in measuring project performance at the design stage. A web-based questionnaire aimed at design and construction firms was constructed. The significance and the quantification of design performance indicators are determined using a statistical package. The results from the questionnaire were used to develop a generic set of nine groups of design performance indicators for the Canadian consulting engineering. However, this research focuses on the heavy construction sector. The nine groups of indicators have been compared in pairs to identify their level of importance to each other. Experts from heavy construction participated in the pairwise comparisons task.  Built on the results of the survey and experts judgment, a Model for Design Performance Measurement (MDPM) is introduced. The MDPM uses the standard Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) method to assign weights to the scores of the selected indicators, to measure a project performance and to compare projects. The MDPM is tested for small scale heavy constructions. The developed design performance measurement model can 1) predict, track, and control future performance, 2) highlight area/s for future improvement, 3) enable companies to benchmark the performance of different projects from the same or different companies, and 4) document all design performance data


identifier: Moazzeni, Shahaboddin  (2009) Toward the implementation of analog LDPC decoders for long codewords.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Error control codes are used in virtually every digital communication system. Traditionally, decoders have been implemented digitally. Analog decoders have been recently shown to have the potential to outperform digital decoders in terms of area and power/speed ratio. Analog designers have attempted to fully understand and exploit this potential for large decoders. However, large codes are generally still implemented with digital circuits. Nevertheless, in this thesis a number of aspects of analog decoder implementation are investigated with the hope of enabling the design of large analog decoders.  In this thesis, we study and modify analog circuits used in a decoding algorithm known as the sum-product algorithm for implementation in a CMOS 90 nm technology. We apply a current-mode approach at the input nodes of these circuits and show through simulations that the power/speed ratio will be improved. Interested in studying the dynamics of decoders, we model an LDPC code in MATLAB's Simulink. We then apply the linearization technique on the modeled LDPC code in order to linearize the decoder about an initial state as its solution point. Challenges associated with decoder linearization are discussed.  We also design and implement a chip comprised of the sum-product circuits with different configurations and sizes in order to study the effect of mismatch on the accuracy of the outputs. Unfortunately, testing of the chip fails as a result of errors in either the packaging process or fabrication.


identifier: Kelecsenyi, Klara  (2009) Popularization of mathematics as intercultural communication : an exploratory study.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Popularization of mathematics seems to have gained importance in the past decades. Besides the increasing number of popular books and lectures, there are national and international initiatives, usually supported by mathematical societies, to popularize mathematics. Despite this apparent attention towards it, studying popularization has not become an object of research; little is known about how popularizers choose the mathematical content of popularization, what means they use to communicate it, and how their audiences interpret popularized mathematics.  This thesis presents a framework for studying popularization of mathematics and intends to investigate various questions related to the phenomenon, such as: - What are the institutional characteristics of popularization? - What are the characteristics of the mathematical content chosen to be popularized? - What are the means used by popularizers to communicate mathematical ideas? - Who are the popularizers and what do they think about popularization? - Who are the audience members of a popularization event? - How do audience members interpret popularization?  The thesis presents methodological challenges of studying popularization and suggests some ideas on the methods that might be appropriate for further studies. Thus it intends to offer a first step for developing suitable means for studying popularization of mathematics.


identifier: Liu, Xudong  (2009) Cost analysis for manufacturing of composite aerospace products with uncertainties.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Applications of composite materials in manufactured products are experiencing fast growth in recent years due to many of their property advantages over traditional materials in manufacturing industry. The success of using composite materials in producing automotive, aerospace or other products also depends, to large extent, on the competitiveness of their manufacturing and production costs. In this research, a cost analysis model is developed for aerospace product manufacturing using composites. Based on cost breakdowns for each step of the manufacturing process, an aggregate production plan was obtained to determine optimal production quantity and required workforce level. Sensitivity analysis was conducted to investigate the behavior of the model with varying parameter values. We also incorporated a stochastic programming model in the cost analysis procedure in dealing with uncertainty factors such as demands and raw material costs. An example of the model for the development and the analysis is based on the production of an aircraft wing box skin. This can be extended to production of other similar aerospace products.


identifier: Al-Mulazem, Mohammad  (2009) Color and luminance correction and calibration system for LED video screens.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Recent years have seen a surge in the popularity of Light emitting diode (LED) video screens, which have come to be a critical part of how the world of show business and corporate events are seen by their audiences. LED video screens are bright, visually attractive, can stand severe weather conditions, and consume far less power than CRT technology. In LED screens technology, pixels are composed of three primary LED colors: red, green, and blue (RGB). Using the primary colored LEDs provide the ability to generate variety of color hues, saturations and values. However, the RGB LEDs in the screen's pixels have different luminance and color due to the LEDs themselves. These differences seriously destroy the white balance of the LED pixels and modules, and make the picture color aberration, blotchy and patchy. To overcome these problems, different techniques and methodologies has been proposed in the literature. The main drawbacks of these techniques are the cost-effectiveness in the sense they provide mediocre resolution. In this thesis, a new and cost-effective methodology and technique is proposed to correct the color and the luminance of LED video screens while maintaining a high quality and high resolution image display. Also, a new developed algorithm is proposed to fit different color and brightness calibration purposes. The proposed algorithm is based on the CIE Commission Internationale de l'Eclairage standards. The technique and methodology have been implemented, in collaboration with LSI SACO Technologies Inc., using fully automated robotic spectrometer system and achieved the targeted goals.


identifier: Desai, Drew R. A  (2009) The historical condition in Paul Ricoeur.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: This thesis is an attempt to pursue the hermeneutics of the historical condition in the work of Paul Ricoeur through investigations of our relation of indebtedness to the past in the present and for the future. The working hypothesis is that this relation to the past appears differently depending on the style of our interrogation: epistemologically, the past appears as that which is no longer; ontologically, the past appears as that which has been. The ambivalence points to an aporia concerning the manner of the persistence of the absent in the present, an aporia that has no speculative resolution but one that can be made fruitful by a practical synthesis: the initiative of the citizen. It is at the level of the proper mode of discourse of the citizen, that is, at the level of opinion, that we pay our debt to the past, through an effort to remember more or an effort to forget. The epistemic weakness of this attestation, its declarative character, is the only possible mode of repayment. In this sense, we never finish with the past and remain haunted by the threat or promise of insolvency.


identifier: Cassani, Pablo  (2009) Modeling, design, and implementation of a novel battery cell equalizer for electric, hybrid electric, and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: In order to meet the stringent cost targets for electric, hybrid electric, and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (EVs, HEVs and PHEVs), a serious improvement in battery cycle-life and safety is undoubtedly essential. More recently, lithium batteries, in the form of lithium-ion, lithium-polymer or lithium iron phosphate have been profoundly explored. Despite critical research initiatives, lithium-based batteries have not yet been able to meet the steep energy demands, long lifetime and low cost, unique to vehicular propulsion applications. One of the most practical techniques of improving overall performance is to use suitable power electronics intensive cell voltage equalizers in conjunction with on-board energy storage devices. There have been some interesting developments in this area during the last few years, but cost constraints and high current specifications have prevented the complete deployment of this versatile technology. The purpose of this thesis is to introduce a novel configuration for a cell voltage equalizer, with the potential of fulfilling the expectations of low cost, high current-capability, and high efficiency.  This thesis consists of six parts: the first part deals with an introduction to the battery problems in electric vehicle applications; the second part deals with a review of the available popular cell equalizer configurations; the third part deals with an economic and feasibility analyses of battery cell equalizers. Thereafter, a detailed analysis of the proposed novel battery cell equalizer configuration is presented, comparing the theoretical models, modeling and simulation results, and prototype measurements. A separate chapter is discusses from the point of view of power electronic converter control, considering practical issues. Finally, the thesis discusses the major motivating inferences drawn from this work, and suggests possible future directions and trends, based on those conclusions.


identifier: Kova, Melissa  (2009) A formal verification approach of conversations in compostie Web services.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Web service composition is nowadays a very focused-on topic of research by academic and industrial research groups. This thesis discusses the design and verification of behaviors of composite web services. To model composite web services, two behaviors are proposed, namely control and operational. The operational behavior shows the business logic of the process functionality for a composite web service. The control behavior shows the constraints that the operational behavior should satisfy and specifies the states that this behavior should be in. The idea behind this separation is to promote the design, verification and reusability of web services in composite settings. To guarantee their compatibility, these two behaviors communicate and synchronize through conversation messages. State charts are used to model composite web services and symbolic model checking with NuSMV model checker is used to verify their conversations. The properties to be verified are expressed in two logics: Linear Temporal Logic (LTL) and Computation Tree Logic (CTL). A Java-based translation procedure from the design model to SMV program used by NuSMV has been developed and tested in two case studies


identifier: Potkonjak, Tijana  (2009) On the track towards enlightenment: A semantic analysis of a spiritual capitalism in Runner's World magazine.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: The subjectivist and secular tune of late modernity have, along with economic shifts that accompanied them, increased the body's centrality to self-identity. Physical embodiment and experience not only act as a type of capital, exchangeable for other forms of currency, but are also - because of the popularization of spirituality - seen as intrinsically valuable and potentially liberatory. In consumer culture, the body-cum-physical capital has become a commodity, and a new relationship based on aesthetics and consumption between the body and the self has developed (in which the body is a "project" of the self). This is a relationship that contemporary spiritualities have been accused of profiting from, but from whose oppressions they promise an escape, in the form of self-transcendence. Running, which will be introduced as one type of "body project," seems to have the potential to liberate the runner from the experience of the mundane. This thesis offers a short genealogy of ascetic practices associated with religion, linking them to those prescribed by the aesthetic regimes of Tate modernity, and then performs a semantic content analysis of the articles in Runner's World magazine, focusing on the intent of the communicator only. The conclusions drawn are that this publication's message is underscored by a contradictory discourse of consumption and asceticism, which is merely one of the contradictions already inherent in the ideology of the capitalist framework within which the magazine operates.


identifier: Liu, Jinlin  (2009) New studies in convertible bond investment and financing.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: This series of paper studies convertible bond financing from the perspective of both issuers and investors. Based on an empirical study, convertible bond financing seems to be overused: it would appear that convertible bond financing should be dominated by sequential issues of straight bonds followed by new equity issues sometime thereafter. A new model is introduced to demonstrate that managers of all types of firms, irrespective of quality would choose convertible bonds in their financing plans when facing uncertainties about the timing of the project. Convertible bond issuance can be optimal for firms that do not have an established record of strong historical performance but have opportunity sets that include good projects subject to timing uncertainties. The first part of this study focuses on the investor perspective and investigates the returns of holding convertibles/underlying stocks, as well as the returns of convertible hedging strategies. Naked long position of convertible bonds from issuance date and hedging based on the characteristics of convertibles can derive good returns. Consequently, investors can benefit from both the upside expectation of convertible issuing firms and the structured terms of convertibles. Next, convertible bonds are studied from the perspective of issuer. Here, liquidity risk, firm risk, and issue risk premium factors are identified as determinants of abnormal returns around the convertible bond issue dates. The market responds favorably to firm volatility risk, but negatively to the liquidity risk and issue risk premium factors. The cumulative effects of these risks determine the abnormal returns of convertible bonds


identifier: Bourdon, Jean-Francois  (2009) Management quality and operating performance: evidence from Canadian IPO companies.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: This study investigates the impact of management quality on the operating performance of Canadian IPO's. Several dimensions of management quality are explored, including: the average tenure of management team members, the heterogeneity of tenures of team members, the size of the top management team, the number of outside directors, the educational and professional credentials of managers, the CEO dominance of the team, the past industry-specific experience of team members, and the presence of the founder in the management team. Operating performance is positively associated with the management team's tenure, size, and the team's inclusion of chartered accountants. Heterogeneous membership tenure, as well as the presence of dominant CEO's and MBAs on the top management team are negatively related to performance. Some evidence of earnings management by managers in the sample is also observed. Finally, equity retention of directors and officers following the IPO has some explanatory power on the firm's value.


identifier: Du, Heng  (2009) Does family ownership create or destroy value: evidence from Canada.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: This study examines whether and how family ownership enhances or damages firm value using a sample of Canadian companies listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) 1999 to 2007. We identify family companies as firms in which the founder or founding family hold more than 20 percent of outstanding shares and are the largest shareholders, or firms in which family members work as CEOs and/or serve as Chairman of the board of directors. In addition, we construct a sample of matching firms which are in the same industry, have a similar size as the family companies, and whose sales range within +/- 25 percent of the sales of family companies. We use Tobin's Q and return on asset (ROA), measured by either net income or EBITDA divided by total assets, as proxies of firm value. Our results suggest that family companies are generally superior to non-family companies. In addition, we find that control-enhancing mechanisms which are often employed by family companies add values to companies. Furthermore, we find that agency conflicts between ownership and management are more costly than those between majority and minority shareholders, suggesting that family ownership helps resolve the agency conflicts between ownership and management and in turn enhances firm value. Finally, we find that family companies with founders as CEOs outperform those with descendants as CEOs.


identifier: Yang, Danni  (2009) The socioeconomic determinants of correlations between stock market returns as revealed by a gravity model.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Economic variants of Newton's law of universal gravitation have been used to model the flow of trade between two countries as proportional to the attraction created by measures of their economic masses and dampened by their distance from one another. More business will likely take place between big economies that are close to one another. This study uses that same gravity analogy to explore the long-term, or perhaps more accurately, stable determinants of the correlation of stock markets, where in its simplest form, financial mass is represented by the joint market size of two countries and financial distance by the overlap in trading hours of their stock exchanges. Stock market correlations are found to be positively related to these variables and negatively related to joint trading volume. If distance is expanded to include the relative similarity in culture and legal institutions, it is found that correlations are positively related to the disparity in religious pluralism, negatively related to differences in economic freedom, and positively related to the sharing of a common legal system. In all, the gravity models estimated explain almost 11 percent of the cross-sectional variation in the correlations of stock markets, with the incremental influence of the cultural and legal variables being many times greater than that of the financial variables.


identifier: Cummins-Russel, Thomas  (2009) Networks in Montreal's independent music industry.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Cultural industries have risen to prominence in the economy of Montreal and other cities in the developed world. An important component of Montreal's cultural economy is its independent music scene, which has produced successful bands and receives international media attention. Members of the independent music scene are at least semi-autonomous of the four major record labels and associated production and distribution channels.  By drawing on 42 semi-structured interviews with musicians and other key actors in Montreal's independent scene, this case study engages with debates on the social foundations of creativity by analyzing music industry networks and the place-based attributes of Montreal affecting those networks. Findings suggest that Montreal's music scene had its roots in the 1980s when musicians migrated to the city due to its low cost of living. The do-it-yourself attitude of the scene's founders coupled with a reduced major label presence has fostered a spirit of independence and solidarity among actors in Montreal's music industry, which makes the city a suitable incubator for emerging acts.  Today, networking and diversification are the two principal survival strategies used by music professionals to cope with the challenges of the industry. Francophone networks are concentrated in Quebec and France while Anglophone networks are more international. Language-based cleavages within Montreal also considerably affect professional networks. Finally, music professionals in Montreal benefit from a number of institutions that facilitate networking and provide funding, expertise, and exposure.


identifier: Whiteway, Sarah L  (2009) Assessing the effectiveness of instream structures for restoring salmonid streams.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Stream restoration is a billion dollar industry in North America. Despite this expenditure there remain questions regarding the effectiveness of current techniques, such as instream structures. The objectives of this research were to assess the impact of instream structures on physical habitat in the Nicolet River (Quebec) and to analyze physical habitat and fish abundance data from a large number of restoration projects using meta-analysis. Results of intensive surveys of the Nicolet River suggest that the installation of weirs and deflectors resulted in a greater frequency of pools. These pools have significantly greater depths, lower velocities and larger sediment size than those without structures. Compilation of data from 211 stream restoration projects showed a significant increase in pool area, average depth, large woody debris and percent cover as well as a decrease in riffle area following the installation of instream structures. The physical changes observed in the Nicolet River resulted in improved trout habitat, as measured by applying habitat preference curves, but uneven stocking practices and fishing pressure confounded attempts to verify differences in trout density among pool types. The meta-analysis, however, showed a significant increase in salmonid density and biomass following the installation of structures, although the relationship with physical habitat variables is not strong. Large differences in density response were observed between species. This compilation highlights the potential of instream structures to create better habitat for and increase the abundance of salmonids, but the scarcity of long-term monitoring of the effectiveness of instream structures is problematic.


identifier: Cao, Ming  (2009) Privacy Protection on RFID Data Publishing.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Radio Frequency IDentification (RFID) is a technology of automatic object identification. Retailers and manufacturers have created compelling business cases for deploying RFID in their supply chains. Yet, the uniquely identifiable objects pose a privacy threat to individuals. In this paper, we study the privacy threats caused by publishing RFID data. Even if the explicit identifying information, such as name and social security number, has been removed from the published RFID data, an adversary may identify a target victim's record or infer her sensitive value by matching a priori known visited locations and time. RFID data by its nature is high-dimensional and sparse, so applying traditional k -anonymity to RFID data suffers from the curse of high-dimensionality, and results in poor information usefulness. We define a new privacy model and develop an anonymization algorithm to accommodate special challenges on RFID data. Then, we evaluate its effectiveness on synthetic data sets.


identifier: Chen, Kuang Chung  (2009) Quantization-free parameter space reduction in ellipse detection.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Ellipse modeling and detection is an important task in many computer vision and pattern recognition applications. In this thesis, four Hough-based transform algorithms have been carefully selected, studied and analyzed. These techniques include the Standard Hough Transform, Probabilistic Hough Transform, Randomized Hough Transform and Directional Information for Parameter Space Decomposition. The four algorithms are analyzed and compared against each other in this study using synthetic ellipses. Objects such as noise have been introduced to distract ellipse detection in some of the synthetic ellipse images. To complete the analysis, real world images were used to test each algorithm resulting in the proposal of a new algorithm.  The proposed algorithm uses the strengths from each of the analyzed algorithms. This new algorithm uses the same approach as the Directional Information for Parameter Space Decomposition to determine the ellipse center. However, in the process of collecting votes for the ellipse center, pairs of unique edge points voted for the center are also kept in an array. A minimum of two pairs of edge points are required to determine the ellipse. This significantly reduces the usual five dimensional array requirement needed in the Standard Hough Transform. We present results of the experiments with synthetic images demonstrating that the proposed method is more effective and robust to noise. Real world applications on complex real world images are also performed successfully in the experiments


identifier: Gilbert, Patrick A  (2009) An approach towards anomaly based detection and profiling covert TCP/IP channels.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Firewalls and detection systems have been used for preventing and detecting attacks by a wide variety of mechanisms. A problem has arisen where users and applications can circumvent security policies because of the particularities in the TCP/IP protocol, the ability to obfuscate the data payload, tunnel protocols, and covertly simulate a permitted communication. It has been shown that unusual traffic patterns may lead to discovery of covert channels that employ packet headers. In addition, covert channels can be detected by observing an anomaly in unused packet header fields. Presently, we are not aware of any schemes that address detecting anomalous traffic patterns that can potentially be created by a covert channel.  In this work, we will explore the approach of combining anomaly based detection and covert channel profiling to be used for detecting a very precise subset of covert storage channels in network protocols. We shall also discuss why this method is more practical and industry-ready compared to the present research on how to profile and mitigate these types of attacks. Finally, we shall describe a specialized tool to passively monitor networks for these types of attacks and show how it can be used to build an efficient hybrid covert channel and anomaly based detection system.


identifier: Asselin, Jonathan  (2009) Semantic Web-based product lifecycle management with protected interactive 3D collaboration via remote rendering.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) is the activity of managing products over their lifecycle. The goal is to achieve a total integration of all components to better understand products and their environments and to establish competitive advantages. This thesis proposes the use of semantic web technologies to support PLM. An overview of the semantic web briefly describes the basic building blocks. A review of literature reveals many useful applications from automated question answering to information security. The framework for semantic web-based PLM collaboration is examined and an ontology development process is presented in the context of PLM. Software systems were developed to perform semantic web automation and interactive 3D visualization. Applications of semantic web technologies for information retrieval, step by step process support, and design and manufacturing support are demonstrated. A novel 3D collaboration approach that protects 3D virtual assets via remote rendering and the service of a trusted shared mask broker was developed. The novelty of the proposed approach is that companies can collaborate on shared digital mockups without having to share their 3D models. Instead, only the required views for specific tasks are automatically exchanged, thereby eliminating the need for 3D navigation.


identifier: Alamri, Huda  (2009) Recognition of off-line arabic handwritten dates and numeral strings.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: In this thesis, we present an automatic recognition system for CENPARMI off-line Arabic handwritten dates collected from Arabic Nationalities. This system consists of modules that segment and recognize an Arabic handwritten date image. First, in the segmentation module, the system explicitly segments a date image into a sequence of basic constituents or segments. As a part of this module, a special sub-module was developed to over-segment any constituent that is a candidate for a touching pair. The proposed touching pair segmentation submodule has been tested on three different datasets of handwritten numeral touching pairs: The CENPARMI Arabic [6], Urdu, and Dari [24] datasets. The final recognition rates of 92.22%, 90.43%, and 86.10% were achieved for Arabic, Urdu and Dari, respectively. Afterwards, the segments are preprocessed and sent to the classification module. In this stage, feature vectors are extracted and then recognized by an isolated numeral classifier. This recognition system has been tested in five different isolated numeral databases: The CENPARMI Arabic [6], Urdu, Dari [24], Farsi, and Pashto databases with overall recognition rates of 97.29% 97.75%, 97.75%, 97.95% and 98.36%, respectively. Finally, a date post processing module is developed to improve the recognition results. This post processing module is used in two different stages. First, in the date stage, to verify that the segmentation/recognition output represents a valid date image and it chooses the best date format to be assigned to this image. Second, in the sub-field stage, to evaluate the values for the date three parts: day, month and year. Experiments on two different databases of Arabic handwritten dates: CENPARMI Arabic database [6] and the CENPARMI Arabic Bank Cheques database [7], show encouraging results with overall recognition rates of 85.05% and 66.49, respectively.


identifier: Mondal, Arpita  (2009) Simple and secured access to networked home appliances via internet using SSL, BioHashing and single Authentication Server.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: This thesis describes a web-based application that will enable users to access their networked home appliances over the Internet in an easy, secured, accessible and cost effective manner, using the user's iris image only for authentication. As Internet is increasingly gaining significance and popularity in our daily lives, various home networking technologies also started gaining importance from consumers, which helped in facilitating interoperability, sharing of services and exchange of information between different electronic devices at home. As a result, the demand to be able to access home appliances or security cameras over the Internet gradually grew. In this research, we propose an efficient, secured, low-cost and user-friendly method to access networked home appliances over the Internet, providing strong, well integrated, three levels of security to the whole application and user data. According to our design, the user's iris data after hashing (using BioHashing) is sent through a secure communication channel utilizing Secure Sockets Layer v-3.0. The deterministic feature sequence from the iris image is extracted using 1D log-Gabor filters and while performing BioHashing, the orthonormalization of the pseudorandom number is implemented employing Gram-Schmidt orthonormalization algorithm. In addition to this protected data transfer mechanism, we propose the design of an Authentication Server that can be shared among multiple homes, allowing numerous users to access their home appliances in a trouble-free and secured manner. It can also bring down the cost of commercial realization of this endeavor and increase its accessibility without compromising on system security. We demonstrate that the recognition efficiency of this system is computationally effective with equal error rate (EER) of 0% and 6.75% (average) in two separate conditions on CASIA 1 and CASIA 2 iris image datasets.


identifier: Clark, Lia  (2009) Competitive aggression in male and female Japanese medaka (Oryzias latipes) in relation to the operational sex resource ratio.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Because of the fundamental asymmetry between the sexes, males typically compete for access to females. Hence, most studies on intra-sexual mating aggression have focused only on males, and have shown increasing aggression with increasing operational sex ratio (OSR). However, one study documented a "dome-shaped" relationship between aggression and OSR, presumably because aggression became ineffective at high competitor densities as predicted by resource defence theory. The few studies that have investigated female intra-sexual aggression have used only a narrow range of OSR. The purpose of my study was to investigate the patterns of both male and female mating aggression over a broad range of OSR. I also compared how females competed for two different resources, food and mates. Male and female aggression initially increasing with OSR, peaked and then levelled off. For a given value of OSR, however, the rate of male aggression was higher than female aggression. The rate of male aggression was consistent with a dome-shaped pattern, whereas the rate of female aggression did not decrease at high levels of OSR. In contrast, courtship rates for both males and females decreased with increasing OSR in a linear manner. The pattern of male and female intra-sexual aggression were broadly consistent with the predictions of resource defence theory.


identifier: Luo, Xuan  (2009) International financial contagion during the subprime credit crisis.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: This study examines the financial contagion among G-7 countries during the subprime credit crisis from July 2007 through December 2008. Specifically, we investigate the excess comovements of stock indices of the banking sectors of G-7 countries. We examine innovations - the component which cannot be explained by the fundamental factors - of the banking sector indices of G-7 countries. Innovations are defined as the residuals from the regression of banking sector indices on a set of explanatory variables using GARCH. We use eight macroeconomic variables and the return of a global stock index to capture the fundamental effects. We identify the excess comovement evidenced by the fact that the estimated innovation of one country significantly affects the stock indices of the other countries. However, we find no evidence that the explanatory power of estimated innovation increases during the subprime crisis, which suggests that the subprime crisis does not trigger excess comovement. Furthermore, we employ correlation coefficient tests. We estimate the innovation using VAR models, controlling for the aforementioned fundamental variables. We then examine the correlation coefficients of estimated innovations among G-7 countries. We do not find any evidence that the excess comovements significantly increase during the subprime crisis. Hence, our study does not support the notion that the subprime crisis triggered financial contagion in the banking sectors of G-7 countries.


identifier: Pan, Yun  (2009) Speculation and volatility in the crude oil futures market.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Speculative activity is often claimed to be the cause of high price and turmoil in the crude oil futures market. We use Working's T and a new speculative index to measure the degree of speculation in the crude oil futures market. We find that the variation in the volatility of the crude oil futures market can be explained by the variation in the speculative index, but the economic significance of this relationship is quite low. Granger causality tests show that changes in the degree of speculation lead to changes in volatility in the crude oil futures market, but reverse relationship does not hold. In addition the causality effect is weak. After the Commodity Futures Modernization Act was enacted, speculative activity played a more important role in explaining futures market volatility, and other fundamental factors' explanatory power decreased significantly.


identifier: Economakis, Nectarios  (2009) Examining the effects of traditional advertising on online search behavior.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Cross-channel advertising has grown tremendously in recent years as a means to better reach consumers. Television and the interne as well as other channels are used in conjunction to market products. This study attempts to determine the effects of television advertising and its impact on consumer search behavior. More specifically, how search behavior is affected by exposure to television advertising. Actual data over a period of 78 weeks from a large Canadian telecommunications company is employed. The analysis examines how advertising exposure and expenditure impacts search behavior for the company's brand.  The study supports the hypothesis that traditional advertising does have a short term impact on online search behavior for a particular brand. A lift in brand queries was noted in relation to advertising exposure and spending albeit for a short time period. The findings suggest that the current theory on advertising effectiveness needs to be revised to include online effects more specifically in relation to consumer's search habits online. Marketers that wish to study these effects must examine these effects over time and using time series analysis. Finally, marketers must be cognizant of the synergistic effects on online behavior and must plan their media campaigns accordingly. The link between traditional advertising and online search behavior merits further research.


identifier: Morelli, Marco  (2009) Who we are is what we brew : an investigation of the relationship between shared organizational identity beliefs and perceptions of coordination and communication in a Canadian microbrewery.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: This case study offers an in-depth investigation of the organizational identity construct (Albert and Whetten, 1985) from a shared mental model perspective. Specifically, the study explored the links between shared identity and members' coordination and communication behaviors in a microbrewery. Using six semi-structured interviews, five dimensions defining the character of the studied organization were elicited: quality producer, influence of the founder, involvement in the local community and social events, geographic attachment, and family/team.  Building upon those findings, quantitative survey data were obtained from 35 organizational members in different departments to test the relationships at the dyadic level between shared perceived organizational identity and perceptions of coordination and communication behaviors. Departmental affiliation was also tested for moderating effects. The findings suggest some evidence of associations between members' agreement in dyads about organizational identity and their perceptions of group processes. The moderating role of departmental membership was not supported. Theoretical and practical implications of the study's results are discussed. Recommendations for future research are also proposed in light of the study's limitations.


identifier: Malde, Neha  (2009) Knowledge governance : an exploratory study.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Knowledge governance is based on the organizational level mechanisms developed by management that determine how organizations develop and leverage knowledge as a strategic resource in order to accomplish change and innovation. Knowledge governance consists of strategic leadership practices based on determining firm direction by developing knowledge, that enable organizations to develop competencies as conditions change. A model of knowledge governance is proposed based on methods of developing knowledge ( rational/objective, learned, cognitive/creative ) across an organization's social system ( vertical, horizontal, external ). Knowledge Governance was assessed in relationship to an organization's context and activities based on strategic and organizational requirements of organizations facing different industry environments defined by types of discontinuous change (rate of technological change, and industry life cycle). Knowledge governance was also assessed in relationship to hypercompetitive conditions, organizational priorities based on developing knowledge as well as performance and innovation outcomes. It was found that organizations are governing their knowledge across a range of stakeholders but that some traditional patterns prevail, and that methods of knowledge governance varied such that learned methods were prevalent whereas creative methods were less common. As well, creative knowledge governance was found to be negatively associated with hypercompetitive conditions. Several types of knowledge governance were found to be associated with organizational priorities and outcomes. Significant differences of knowledge governance were found to be associated with different industry environments. The results of a questionnaire completed by 70 leaders of business units are significant yet exploratory. Future research is required.


identifier: Bains, Nirmala  (2009) "Korea is Korea. How do we react to that? Honestly, 'cos it frustrates us." : the experience of young Canadian migrant workers in Seoul.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: This thesis is about young Canadians who travel to Seoul, South Korea to teach English. The majority of these Canadians flock to Seoul in search of a livelihood and not out of a specific desire to live in South Korea. Through three months of participant observation and semi-structured interviews, I explore how they are racialized as white Westerners in South Korean society and how they respond to this positioning: I show how these Canadians oscillate between notions of privilege and the sincere vulnerabilities they face as transmigrant workers. This study is concerned with how subjects narrate their identities through their transnational movement given that these identities are relational and are never disinterested or value-free. As Canadians they fail to identify as migrant workers and rely on various normative discourses of superiority to symbolically displace their actual marginal status. Drawing on their prevailing, albeit unconscious, liberal values these Canadians rely on their understandings of progress, tolerance and universalism to make sense of South Korean society. Ultimately, most Canadian English teachers criticize and then attempt to civilize South Koreans. The concepts of race, nation and whiteness are central to this study as they provide a means to analyze the racialized narratives of these Canadians. Consequently, the manner in which racism and nationalism are interchangeable is unraveled in this transnational context.


identifier: Piterkin, Pavel  (2009) Memory impairment following transient global cerebral ischemia in rats : relationship to neuropathology in the hippocampus and perirhinal cortex.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Memory impairments following global cerebral ischemia have traditionally been associated with damage to the hippocampus (HPC), but some ensuing impairments, such as object-recognition deficits, suggest the presence of extra-hippocampal neuropathology. In the present study, object-recognition memory, abject-discrimination learning, and allocentric-spatial working-memory in rats were assessed following global cerebral ischemia (15 min; 4V0), or sham-ischemia. Ischemic rats were impaired on a delayed-matching-to-place (DMTP) water-maze task, and performed normally on a novel-object-preference (NOP) test of object-recognition memory after a 15-min retention interval, but displayed deficits after a 24-hr interval. Ischemic rats learned object-discrimination problems at normal rates, and displayed normal 24-hr retention of the discriminations, suggesting that their object-memory impairment may have been specific to recognition. Upon completion of behavioral testing, the HPC and perirhinal cortex (PRh) were examined by visual quantification of Nissl-stained neurons, as well as immunohistochemical staining for glial-fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP). Ischemic rats displayed significant cell-loss and increased GFAP expression in both, the HPC and PRh. DMTP deficits were significantly correlated with the degree of cell loss and GFAP expression in the HPC. In addition, the degree of PRh cell loss significantly correlated with the degree of NOP deficits. These findings suggest that PRh damage may make a significant contribution to ischemia-induced impairment of object-recognition memory


identifier: Horn-Miller, Kahente  (2009) Sky woman's great granddaughters : a narrative inquiry into Kanienkehaka women's identity.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: This study features the self-described title "Sky Woman's Great Granddaughters: A Narrative Inquiry into Kanienkehaka women's Identity." Examined are liberal, socialist, and feminist world views that address the external authentication of Kanienkehaka identity and its impact on the lives of eight women from the Mohawk community of Kahnawake, Quebec, Canada. The Canadian liberal nation-state's philosophical tradition of individual liberty contrasts from what we observe in the lives of these eight women. Canada extends the right to its citizens to be self-authenticating and to pursue one's projects. Deliberative individuals enter into a dialogue with like-minded individuals to achieve consensus about a conception of the good life. This philosophy is the basis for Canada's criteria to authenticate who is fit to be a citizen of this country. However, authenticated Indians were accorded 'special status', translated using liberal philosophical criteria into legislation like the Indian Act. This Act governs every aspect of modern Indian life. This study focuses in particular on Kanienkehaka women who are victims of a process of authentication through intellectual colonization by feminism which poses as an authority to authenticate what is truly feminine. These eight women, through critical reflection, become self-authenticating as they describe the impact of these philosophical traditions on their lives and what they did to overcome the disorienting effects of the liberal and feminist traditions. This study finds that Indian Act Mohawk identity is a rigid construct, in contrast to the understanding of identity communicated by these women. When expressing one's Kanienkehaka identity, primacy lies in the interdependencies found in a unity of self, family, and of community


identifier: Wu, Wei  (2009) Discriminant analysis based feature extraction for pattern recognition.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Fisher's linear discriminant analysis (FLDA) has been widely used in pattern recognition applications. However, this method cannot be applied for solving the pattern recognition problems if the within-class scatter matrix is singular, a condition that occurs when the number of the samples is small relative to the dimension of the samples. This problem is commonly known as the small sample size (SSS) problem and many of the FLDA variants proposed in the past to deal with this problem suffer from excessive computational load because of the high dimensionality of patterns or lose some useful discriminant information. This study is concerned with developing efficient techniques for discriminant analysis of patterns while at the same time overcoming the small sample size problem. With this objective in mind, the work of this research is divided into two parts.  In part 1, a technique by solving the problem of generalized singular value decomposition (GSVD) through eigen-decomposition is developed for linear discriminant analysis (LDA). The resulting algorithm referred to as modified GSVD-LDA (MGSVD-LDA) algorithm is thus devoid of the singularity problem of the scatter matrices of the traditional LDA methods. A theorem enunciating certain properties of the discriminant subspace derived by the proposed GSVD-based algorithms is established. It is shown that if the samples of a dataset are linearly independent, then the samples belonging to different classes are linearly separable in the derived discriminant subspace; and thus, the proposed MGSVD-LDA algorithm effectively captures the class structure of datasets with linearly independent samples.  Inspired by the results of this theorem that essentially establishes a class separability of linearly independent samples in a specific discriminant subspace, in part 2, a new systematic framework for the pattern recognition of linearly independent samples is developed. Within this framework, a discriminant model, in which the samples of the individual classes of the dataset lie on parallel hyperplanes and project to single distinct points of a discriminant subspace of the underlying input space, is shown to exist. Based on this model, a number of algorithms that are devoid of the SSS problem are developed to obtain this discriminant subspace for datasets with linearly independent samples.  For the discriminant analysis of datasets for which the samples are not linearly independent, some of the linear algorithms developed in this thesis are also kernelized.  Extensive experiments are conducted throughout this investigation in order to demonstrate the validity and effectiveness of the ideas developed in this study. It is shown through simulation results that the linear and nonlinear algorithms for discriminant analysis developed in this thesis provide superior performance in terms of the recognition accuracy and computational complexity


identifier: Uniacke, James  (2009) Novel chloroplast compartments are sites of photosystem II biogenesis and mRNA management during stress in the chloroplast of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Eukaryotic cells are highly compartmentalized. Many processes and metabolic pathways occur within specific organelles such as the nucleus, endoplasmic reticulum, Golgi apparatus, mitochondria, and peroxisomes. These compartments themselves are highly compartmentalized. In plants and algae, chloroplasts carry out photosynthesis, the biosynthesis of lipids, pigments, cofactors, amino acids, and function in the assimilation of S, P, and N. However, chloroplast cell biology has lagged behind that of other organelles. Classic models for the spatial organization of these processes are contradictory and based on EM and subcellular fractionation with no use of modern fluorescence microscopy. Here, chloroplast processes are revealed as highly compartmentalized within the chloroplast of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii with the first extensive use of fluorescence in situ hybridization, immunofluorescence staining and confocal microscopy. In Chapter 2, I propose that the processes underlying the biogenesis of thylakoids are compartmentalized in the chloroplast of C. reinhardtii. Chapter 4 describes the discovery of chloroplast stress granules, a compartment that manages mRNAs during oxidative stress. Chapter 3 assigned known targeting mechanisms to specific chloroplast proteins while identifying new examples of localized translation. Because the pyrenoid, a largely unexplored chloroplast compartment in most algae, plays a central role in many of my findings, and little is known about this compartment, I isolated it and characterized its proteome by mass spectrometry. The pyrenoid proteome consisted of proteins with roles in starch metabolism, CO 2 assimilation and nitrite reduction. Taken together, these findings reveal that the Chlamydomonas chloroplast is more highly compartmentalized and complex than has been appreciated and that it can be used as a model system to study fundamental cell biological questions. This work has advanced our understanding of the cell biology of chloroplasts and provides a new conceptual framework for research into chloroplast biogenesis


identifier: Adewusi, Surajudeen Adedotun  (2009) Distributed biodynamic characteristics of the human hand-arm system coupled with vibrating handles and power tools.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Clinical and epidemiological studies have shown that operators of hand-held power tools are prone to develop peripheral, vascular, neurological and musculoskeletal disorders collectively known as hand-arm vibration syndrome (HAYS). The reported biodynamic responses of the human hand-arm to hand-transmitted vibration exhibit considerable differences, which could be partly attributed to the complexity of the hand-arm system. Furthermore, the vast majority of the hand-arm models offer limited applicability to the tools since these lack consideration of the anthropometric, anatomical and biological properties of the hand-arm system. Experimental and analytical methods are used in this dissertation research to: (i) identify sources of discrepancies in the reported hand-arm biodynamic responses to vibration; (ii) simultaneously characterize localized vibration transmission to different segments of the human hand-arm and the driving-point mechanical impedance (DPMI) response under different hand-arm postures, hand forces, and excitation levels; (iii) develop biomechanical models corresponding to bent- and extended-arm postures on the basis of both the DPMI and vibration transmissibility responses; and (iv) characterize vibration power absorption (VPA) distribution of different components of the hand-arm for potential injury risks assessments.  The results show that the discrepancies in the reported biodynamic responses above 500 Hz were due to acceleration measurement location, handle dynamics (handle resonant frequency and deformation) and ineffectiveness of handle inertia correction. The peaks and valleys in the DPMI magnitude correspond to resonant frequencies of the tissues/muscles and the bones/structure, respectively. On the other hand, the peaks in transmissibility magnitudes represent the resonant frequencies of both the tissues/muscles and bones/structure. Furthermore, the DPMI seems to characterize the dynamic response of the entire hand-arm system with emphasis around the driving-point, while the transmissibility responses emphasize the dynamic response of the tissues/muscles of the human hand-arm system. The VPA distributions in the forearm and upper-arm were observed to be considerably higher than those of the hand components below 100 Hz, while the VPA distribution in the fingers was greater above 100 Hz. The overall results suggest the need for two frequency-weightings for assessing the potential risks due to tools with low and high frequency vibrations.


identifier: Nguyen, Van-Hai  (2009) Empirical essays in health economics.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

title: Empirical essays in health economics

abstract: This thesis comprises four essays on important public health issues. The first essay studies how social interactions can spread petty corruption in the health sector. Using a Vietnam dataset, I find that social interactions measured by advice on hospital choice increase the propensity of patients to give bribes to hospital staff as well as raises the bribe amount. There is also evidence on the information-transmitting role of social networks.  The second essay evaluates long term health impacts of Agent Orange exposure in the VietnamWar on the Vietnamese population. I use a unique dataset that includes both self reported hypertension and objectively measured blood pressure. The results indicate that exposure to Agent Orange significantly increases the risk of having hypertension and reduce height, with the largest burden falling on the cohort born during the spraying period and on the most heavily sprayed areas. I also show that using self-reported hypertension data may lead to upward bias in the estimate of the effects of Agent Orange on hypertension. There is also evidence that exposure to Agent Orange and herbicides during the Vietnam War increases risk of cancer and mental illness.  The third essay investigates a possible link between hypertension and happiness by examining possible impacts of neighborhood wealth on individuals' hypertension. Using both self-reported and objective hypertension data to proxy for happiness, I find that self-reported hypertension rate is much lower than objectively measured hypertension rate which lead to a large discrepancy between results obtained from self-reported and objective hypertension data. Moreover, I find that high neighborhood wealth raises hypertension risks for people aged 55-65 and not for younger or older age groups.  The fourth essay provides a theoretical rationale for smoking bans by proposing a theoretical model of maximizing behaviour on the part of smokers. It also empirically evaluates effects of smoking bans imposed at home and in workplace. Both calibrated model simulations and empirical results suggest that, with the exception of heavy smokers, workplace bans have relatively minor impacts on smokers while restrictions on smoking in the home are found to be of an order of importance greater.


identifier: Robinson, Leanne  (2009) Numerical and experimental study of semi-transparent photovoltaics integrated into commercial building facades.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Semi-transparent photovoltaics (STPV) have a large potential for integration in fenestration systems, adding the option of solar electricity production while still allowing for satisfaction of daylight needs. In office buildings, where the trends in architecture already include large glazed façades, and lighting loads constitute a significant portion of the overall energy consumption and, the integration of this technology is intuitive.  This thesis studies the potential of using either spaced opaque PV (photovoltaics) or thin-film PV and examines the impact of changing the PV area ratio (ratio of photovoltaics coverage to fenestration area) on the façade. It includes a verification of the workplane illuminance and PV output simulation models through comparison with measured data from an experimental office with a specially built full-scale prototype of a window with spaced solar cells.  The thesis addresses the issue of optimizing the PV area ratio for a simplified model based on a typical office in Montreal with an evenly divided south facing 3-section façade, which is an optimized façade concept that allows for view, adequate daylight and reduced heating/cooling loads. Several parametric variations are taken into consideration including façade orientation, site location, PV efficiency, lighting control strategies and shading device transmittance.  The annual simulation results show that a façade with integrated STPV has the potential to improve the overall energy performance when compared with opaque PV due to the significant daylighting benefits even at low transparency ratios. At approximately 90% PV area ratio in the upper section of the façade, the daylighting needs of the room are met; at higher PV area ratios the lighting loads increase rapidly and at lower ratios, the additional natural lighting does not enhance the performance further.