identifier: David-Cree, Katsitsenhawe Linda  (2004) Would you like to hear a story? : Mohawk youth narratives on the role of the history of Quebec and Canada on indigenous identity and marginality.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: This study examined how Onkwehón:we (Original Peoples), Kanien'kehà:ka (People of the Flint) young people living in Kanehsatà:ke perceived Quebec and Canadian history and Indigenous histories. It presents an analysis of the teaching of the history of Quebec and Canada, a compulsory course to graduate in Quebec. It is my position that past and present teachings have marginalized and silenced the Indigenous voice and identity.  The course that is presently taught will be analyzed with a major glance back in time to earlier such courses; it will build from that to tell the stories of those who have been and perhaps still are being marginalized and silenced through an inaccurate and inadequate retelling of history. That is, I will present the perspectives of Kanien'kehà:ka Peoples themselves on the course. I will then draw the past and present narratives together while looking forward, with hope to better times.


identifier: Kowalchuk, Kristine  (2004) Cleft connection : singularity, authority, & the Royal Commentaries of the Incas in early modern Spain & England.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

type: Thesis NonPeerReviewed

abstract: Perhaps the most significant marker of the transition between medieval and early modern Europe was the transformation in the relationship between authority and singularity.  In exploring the nature of this relationship in late 16 th -early 17 th century Spanish and English literature, however, this thesis suggests that such transformation was clearly distinct in each country. Specifically, this thesis offers analysis of El Inca Garcilaso de la Vega's Royal Commentaries of the Incas and studies the work's comparative reception in Spain and England. As an unauthorized work by a marginalized author, the Royal Commentaries sheds light on the tension between singularity and authority through the author's anticipation of difficulty in publishing his work, and its varying reception in Spain and England reflects each country's embrace of, or resistance to, change from medieval to early modern mindsets. In order to explain such difference in attitude toward the Royal Commentaries , and toward modernity, this thesis then considers the effect of two principal historical variables--foreign occupation and discovery of the New World.  This thesis combines an analysis of the Royal Commentaries with studies of late 16 th --early 17 th Spain and England, a mixture which has not been previously attempted. The ultimate aim of such combination is to offer a new reading of the Royal Commentaries , as well as to introduce the significance of the work in early modern English Literature.


identifier: Barrette-Sabourin, Nicole  (2004) Design, development and evaluation of a course development quality assurance system for the ICAO TRAINAIR programme.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: The TRAINAIR Programme of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) is in operation since 1988. The Programme is tasked with establishing and implementing standards for training of civil aviation personnel. In order to achieve training standardization, civil aviation training centres that belong to the programme have to train course developers in a methodology based on instructional systems development.  TRAINAIR members have tasked the ICAO TRAINAIR Central Unit with developing a course development quality assurance system. Members recognized that as the TRAINAIR Programme membership expands, the quality control work required to respond to course development phase reports in a timely manner would eventually exceed the resources available in the Central Unit. The system should also address common difficulties and misconceptions identified in the application of the methodology.  This paper uses a case study approach and presents the analytical work on which the TRAINAIR course development quality assurance system was developed, a description of the process of development of the system, the system itself, and a preliminary report on the implementation of the system within the TRAINAIR Programme.


identifier: Jokardris, Mandana  (2004) Analysis of near-surface flow measurements beneath clean and contaminated wind-driven water surfaces.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: In natural water bodies like oceans and lakes, biological organisms and other chemical species cover the water surface affecting the air-sea boundary conditions. At moderate wind speeds, short gravity wind waves occur on the water surface. It has been speculated that most of these short gravity waves are microscale breaking waves, which play a significant role in air-sea gas and heat transfer. This work reports on results from a series of laboratory experiments investigating the impact of surface contamination on the flow characteristics in the near surface region beneath short gravity waves at moderate wind speeds. In addition, the characteristics of parasitic capillary waves and their relation with microscale breaking waves are explored. In this study, the two-dimensional velocity fields were measured using digital particle image velocimetry (DPIV) and water surface temperature measurements were made simultaneously using infrared imagery. Results are reported for two wind speeds, 6.3 and 8.1 m s -1 . (Abstract shortened by UMI.)


identifier: Sundaram, Karthikeyan Keelapandal  (2004) Design sensitivity analyses of two-dimentional recursive band-pass and band-stop digital filters with an application in image processing.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Two-dimensional variable recursive digital Band-pass and Band-stop filters are applied in signal processing and pro-imagining process, as well as communication systems where the frequency domain characteristics of digital filters are required to be adjustable. The main objective of this thesis has been to propose a new method of designing 2-D recursive Band-Pass and Band-Stop digital filters with variable characteristics. From the identical analog 1-D second order Butterworth Low-Pass analog ladder network, 2-D Band-Pass and Band-Stop digital filters can be obtained through the application of Low-Pass to Band-Pass/Band-Stop transformation and double generalized bilinear transformations. The denominators of these filters transfer functions are verified for VSHP. Sensitivity analyses are performed by varying the coefficients of the double generalized bilinear transformation such as k 1 , k 2 , a 1 , a 2 , b 1 and b 2 with respect to center frequency '} o ' and Bandwidth 'B' on the resulted 2-D Band-Pass and Band-Stop filter, which are obtained by varying the coefficients of the double generalized bilinear transformation in the specific ranges in order to maintain the stability of the filter of the Band-Pass and Band-Stop transfer function respectively.


identifier: Vasudeva, Rishi Kumar  (2004) Control of fungal growth on PVC building composites blended with residual material (Lignin).  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Sustainable engineering uses residuals as components of new building materials. This research makes focus on resistance of such new materials to microbial growth. Microbial growth on polymer building composites renders the materials discoloured cracked; and it also causes loss in mechanical properties of material. Present work investigated best formulation of PVC (Poly Vinyl Chloride) composites blended with residual materials such as lignin. Four different types of plasticizers and three different types of lignins are used in PVC composite formulations. The spore suspension of five different fungal species was used to inoculate the series of vinyl formulations blended without lignin and with lignin. The specimens were kept for an incubation period of 28 days under the most favourable conditions for fungal growth. After fungal attack the specimens were studied under microscope to analyze the changes at the surface and tested for mechanical and thermal properties. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)


identifier: Abou-Khousa, Mohamed A  (2005) Multipath detection in CDMA systems.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

title: Multipath detection in CDMA systems

abstract: This thesis addresses the problem of multipath detection in CDMA systems. In conventional CDMA receivers, the detection of multipath components and RAKE finger management is normally based on the received signal energy per path. These energy-based schemes essentially overlook the interference component contaminating the total received power. Consequently, they exhibit poor detection capability especially at low signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR). In this thesis, we present a new scheme for multipath detection and RAKE finger assignment that takes into consideration the interference level in each resolved path individually. The proposed scheme utilizes information provided by the pseudo random code acquisition circuit to estimate the interference power per path. To account for the hardware limitations of the receiver, a low complexity version of the proposed scheme is designed and incorporated into the receiver structure Analytical and simulation results show that the proposed scheme provides significant improvements in the detection probability of multipath components over the energy-based schemes. For instance, our results show that the proposed scheme can achieve the same detection probability of all multipath components as that of the energy-based scheme with a saving of at least 2 dB in E b /N 0 . In some cases, it is shown that the improvement can be as high as 3 dB


identifier: Haque, Ashraf Ul  (2004) A study of designing recursive 2-D digital filter from an analog bridged-T network.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Two-dimensional recursive digital filters are widely used in signal processing and image processing, as well as divers communication systems. The main objective of this thesis has been to propose a new technique of designing 2-D recursive digital filters from an analog Bridged-T network. Starting from transfer function of a Bridged-T network in the analog domain which is VSHP, 2-D recursive digital filters can be obtained through the application of the double generalized bilinear transformations with the coefficients in their specified ranges. The impedance values of the transfer function of the Bridged-T network are obtained with compare to the fourth order Butterworth polynomial. For different impedance values of the Bridged-T network we get different types of filter output--all pass filter, band pass filter, band stop filter and low pass filter. The manner how each coefficient of generalized bilinear transformation affects each kind of 2-D recursive digital filter is investigated in details.


identifier: Li, Li  (2004) o-controller design framework for Haptic telemanipulation systems with multiple uncertain sources and time delay.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: The control of bilateral haptic telemanipulation systems in the presence of multiple uncertain sources including uncertain communication time-delay is indeed a non-trivial problem. Such control is typically evaluated by three criteria: stability, performance and transparency. This thesis discusses these criteria in the context of how linear fractional transformation (LFT) technique and o-theory can be applied into the design of robust bilateral haptic telemanipulation systems. As a result, a framework of controller design for such a system based on PHANToM haptic devices is presented under the assumptions that all of the components in the system, including the communication channel with time-delay, possess uncertainty.  The proposed design framework possesses following new characteristics compared to the previous work in the literature: (1) all components in the system are potentially uncertain and the environment possesses parametric uncertainty; (2) the master controller is structured as of two-degree-of-freedom (2-DOF) to avoid poor transient performance; (3) force reflection from slave to master is realized as a function of environment reaction forces and differences between master and slave displacements to meet the system transparency requirement, and (4) the communication channel is treated as a second-order system with parametric and multiplicative uncertainties, which represents a more accurate and less conservative realization.  The analysis of the resulting controllers made in both frequency and time domain shows that the resulting system realizes well the robust stability and performance requirements that are envisaged in this problem


identifier: Daoud, Mohammad  (2004) H2GS : a hybrid heuristic-genetic scheduling algorithm for static scheduling of tasks on heterogeneous processor networks.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: The majority of published static scheduling algorithms are only suited to homogeneous processor networks. Little effort has been put into developing scheduling algorithms specifically for heterogeneous processors networks. It is easy to prove, using counterexamples, that the best existing heterogeneous scheduling algorithms [1, 12] generate sub-optimal schedules. Hence, there is much room for the development of better scheduling algorithms for heterogeneous processor networks.  This report presents and tests a novel hybrid scheduling algorithm (H2GS) that utilizes both deterministic and stochastic approaches to the problem of scheduling. H2GS is a two-phase algorithm. The first phase implements a heuristic algorithm (LDCP) that identifies one near-optimal schedule. This schedule is used, together with a small number of other schedules as the initial population of the second customized genetic algorithm (called GATS). The GATS algorithm proceeds to evolve even better schedules. The most important contributions of our research are: (i) the development of a new hybrid algorithm, which primes a customized genetic algorithm with a near-optimal schedule produced by a heuristic (LDCP); (ii) The hybrid algorithm succeeds in generating task schedules with completion times that are, on average, 6.2% shorter than those produced by the best existing scheduling algorithm, on the same set of test data.


identifier: El Ghargomi, Islam Saleh Attia  (2004) Modeling of a focused Gaussian beam into multi-layered tissue with Monte Carlo simulation.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Monte Carlo method is a statistical method that is built on random sampling of variables from well-defined probability distributions. It has been employed rigorously to study the photon transport in biologically turbid media. This thesis employs a well-established simulation program called "MCML" to study photon transport in biologically turbid media. In the present work, we use Monte Carlo method for modeling finite diameter optical beams, which are in general approximated by uniform or Gaussian intensity distributions.  In order to model focused Gaussian beams with Monte Carlo simulation, the "MCML" program was modified based on a probability distribution found in the literature. However, errors were encountered in the calculated physical quantities by Monte Carlo simulation. This error formed a strong motivation to search for and analyze its source.  Using simulation, we prove that the probability density function used in the literature is a source of error in the calculations of the physical quantities evaluated by Monte Carlo simulation. We propose another probability density function that is shown to provide a dramatic improvement compared with the other function.


identifier: Cai, Zhen  (2004) Automatic measurement of video quality using fuzzy logic.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Compression of digital video systems introduces artifacts (i.e., typical types of degradations), such as Blocking, Blurring, and Ringing. In this thesis, a new temporal artifact--'Flashing Blocks' is introduced. This new temporal artifact with other spatial artifacts is integrated into an equation to simulate the goodness of subjective ratings. In the past, linear mapping was used for this mapping. However, in this thesis, a non-linear mapping using Fuzzy Logic is proposed to create the mapping.  In this thesis, the performance of these automatic metrics is evaluated by measuring the Mean Square Error between the measures predicted by humans and that predicted automatically. The simulation results indicate that the performance of the automatic metric using Fuzzy Logic is significantly better than those automatic metrics using linear mapping for MPEG-2 test video sequences.


identifier: Alouneh, Sahel A  (2004) A new approach for testing buffer overflow vulnerabilities in C and C++.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: With the high growth of computer technology, and especially the fast growth of computer networks and internet, buffer overflows are the most notorious and widely publicized attacks. This problem has a predominant threat to the secure operation of network and in particular, internet based applications.  In this thesis, a combined static and dynamic testing approach for detecting the buffer overflow vulnerabilities is implemented. Compared to other approaches, the tool presents more features and aims to increase the accuracy and efficiency while scanning the C and C++ source code. The main idea behind our approach is to rewrite the vulnerable source code so that the modified code uses the new safe call version of old vulnerable C and C++ function. If rewriting is impossible, the tool gives different types of warnings, depending on the complexity of the function syntax, format, and other factors detailed in this thesis. Moreover, the tool provides a description of the problem. If a warning is issued, then it helps the programmer solve this security problem. The new approach brings down the false positive and false negative factors as low as possible. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)


identifier: Huang, Chuanxiu  (2004) Improved SOVA and APP decoding algorithms for concatenated codes.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: In this thesis, we propose a novel and simple approach for dealing with the exaggerated extrinsic information produced by the soft-output Viterbi algorithm (SOVA). We identify the reason behind producing these exaggerated values and propose a simple remedy for it. We argue that what leads to these optimistic extrinsic information is the inherent strong correlation between the intrinsic information (input to the SOVA) and extrinsic information (output of the SOVA). The proposed remedy is based on mathematical analysis and it involves using two attenuators, one applied to the immediate output of the SOVA and another applied to the extrinsic information before it is passed to the other decoder (assuming iterative decoding). We examine the modified SOVA (MSOVA) on various channel models including additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) channels, flat fading channels, and storage channels for both parallel concatenated codes (PCCs) and serial concatenated codes (SCCs)


identifier: Han, XiBin  (2004) Channel estimation techniques for WCDMA communication systems.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: This thesis focuses on the study of efficient channel estimation techniques for WCDMA communication systems. Some background material pertaining to wireless multipath propagation and WCDMA systems is first presented. The maximum-likelihood principle based data-aided channel estimation techniques are then investigated, resulting in two new estimation methods using pilot and information symbols. The first method combines the pilot-assisted and the decision-directed estimation schemes, yielding a much better estimation result compared to each of the two schemes alone. The second technique corresponds to an adaptive channel estimation scheme in which a new update mechanism using a variable step-size is proposed. A theoretical analysis of the mean square error of the least mean square (LMS) algorithm is conducted, showing the superiority of a variable step-size update scheme in convergence speed over the conventional constant step-size algorithm. The proposed scheme is not only able to increase the convergence speed but also can decrease the steady-state error of the adaptive estimation filter to a certain degree.  The bit-error rate (BER) performance of both downlink and uplink of the WCDMA systems using the proposed channel estimation techniques is evaluated through extensive computer simulations for different mobile velocities, confirming the improved estimation accuracy of the proposed methods for both slow to fast fading channels in comparison with some of the existing techniques (Abstract shortened by UMI.)


identifier: Madan, Tarun  (2005) Compression of long-term EEG using power spectral density.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Continuous long-term electroencephalogram (cEEG) has been shown to be extremely valuable in monitoring patients whose brain function may be in jeopardy, particularly in the neurological intensive care unit (NICU). Since cEEG monitoring can last from days to weeks, the amount of data generated can become unwieldy and methods that can help in the review process are necessary. Recently, a technique that compresses several hours of cEEG has been presented. The compressed summary includes a graph showing the temporal evolution of the different patterns in the cEEG along with their representative samples presented in the traditional EEG display format. This technique is based on segmentation and classification using a set of features called the generic features consisting of the amplitude, frequency, and frequency-weighted energy. Because the generic features used in this method are not always optimal, our aim in this thesis is to incorporate an alternative feature set in the above cEEG compression method. Specifically, in this thesis we propose a set of features based on power spectral density, referred to as the spectral features.


identifier: Shafieloo, Iman  (2005) A virtual reality-based training environment using haptic interfaces.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Stability is a critical issue in haptic simulation. Unlike other conventional robotic manipulators, haptic devices inherently function in close proximity to humans. The unpredictable nature of human operator and the virtual environment are the main sources of instability in a stand alone haptic system. In the case of teleoperative haptic systems the criteria for stability is far more complicated than those studied for single-user systems. Stability and traceability in telehaptic systems are some of the main technical challenges in the field of shared virtual environments. The methods proposed in this thesis provide accurate 3D force reflecting telehaptic model to guarantee a stable teleoperation in a virtual environment that minimizes the tracking errors between the master and slave haptic devices. A control strategy is developed and investigated for maintaining and improving on the stability margins and achievable performances for telehaptic system as a training tool intended for bilateral interaction with virtual objects. Specifically a recursive adaptive method is developed and applied in order to minimize the tracking error between the master and slave haptic devices. A detailed comparative evaluation of the proposed control and estimation strategies is presented to illustrate the performance of the resulting controlled telehaptic system. The research presented here is based on an implementation environment consisting of master and slave haptic devices operating on a single workstation, which implies that improving the system response and performance in a network environment remains as another challenge and future work. The development of higher quality graphics accelerators, processors, high speed networks and data communications, specific protocols for 3D graphics and haptics world, specific real time algorithms and even the development of 3D modeling languages affect this next generation technology.


identifier: Sun, Huili  (2005) Performance assessment of islanding detection methods using the concept of non-detection zones.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Concerns for the rising cost of electricity, environmental impact, and the difficulty in obtaining new right-of-ways results in the use of smaller environmentally-friendly power sources such as photovoltaic (PV), wind-driven or gas-fired micro-turbines located closer to the end consumers, which are connected directly to the distribution system in what is commonly referred to as distributed generation (DG). The protection schemes of the distribution systems were designed under the assumption that power flows from the substations to the end users. If a fault takes place and a breaker opens all circuits downstream would be de-energized. However this is not the case when DG is used. Under fault condition, an island condition with power generation and consumption threatens both equipment and personnel safety. Thus, islanding detection methods (IDMs) must be developed and tested. A number of IDMs has been developed to prevent this situation.  The goal of this thesis is to investigate a means for comparing the effectiveness of active type IDMs used in an inverter based DG. Unlike standard passive IDMs, the use of non-detection zones (NDZ) in a power imbalance plane is not adequate. This thesis proposes a new load parameter space based on the load quality factor Q f and resonant frequency f 0 . Equations that describe the NDZs of three of the most used active IDMS, namely active frequency drift (AFD), slip-mode phase shift (SMS) and Sandia frequency shift (SFS) have been derived. Simulation and experimental results are presented to corroborate the theoretical analysis


identifier: Song, Yunpeng  (2004) Radiation pattern of aperture coupled prolate hemispheroidal dielectric resonator antenna.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: A detailed analysis and study of a prolate hemispheroidal dielectric resonator antenna (DRA) excited by a rectangular slot aperture are developed. The method used is based on the dyadic Green's function technique in the spheroidal coordinates. In this work, the dyadic Green's functions pertaining to a magnetic-current source located in a dielectric spheroid is derived and expressed in a form convenient for numerical computations. The dyadic Green's functions are then employed to formulate the electromagnetic fields radiated by the DRA. The electromagnetic far field is expressed analytically in a compact form.  The antenna radiation patterns and directivities are computed for different design parameters. The accuracy of the solution is attested by both comparing with HFSS simulation results and with published data for the corresponding hemispherical dielectric resonator antenna. Furthermore, efficient algorithms for calculating the prolate spheroidal wave functions are developed using the software package MATLAB. The algorithm developed here for calculating the prolate spheroidal function is compact, fast, and efficient, and compared well with other results in the literature.


identifier: Sun, Liwei  (2004) Design and fabrication of surface textured MEMS for infrared gas sensors.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: This thesis concentrates primarily on optimum design and fabrication of novel MEMS (micro-electro-mechanical systems) infrared gas sensors. It deals with the thermal, electrical, optical and mechanical response for a spectroscopic gas sensor based on MEMS surface textured technologies.  An overview of the theories of conventional and novel MEMS infrared gas sensors is presented. Two important surface modification technologies: Photonic Crystal (PC) and Surface Plasmon (SP) for the proposed devices as well as the SP dispersion relation are discussed.  The structures, materials, geometries, and electrical properties of the devices for the generation of single and narrow band mid-infrared light source with high transmission efficiency are studied. Plane Wave Methods (PWM) are used to simulate Photonic Bandgap (PBG) and Finite Difference Time Domain (FDTD) methods are used to simulate the function of the proposed devices.  Silicon on isolator (SOI) technology is used to design and fabricate the proposed device onto a microbridge that enable the power efficiency heating the device and enhance its sensitivity to gas concentration. This fabrication process (MicraGEM) provided by CMC (Canadian Microelectronics Corporation) and Micralyne Incorporation. Unfortunately, the devices could not be successfully fabricated although our design did not break any design rule. The main reason is that the process provided error minimum size of self-alignment etching holes. However, this design help CMC and Micralyne to identify and redefine the design rules, also push Micralyne to improve the process in the future.


identifier: Li, Min  (2004) Adaptive decision-feedback multiuser detection for DS-CDMA systems.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: In this thesis, we propose a modified multistage linear parallel interference cancellation (PIC) structure using the blind adaptive minimum mean-output-energy (MMOE) algorithm for DS-CDMA systems. The proposed receiver has a computational complexity that is linear in the number of users, and exhibits a performance close to the optimum linear minimum mean-squared-error (LMMSE) receiver whose complexity has a cubic dependence on the number of users. Moreover, the proposed blind adaptive MMOE-PIC receiver requires no side information on users' received signal amplitudes, which can further lower the complexity of the overall system.  Another multistage detector with low complexity is introduced for DS-CDMA systems over both flat and frequency-selective fading channels. The proposed detector employs the blind adaptive multiuser receiver as the first stage followed by stages with interference cancellation (IC). The performance of the proposed detector is very close to the single user bound and is independent of system loads in flat fading channels. In multipath fading channels, from low to moderate SNR's, the proposed receiver suffers less than 1dB penalty compared with ideal detection without interference. At high SNR's, an error floor occurs for high loaded systems.  Finally we consider a class of decision-feedback detectors (DFDs) based on the modified MMSE performance criterion in the presence of dynamic fading. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)


identifier: Liu, Baozhu  (2004) Full-duplex 60 GHz band dense wavelength division multiplexing star tree architecture for radio-over-fiber systems.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: In this work, full-duplex 60GHz DWDM star tree architecture for radio-over-fiber systems is investigated. New approach by using DWDM with the channel spacing of 25 GHz for the first time is proposed to improve the spectral efficiency. The demonstration system consists of 1 central station and 3 base stations as an example. In addition, the remote light source technique is utilized to simplify the architecture of base station (BS) and the external modulation technique is adopted to overcome the fiber chromatic dispersion. Especially, the MZ modulator, configured to generate optical single sideband (OSSB) signal, is adopted in the central station and modulates the optical carrier with the lower sideband (LSB) and upper sideband (USB) subcarriers simultaneously with different data and the EA modulator is adopted in the base station for implementing the maintenance-free BS in the future.  The error-free transmission via the 25 km uplink and downlink fiber with the data rate of 155.52 Mbps is performed. The impact of the laser linewidth and the bandwidth of the electrical bandpass filter are investigated. It concludes that the system performance is limited by the laser phase noise for considered DPSK signal and the bandwidth of electrical bandpass filter is much larger than the 3-dB bandwidth. The trade-off has to be made when optimizing the laser linewidth and the bandwidth of the bandpass filter.


identifier: Luo, Zhixiang  (2004) A multi-featured single-phase utility interface with reduced DC link capacitor for distributed power sources.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: The traditional, regulated electric power systems are based on large power generation plants located far from load centers. In a deregulated market, however, small and environmentally friendly power plants using wind power, photovoltaic cells, fuel cells and micro-turbines can be installed through a given distribution system. This concept of distributed generation tends to reduce the cost of electricity and to reduce or postpone major investments in the transmission system.  Many of these small power plants are typically consumer owned and are connected to the utility grid by means of single-phase power electronic voltage source converters. This type of converter that supplies active power to the ac grid can also be controlled to provide active filtering and Var generation, thus enhancing the quality of the power at a given point and providing added value to the distributed power source.  This Thesis focuses on the practical issues of a multi-featured single-phase utility interface. It focuses on three important aspects: (1) the management of the low order voltage harmonics present in the dc bus of the interface. (2) The design of fast and robust single phase phase-locked loop for the synchronization of the power interface. (3) A new control circuit for a three-level hysteresis current controller.  Finally, a digital signal processor based prototype test circuit that satisfies all the aforementioned functions and allows active power filtering and reactive power compensation is built in the laboratory to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed techniques.


identifier: George, Akinbola Olukayode  (2005) 3-D simulation of flow and sediment transport during a controlled flood in a short river reach.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Controlled floods are often used in rivers to remove fine sediments that accumulate within gravel particles. Three-dimensional numerical models can predict the flow field and bed shear stress in a very detailed way. In the present study is to use a three-dimensional model is used to predict flow field, assess the effect of inlet conditions, predict bed shear stress, and bed load transport rates during a controlled flood in a natural river. The study site is the Escoumins River (Quebec), where a dam upstream of the studied reach has been used to create control floods. Field measurements (flow and bed load transport) and 2-D simulation results were available, allowing a comparison between the 3-D model, 2-D model and the field measurements. A body-fitted coordinate grid was used and several inlet flow conditions were tested.


identifier: Zhang, Xuezhi  (2004) An advanced-Louver cooling scheme for gas turbines : adiabatec effectiveness and heat transfer performance.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: The thermal performance of a novel film-cooling scheme for a high temperature gas turbine application is introduced. The new jet, with both forward and laterally diffused exit, enables the coolant to spread wider and more uniform over the downstream surface, when compared with the traditional circular hole. As a result, the coolant momentum is reduced in the normal direction, and thus the occurrence of jet lift-off is avoided. This novel film-cooling scheme is superior to traditional cooling scheme since less amount of coolant can provide the same protection under the same conditions, making more efficient use of the coolant air.  Systematic simulations have been carried out on two benchmark cases. The performances of different turbulence models as well as different wall treatments have been isolated and evaluated. Turbulence was modeled using four classes of turbulence models, namely k-[varepsilon] (including its 3 variants), k-}, Reynolds-Stress, and Spalart-Allmaras. Three-dimensional simulations were carried out by numerically solving the Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equations. For the first time, to the best of author's knowledge, the jet lift-off effect is clearly captured in the simulations at high blowing ratios, and the results are in excellent agreement with experimental data. The new methodology established in the two benchmark cases has been applied to the new scheme. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)


identifier: Zhou, Sheng Feng  (2004) Real-time distributed simulation of partial differential equations.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Recent advances in high speed network technology has allowed clusters of computers to be linked together to form distributed computing networks capable of real-time simulation of large scale complex mechanical systems. Real-time distributed simulation can potentially be used to develop highly detailed virtual prototypes for testing and optimization in automotive, aerospace, and manufacturing industries. Industrial applications, however, have been limited until now due to lack of systematic methods for constructing real-time distributed simulations.  This thesis investigates new methods for real-time distributed simulation of partial differential equations (PDEs). This represents an important class of mechanical systems that in most cases requires multiple computers in order for simulations to proceed in real-time. The focus is on the wave equation since it has well known properties and it is representative of many types of PDE systems. The proposed approach uses an innovative time division multiple access (TDMA) real-time communication protocol based on gigabit Ethernet. Equation distribution and real-time simulation algorithms based on finite-difference approximations are developed for both explicit and implicit integration methods. Together, these results provide a more systematic approach for real-time distributed simulation of PDE systems.


identifier: Walsh, Shannon  (2004) "The ground beneath me" : creative vision, youth and HIV/AIDS.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: HIV infection is a fast growing phenomenon amongst young people worldwide. In South Africa infection rates amongst youth are particularly high, and the need to find strategies to engage young people in issues around healthy sexuality are imperative. This research uses visual and ethnographic approaches as a method for engaged research that supports community led peer education; with young people building on their own lived experience as part of the process.  Borrowing from ideas of engaged pedagogy by bell hooks, Henry A. Giroux, and Paulo Friere and "thick and deep" data collection as explored by Clifford Geertz, Joseph Tobin and Claudia Mitchell, The Ground Beneath Me attempts to understand how to engage youth in creative strategies towards social change and more concentrated peer education around HIV/AIDS. This research is also influenced by understandings of AIDS in a global context through theorists such as Cindy Patton, Catherine Campbell, Paul Treichler and Paul Farmer amongst others.  Ultimately this was a qualitative, open-ended process, which looked at both the process and the final works as part of the data, and generated non-empirical results (including two video by-products and a text of youth authored writing and drawing). The findings indicated the need to include young people as change agents in creating health-enabling communities; to contextualize AIDS in terms of globalization, race, poverty, and stigma; to focus attention on gender-based violence and structural violence as risk factors; and, to keep gender issues at the forefront of youth education around HIV prevention.


identifier: Drobotea, Elena  (2004) Compression of a thin cohessionless [i.e. cohesionless] layer overlaying a deep deposit.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: In geotechnical and road engineering, it is quite common to encounter ground represented by a layered system consisting of a thin upper subgrade layer overlaying a deep natural soil deposit. Structures built on such type of ground usually experience low bearing capacity and, consequently, large settlement. In order to achieve better results, the subgrade layer is compacted using the conventional techniques. The level of the densification achieved is influenced not only by the compacting effort applied on soil surface, but also by the strength of the underlying soil deposit. In the literature, several reports can be found dealing with the subject matter. The majority of these reports have ignored the contribution of underlying soil on the compression of the upper thin layer.  The objective of this thesis is to develop a numerical model using the finite element technique, to examine the compression of a thin subgrade layer overlying a deep deposit. In this model all the parameters believed to govern the compression of the subgrade layer will be incorporated. The compression of the subgrade layer under various applied loads will be evaluated. The results are presented in the form of charts and tables in order to determine the total settlement of the foundation and the compression of the upper layer. Empirical formula is proposed to predict the compression of the upper subgrade layer for practicing use.


identifier: Huang, Yi-ting  (2005) Heavy metals in urban soils.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

title: Heavy metals in urban soils

abstract: This thesis is focused on the investigation of heavy metal contaminated urban soils (especially lead and zinc). Soil samples from greater Montreal area were collected. The concentrations of lead and zinc of some soil samples were at elevated levels, with the highest concentration being 2000 mg/kg (the EPA standard limits for both metals is 300 mg/kg at residential soils). The physical and chemical properties of soils, including soil particle size distribution, soil cation exchange capacity (CEC), soil specific surface area (SSA), soil permeability coefficients, were determined. The majority of soil particles in the samples were found to have the texture of fine sand (loamy and silty sands). Selective sequential extraction (SSE) was performed to understand the affinities of heavy metals toward various fractions of soil. The results indicate that lead has the highest affinity toward soil fraction of organic matter, while zinc has the highest affinity toward soil oxides. Soil column leaching tests were carried out. SSE, together with soil leaching tests, explains the mobility of heavy metals. It shows that zinc has a higher mobility in soils than lead. With the knowledge of heavy metal mobility in soils, the soil decontamination scheme can be planned.


identifier: Fan, Jing Hong  (2005) Discrete fiber raman amplifiers with incoherent pumping.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: In this thesis, C-band, L-band, and C+L-band DisFRAs with incoherent pumping are investigated respectively considering gain, NF, NF ripple, OSNR, OSNR ripple, and pumping efficiency with comparison to coherent pumping. All comparisons are based on the same average gain.  Increasing the spectral bandwidth of incoherent pumping source will result in reduction of gain ripple, NF ripple, and OSNR ripple exponentially in dB and accordingly increase of pumping power exponentially in mW. The average NF and OSNR keep almost unchanged with the increase of FWHM of incoherent pumping source. To achieve the same gain flatness the number of pumps for DisFRAs with incoherent pumping can be significantly reduced compared to coherent pumping.  The comparisons of C-band, L-band, and C+L-band DisFRAs with incoherent co-pumping to incoherent counter-pumping show that DisFRAs with incoherent co-pumping perform better because of flatter NF and OSNR, lower NF, higher OSNR, and increased pumping efficiency


identifier: Gavriloiu, Victor  (2005) Design of dynamic nonlinear control techniques for flexible-link manipulators.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: In this thesis, we develop robust dynamical controllers for addressing the problems of tracking and regulation of both rigid-link and flexible-link manipulators. The design of the dynamical controller is based on construction of a two-time scale dynamical motion of the closed-loop system. Furthermore, other conventional control methods such as the PD control, computed torque, and localization methods are investigated for comparison purposes. The main control objective is to achieve stability of the closed-loop system while ensuring boundedness of all the control signals as well as sufficiently small tip-position tracking requirement. In order to achieve a minimum phase behaviour for utilizing output feedback control strategy, a new redefined output is proposed. Instead of using the joint angles as outputs in the rigid-link case, a new output is chosen for the flexible-link case which will provide and guarantee stability of the closed-loop flexible system. Simulations results are provided for both the rigid-link and flexible-link manipulators using the proposed control strategies. A comparative analysis is also included to demonstrate and illustrate the advantages and disadvantages of the considered control methodologies.


identifier: Hosseini, Mehran  (2005) Design and optimization of an AFM probe based on piezoresistance effect.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) probes with embedded stress sensors have demonstrated the ability to address key issues such as simplicity, reliability, and responsiveness to parallel scanning techniques and therefore are promising devices for AFM applications. Even though there are some other candidates for integration as sensor parts with the mechanical structure of the device (e.g. MOS transistors), piezoresistive materials are still among the most attractive sensors used in cantilever-based devices.  Standard CMOS fabrication process is a suitable technology, which allows integration of sensor, mechanical parts and electronic signal conditioning/processing circuits on the same chip.  In this thesis we present design and optimization of an AFM probe with integrated polysilicon piezoresistive sensor, based on MEMS techniques. Design goal is to optimize a combination of sensitivity and signal-to-noise (S/N) ratio to achieve the minimum lower detection limit, while maintaining the other important factors such as eigenfrequencies, in an acceptable range.  Standard CMOS 0.35om technology is considered as the target fabrication process as well as a multistage masked post-CMOS micro-machining process to release the structure. A sophisticated geometry of the cantilever and the sensor, along with the optimized length of sensor branches in terms of S/N ratio is achieved.


identifier: Malla, Pasha  (2005) Long : six short stories.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

title: Long : six short stories

abstract: When I initially set out writing these stories, I made a deliberate effort to avoid using my own, mixed cultural heritage as source material. My proposal eschewed the autobiographical in favour of the broader topic of exploring the gaps between adults and children, a focus that later developed into less specific moments of estrangement between people.  Now, looking at these six stories as a whole, I find common themes directly related to what I see as something intrinsic to my own "mixed-race" identity; without realizing it, I have broached the very subject matter I had originally hoped to avoid. These are stories about transition, about people lacking distinct and definable identities. Like Paul in "Pet Therapy" and Les in "The Past Composed," they are caught in hybrid moments of emotion, location and self. The characters are often at "in-between" junctures in their lives: the young narrator in "Pulling Oceans In and Pushing Oceans Out," for example, is at the cusp of adolescence and sexual discovery.  The title of my thesis, "Long," is meant to represent the longing that results from these "in-between" moments--a longing to connect with other people, to create "homes," to connect the disparate elements of life to form a cohesive sense of self.


identifier: Mengistu, Temesgen Teklemariam  (2005) Aerodynamic design and optimization of turbomachinery blading.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Aerodynamic shape optimization of gas turbine blades is a very challenging task, given e.g. the flow complexity, the stringent performance requirements, the structural and manufacturing constraints, etc.... This work addresses the challenge by automating the optimization process through the development, implementation and integration of state-of-the-art shape parametrization, numerical optimization methods, Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) algorithms and computer architectures. The resulting scheme is successfully applied to single and multi-point aerodynamic shape optimization of several cascades involving two-dimensional transonic and subsonic, viscous and inviscid flow in compressor and turbine cascades.  The optimization objective is to achieve a better aerodynamic performance, subject to aerodynamic and structural constraints, over the full operating range of gas turbine cascades by varying the blade profile. That profile is parameterized using a Non-Uniform Rational B-Splines (NURBS) representation, which is flexible accurate and capable of representing the blade profiles with a relatively small number of control points for a given tolerance. The NURBS parameters are then used as design variables in the optimization process.  The optimization objective is determined from simulating the flow using an in-house CFD code that solves the two-dimensional Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes (or Euler) equations using a cell-vertex finite volume method on an unstructured triangular mesh and turbulence is modeled using the Baldwin-Lomax model.  To save computing time significantly, Artificial Neural Network (ANN) is used to build a low fidelity model that approximates the optimization objective and constraints. Moreover, to reduce the computing wall-clock time, the optimization scheme was parallelized on an SGI ALTIX 3700 machine using Message Passing Interface (MPI), resulting in a parallelization efficiency of almost 100%.  Different numerical optimization methods (genetic algorithm, simulated annealing and sequential quadratic programming) were developed, tested and implemented for the different parts of this work.  The present choice of objective function and optimization methodology results in a significant improvement in performance for all the cascades that were optimized, without violating the design constraints. The use of ANN results in a ten-fold speed-up of the design process and the scheme parallelization allows for further reduction of the wall-clock time


identifier: Haghighat, Afshin  (2005) Blind user identification in a chip-synchronous CDMA system.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: User identification provides valuable information about the active users in a Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) system that could be used in numerous applications. Most importantly, it can produce a reliable estimate of multiple access interference, whose cancellation is the main objective of multiuser detection schemes. Several schemes have been introduced for user identification in a synchronous CDMA system. The main distinguishing factor between different user identification schemes is the amount of information about each user required to be available in advance at the receiver. The existing schemes require prior knowledge of users' spreading codes or some other forms of assistance. However, the proposed method does not need the prior knowledge of the spreading codes nor relies on any assistance. Thus, using the scheme proposed in the thesis, one will be able to perform complete blind identification for a group of users. This identification involves determination of the spreading codes of active users and estimation of their relative timings. In this thesis, a scheme for blind identification of users in a chip-synchronous Direct Sequence CDMA (DS-CDMA) system is presented. The proposed approach is based on the subspace decomposition and searches for a solution that minimizes a defined cost function. The search is performed over both signal space and time domain. By completing the identification of the users, other important parameters such as user timings and power can be evaluated. Blind identification of users for an asynchronous CDMA system lends itself to several applications such as CDMA up-links, ad-hoc networking, signal interception and non-intrusive tests.


identifier: Akerib, Vivian  (2004) Age differences in transitive inference : exploring the mechanisms of problem solving.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Transitive inference (TI) is a form of deductive reasoning requiring the ability to infer a serial relationship between two items never explicitly compared. Two studies were conducted to examine age differences in TI reasoning in healthy younger (aged 18-35 years) and older (aged 60+ years) individuals. TI task complexity was manipulated using positive and negative phrasing (e.g., "taller" vs. "not taller"), by increasing the memory load (removing premise sentences while the inference is generated relative to having them remain in view), and by increasing number of premise terms (three, four, and five terms). In both studies, younger adults had higher accuracy than older adults, and the use of five-term premises reduced all participants' accuracy relative to three- and four-terms. Performance for both age groups was better with premises present compared to premises absent or negative phrasing. Reaction time data revealed similar patterns for both age groups, and although premises absent yielded faster responding compared to premises present or negative phrasing, the accuracy data suggested that the TI task was particularly difficult if premises did not remain in view. The relationship between TI performance and neuropsychological measures of executive function, reasoning, and working memory was examined in the second study. In older adults, performance was correlated with verbal reasoning, executive function, and linguistic skill, whereas in younger adults, performance was correlated with working memory and processing speed. Thus, to solve TI tasks, older individuals may rely more on stable resources like verbal reasoning and linguistic skill than on working memory.


identifier: Sen, Debashis  (2005) Unbiased homomorphic system and its application in multiplicative noise reduction.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Noise of a multiplicative nature is encountered in many applications such as coherent imaging, remote sensing and signal processing for communication systems.  This thesis is concerned with the problem of reducing the multiplicative noise corrupting a signal. A generalization of the existing sampled function weighted order (SFWO) filter is proposed by relaxing the symmetry condition for the probability density function (PDF) of the noise to the filter. This generalized SFWO (GSFWO) filter is then used within a homomorphic system to reduce the multiplicative noise. It is shown that the output from such a system is biased, and hence, a suitable bias compensation technique is suggested. An unbiased homomorphic system, whose design is based on the PDF of the corrupting multiplicative noise, is proposed to reduce the noise.  Images and videos generated by coherent imaging systems are always corrupted by speckle, which is a multiplicative noise having a lognormal distribution. A filter called the mean median (MM) filter to reduce additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) is first proposed and this filter is then used within the unbiased homomorphic system to reduce the speckle in images.  Fast filters to reduce AWGN in videos are also proposed in this thesis. Novel techniques for temporal estimation employing a change detection technique to determine the interframe motion are developed for their use in these filters. A new method is proposed to appropriately combine the spatial and spatiotemporal estimates of the original signal in order to obtain the final output. Finally, the MM-filter along with a novel temporal estimation scheme are used within the unbiased homomorphic system to reduce the speckle in videos.  The effectiveness of the various proposed algorithms is demonstrated and compared with that of some of the existing schemes through extensive simulations


identifier: Joshi, Anand  (2005) A nonlinear control design technique for formation flight of a constellation of satellites.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Autonomous control greatly reduces the demand on ground-based resources to keep satellites in a constellation and working reliably, which would be nearly impossible to do without such automation. Linear feedback control is primarily used to counter unexpected small perturbations and to maintain generally sub-optimal trajectories. Linearized approximation of the actual non-linear satellite dynamics cannot predict the "non-local" behavior far from the operating point and certainly not the "global" behavior throughout the state space.  The objective of this thesis is development of a formation control and station keeping control laws for a constellation of satellites in a circular orbit. It is shown that by utilizing feedback linearization or nonlinear compensation techniques, an efficient nonlinear control design strategy may be implemented that leads to solutions valid for larger set point regulation, perturbations and station keeping problems. To assess the quality of the proposed control scheme, its performance is compared with that of linear pole placement controller and a nonlinear controller designed using potential function method in a number of simulation case studies. Advantages and disadvantages of the proposed nonlinear control technique are also presented for formation control and station keeping


identifier: Hossain, Mohammad Lokman  (2005) A usability study of two knowledge acquisition tools.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: In today's world, knowledge-based systems are widely used for both large and small tasks. Acquiring knowledge from domain experts is one of the major bottlenecks in building such systems, and hence, Knowledge Acquisition (KA) tools are given importance. The goal of these tools was to assist the knowledge engineer in eliciting knowledge from domain experts. Until recently, the usage of these tools was limited to people with significant computer expertise. User interface difficulties form one source that prevents people at large from receiving the expected benefits of KA tools. This has prompted the investigation of the usability of two popular knowledge acquisition tools in this thesis.  This thesis focuses on designing and conducting a usability test with two popular KA tools: Protégé2000 and PCPACK4. The purpose of this study is to assess the usability of these two KA tools against a set of criteria, and to provide recommendations for further improvement of these tools or to help in the development of new KA tools. To conduct this usability test, this thesis adopted and modified Hix's methodology for the evaluation of knowledge-acquisition tools. Testing with a small set of end-users revealed several usability issues. Based on these observations recommendations are made in this thesis for further enhancement of usage of KA tools


identifier: Kapila, Kush  (2004) Proteran : animated terrain evolution for visual analysis of protein folding trajectory.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: In the field of bio-informatics, the analysis of voluminous data is becoming increasingly crucial to understanding the underlying biology and answering important questions. Various clustering techniques such as Hierarchical, SOMs, K-means and PCA are being used to cluster gene expression data to find the functions of unknown genes. Even these sophisticated algorithms are futile if the results are not appropriately interpreted, thus visualization techniques play an important role in analyzing data. Similar to clustering of gene expression data is that of clustering the characteristics of protein folding trajectory and a good visualization tool can help visual analysis and can provide faster and deeper insights into the manner in which a protein folds.  With protein characteristics data and specific visualization requirements provided by Dr. Laxmi Parida and Dr. Ruhong Zhou of the Computation Biology Group at the IBM T. J. Watson Research Center, a new 3D visualization technique was designed and developed. This customized technique helps identify the major states a protein folds into through the use of an animated terrain. This technique was implemented as part of the interactive visualization program PROTERAN and tested with the β-Hairpin clustered data provided.


identifier: Parvate-Patil, Girish  (2005) Solenoid operated variable valve timing for internal combustion engines.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: In internal combustion engines, particularly for spark ignition (SI) engines, valve events and their timings put forth a major influence on the engine overall efficiency and its exhaust emissions. By using variable valve timing (VVT) technology it is possible to control the valve lift, phase, and valve timing at any point on the engine map, in order to enhance the engine overall performance.  In this study, effects of variable valve timing strategies on gasoline and diesel engines are discussed and analyzed. Also the static characteristics of a solenoid incorporating a permanent magnet as its core are developed, and validated with experiments. The permanent magnet core solenoid is novel in that a single electromagnet can provide bi-direction motion of the core motion. Its application to VVT can provide infinite position control and timing, force control such as to reduce impact forces, and latching capabilities, providing a novel actuator to the automotive industry


identifier: Tafazoli, Siamak  (2005) On attitude recovery of spacecraft using nonlinear control.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: The general objective of this Ph.D. thesis is to study the dynamics and control of rigid and flexible spacecraft supported by a high-fidelity numerical simulation environment. The attitude control system is one of the critical technology elements, a significant cost driver on most spacecraft programs and hence a key area of study and research. The thesis will focus on the different aspects of the problem including the modeling of flexible dynamics and the design and implementation of a suitable subclass of an attitude control system. We have named this the Attitude Recovery System which would be initiated autonomously in an emergency situation such as a thruster misfire, a micro-meteorite collision, a mechanical wheel malfunction, or any other large disturbing torques. The system proposed could equally well be used in the normal attitude acquisition phase beginning right after the launcher tip-off, which could typically impart unwanted angular body rates to the spacecraft.  The demand for greater attitude pointing precision, attitude maneuvering or recovery with the increased use of lightweight and flexible materials necessitates the consideration of flexible dynamics in the control strategy. These highly nonlinear dynamics which increase the order of the system are extremely difficult to model with high degree of accuracy. A general model for attitude and flexible dynamics for a class of spacecraft is hence derived in detail based on the so-called hybrid coordinates approach. The spacecraft considered has a star topology with a rigid central bus and flexible plate-type appendages. Given that the flexible spacecraft is under-actuated, the input-output feedback linearization technique is specifically used to partition the system into two distinct parts, namely an external linear system and an internal unobservable nonlinear system. A general internal/zero dynamics theorem for a class of nonlinear systems is proved and then applied to a flexible spacecraft which results in a linear asymptotically stable zero dynamics. The overall closed-loop stability of the flexible spacecraft is also analyzed rigorously and shown to be locally asymptotically stable using the Lyapunov theory. The robustness of the controller against modeling and parametric uncertainties is examined through extensive numerical simulations


identifier: Schouela, Daniel A  (2005) The gift and the labor of gratitude : reflections on generativity in adult development.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: This thesis proposes that, following their assumption of those roles and responsibilities they believe will constitute them as independent adults, individuals during adulthood optimally find themselves summoned to recognize their relative lack of self-sufficiency. More specifically, the view articulated here suggests that the psychic work at the heart of adulthood concerns the progressive acknowledgment of temporality and interdependence as fundamental dimensions of human life. The perspective formulated in this study attempts to amplify Erik Erikson's contributions concerning the centrality of intergenerational relations in adult development and his psychodynamic emphasis on the experience and resolution of conflict in personal transformation. In this regard, Erikson's conception of the vital virtue of adulthood---generativity---is considered in relation to the ideas of gift and gratitude and it is posited that the generative capacity to give is dialectically related to the capacity to feel grateful for the gifts one has received. The capacity to gratefully acknowledge that one is and has been the recipient of benefits bestowed by others is taken to be a complex developmental achievement. It requires the recognition that one is situated temporally in a web of interpersonal relations and the simultaneous renunciation of the pursuit of self-sufficiency and invulnerability. In this connection, gratitude, and in turn the capacity to give, are viewed as the fruit of an ongoing labor by way of which persons sustain an awareness of their indebtedness, overcome their sense of inequality in reference to their benefactors, and come to experience themselves as having something of value to transmit to others.


identifier: Tudoroiu, Elena Roxana  (2005) Software process modeling : investigations using the rational unified process.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: The Rational Unified Process emphasizes the adoption of many best practices of modern software development, as a way to reduce the risk inherent in developing software. Three important characteristics such as use-case driven, architecture centric and iterative and incremental approaches make it a unique process that can guide software teams in the development of complex software systems in the fastest way.  The current approach used to model visually the Rational Unified Process is by using mostly activity diagrams, which prove to be deficient in expressing a unified view of roles, activities and artifacts in the same diagram.  We propose the use of Role Activity Diagrams (RAD), and our own extended version, XRAD, for Business Modeling, Requirements, Analysis and Design, Implementation, Test, and Deployment disciplines, as elements of originality of this thesis. We demonstrate through examples that XRAD process modeling result in superior expressive power when compared to the other diagrams that are available in the literature


identifier: Song, Yu  (2005) Efficient mining and maintenance of association rules in large datasets.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Data mining is the exploration and analysis of large quantities of data to discover meaningful patterns and rules. Mining frequent itemsets plays an essential role in many data mining tasks, which attempts to find interesting associations or correlations among a large set of data items. Efficient discovery of frequent large itemsets and its dual problem of mining association rules are well studied and efficient solution techniques have been developed and deployed in data analysis and mining tools. When new transactions are added to the dataset, it is important to maintain such discovered patterns and rules without requiring processing the whole dataset and re-computing from scratch.  In this research, we first focus on the maintenance problem and propose an in-memory technique to identify frequent large itemsets when the data set grows by addition of new transactions. The basic solution idea is to identify and use negative borders for maintenance. We then use this idea and develop a divide-and-conquer technique, based on partitioning , to compute frequent itemsets in large datasets, which do not fit into the main memory. Our experimental results show that the proposed techniques are efficient and scalable.


identifier: Vesia, Michael  (2005) Tracing the form of the post-neorealist city : Rome in the early films of Pier Paolo Pasolini-- Accattone, Mamma Roma, and La ricotta.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: The main purpose of this thesis is to provide a theoretical investigation into how Pier Paolo Pasolini's representations of Rome in Accattone, Mamma Roma , and La ricotta reveal a multi-dimensional relationship between Italian cinema, the national landscape, and urban space. Pasolini's approach to the city in these three films is contextualized here within the aesthetic and ideological evolution of post-World War II Italian cinema, from the years of neorealism (1945-50) to the time of Italy's "economic miracle" (1958-63). Inquiries are also made into the theoretical matrix of Pasolini's literary work (his novels, poetry, and personal writings) as a framework to better understand his artistic approach to Rome and its borgate . This study aims to illustrate how images of the city in his early films reflect key political, cultural, and ideological issues within the changing social context of Italy in the 1950s and 1960s. Some key topics of study include: Rome as a cognitive map revealing the relations/tensions of postwar Italian cultural and intellectual life, namely Gramscian politics vs. consumerism, rural vs. urban; the role of mythology (Christian and Pagan) in Pasolini's vision of the center-periphery dichotomy; Rome's resonance as an ideal urban center through which Pasolini could alter iconic imagery (either religious, painterly, or filmic) to provide a critical perspective on modern Italian society; and the influence of Dante Alighieri's lyrical vision of spiritual salvation in La Divina Commedia (The Divine Comedy) upon Pasolini's depiction of the poverty-stricken borgate of Rome.


identifier: Reibling, Dylan  (2004) "They only see what they want to see" : narrative strategies in films with ontological revelations.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: A number of films in recent years have presented characters whose state of existence is proven--by the end of the film--to be different than what the spectator may have originally assumed. Three films that display this feature-- The Others, The Sixth Sense and Fight Club --disclose the information regarding the characters' ontological status in a single, revelatory moment. This study examines the narrative strategies that these films employ in terms of character presentation and event presentation in order to accomplish these ontological revelations. These tactics of narrative presentation are then compared and analysed in order to find out how they epistemologically position the film spectator.


identifier: Truchon, Karoline  (2005) L'anthropologie qui "laisse des traces" : la photographie comme agent d'empowerment : une ethnographie avec des Innus de Uashat mak Mani-Utenam.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: This thesis demonstrates the parallel histories of photography and anthropology. It explores the different usages of photography on/by/for Aboriginal people. The thesis presents the genesis of what youth from Uashat mak Mani-Utenam called "the photo project", thus illustrating the concepts introduced in this work. More than 30 young people from that Innu community located on the North Shore of Quebec participated in 'commented photography' workshops that I initiated between July 2002 and June 2004. The workshops gradually became intergenerational and intercultural sites of social mobilization and production thanks to the publishing of articles and the creation of an itinerary exhibition.  Two major findings emerged from this photo project and its productions. First, the participants, without denying their daily struggles, put into light that several positive aspects are part of their lives as well. This finding contradicts the fatalist images and discourses frequently circulated by Euro-Canadian and First Nations adults on behalf of Aboriginal youth. Second, in spite of its detractors, photography is capable of social engagement. This is possible, I argue, because of the intrinsic relational dimension of any technical tool. My research suggests that photography can enact expression, social mobilization and production. This tool can potentially act as an agent of empowerment.


identifier: Ingerman, Judith Ellen  (2005) Birthing the anthropologist : first fieldwork in West New Britain.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Going to the field to conduct research has a long tradition of being one of the critical professional markers that distinguishes anthropology from other areas in the social sciences. 'Writing up' the field experience--often months or years after the event--has tended to subsume the process of 'doing' fieldwork, perpetuating an allure of mystique surrounding how fieldworkers are able to attain their data when it is based upon relational interactions.  This thesis is a study of the process of moving through the field to gain both an insight into the Bariai of West New Britain, Papua New Guinea and to reflexively analyze the methodology used to navigate the liminal space of first fieldwork. I argue that first fieldwork serves to birth not only information and knowledge of the field but serves also as the birthing process for the transformation of student to anthropologist. This journey itself may lack a sense of authority required for the later writing up of the findings and therefore, similar to birthing, may also share a need for privileging certain memories and leaving others in the recesses of the mind or the creases of the field note. This thesis demonstrates that the experiential trials and tribulations associated with first fieldwork can be incorporated and enrich the authorial voice required to complete the gauntlet of becoming a true anthropologist.


identifier: Suurtamm, Karen Emily  (2005) The detective, the villain, and the trigger of the lens : the limitations of archival desire in photographic and literary exposures, 1870-1915.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: This thesis examines cultural and literary texts that trouble the status of the camera, the photograph, and the photographer, as they respond to the popularization of photography in Britain, from 1870-1915. More specifically, I locate particular anxieties about the consequences of an unchecked documentary impulse and the expansion of the photographic gaze, both facilitated by an explosion in photographic technologies.  Such an analysis challenges an often-perceived collaboration between realism, positivism, detection, and photography by focusing on three particular eruptions of such discourses: discussions regarding photographic representations of the London poor in the 1870s; Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's short story, "A Scandal in Bohemia", published in 1891; and E. W. Hornung's novel The Camera Fiend , published in 1911. Rather than providing illumination, clarity, proof, or security, these texts articulate the ways that photography can challenge social order, especially when it threatens to expose the previously secure private worlds of the upper classes. The problematization of photography in these texts destabilizes various constructions: the moral authority of the detective, the excitement surrounding photography's 'democratized' gaze, and the limitations of acceptable documentary projects. Finally, I will develop suggestions regarding the ways these texts simultaneously endorse and destabilize the project of literary realism, in their repression of photographic subjectivity and ambivalence with regards to the photographer's capacity and desire to 'capture the real'


identifier: Khalifé, Michelle  (2004) Examining orthogonal concepts-based micro-classifiers and their correlations with noun-phrase coreference chains.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: The classification of a text into a category that corresponds with its content is an important task in Natural Language Processing. As we want to support shallow syntactic techniques, it must be possible to establish this category without a semantic text analysis. We therefore propose a statistical approach featuring a set of categories that cover orthogonal concepts: micro-classifiers. They allow for a robust multi-dimensional and multi-label text classification, which reveals to be beneficial in the context of automatic document summarization. The performance of these micro-classifiers is evaluated for four different cut-off thresholds using measures of precision and recall. Furthermore, we examine noun-phrase coreference chains within documents and attempt to find correlations with single and multi-label categorization. The presence of patterns could suggest better ways to enhance automatic document summarization.


identifier: Rajagopalan, Ramgopal  (2005) Functionality distribution in graphics.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

title: Functionality distribution in graphics

abstract: Traditionally graphics clusters have been employed in real-time visualization of large geometric models (many millions of 3D points). Data parallel approaches have been the obvious choice when it comes to breaking up the computations over multiple processors. In the recent years, programmable graphics processing hardware units enabling a myriad of specialized algorithms to be programmed in the graphics unit have gained widespread acceptance. Today, every processing node in a graphics cluster has two powerful and fully programmable processors; a CPU (Central Processing Unit) and a GPU (Graphics processing unit), providing us with the opportunity of organizing the distribution of graphics computations over a cluster in more specialized ways to suit an application's needs. As part of our research we have studied and explored in detail functionality distribution in large graphics applications. Our thesis is that existing data parallel distribution approaches can be further enhanced by the addition of application specific functionality distribution achieved through suitable programming of the graphics hardware. To demonstrate this, we have chosen the upcoming application domain of point based rendering and implemented a functionality distributed point based rendering pipeline. The performance improvements are impressive. To the best of our knowledge, ours is the first attempt anywhere to devise a functionality distribution scheme for point based rendering and demonstrate the significant performance improvement achieved. We discuss the merits and limitations of such a distribution scheme by comparing it against traditional data parallel and single node schemes.


identifier: Zhang, Hai Ning  (2004) Simplification and refinement of point cloud models.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Point cloud models (PCMs) are 3D point datasets from 3D acquisition device. They are densely sampled from the surfaces of objects. Each point in the PCM consists only of 3D coordinates, sometimes also of normal vector without information of structures, or connectivity. The size of a PCM may be up to several millions. Research reported in this thesis focuses on developing a two-stage technique: to simplify a very dense PCM into compact PCMs according to required compact rate, and on reverse, to refine the compact PCMs at least as dense as or denser than the original.  In stage one, a PCM (only including 3D coordinates), will be simplified into a compact one with an octree and principle component analysis (PCA). From the result of PCA, features of the local surface defined by points in a leaf node can be detected. For a specific feature in a leaf node of the octree, corresponding simplification algorithm is applied to resample points from original one. The points in compact PCM also have information of normal vector and feature . On stage two, a dense PCM is obtained by refining the compact PCM from stage one with the refinement schemes. Finally, in order to check the results of simplification and refinement, we make two comparisons. The first is between compact PCM and the original PCM in order to determine if it is good or bad for a compact PCM to represent the original PCM . The second comparison happens between refined and original PCMs in order to verify how many features are lost during the two stages, and for survived features, how different they are from the ones in the original PCM. For both comparisons, a normalized result is reported.


identifier: Xiao, Jie  (2005) Extending two drawing frameworks to create LaTeX picture environments.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: This thesis presents the detailed review of two graphical drawing frameworks, Graphviz and Drawlets, and the design and implementation to customize the two frameworks into WYSIWYG tools supporting LaTeX picture environment commands. With these tools, graphs can be drawn and manipulated on a GUI, and then saved into a TeX file directly. Both tools support the basic drawing commands, which allow drawing graph or connected graphs be composed of elements such as lines, vector, ellipses, rectangle, and text. Graphviz LaTeX Tool's layout algorithms produce either directed or undirected graphs in a well organized formats, whereas Drawlets LaTeX Tool imposes the constraints to the connecting lines, and still leaves the flexibility to allow drawing any kind of graphs. Graphviz tool provides Menu and Dialog Box driven GUI, and the GUI of Drawlets tool is Toolbar driven.


identifier: Bock, Anja  (2004) Exhibiting trauma : Ydessa Hendeles at the Haus der Kunst in Munich.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: This thesis is an effort to come to terms with the affective and theoretical implications of Ydessa Hendeles' exhibition of contemporary art, documentary photographs and vernacular objects entitled Partners , which was held at the Haus der Kunst in Munich, Germany, November 7 th , 2003 to February 15 th , 2004. It looks at Hendeles' practice as a collector as a means of securing an identity in the wake of the trauma of the Holocaust, the particular performance the exhibition asks the viewer to enact, the multiple ironies that arise throughout the show and their consequences, as well as the show's function as a counter-monument to the Third Reich and a memorial of Pogromnacht . Overall, it is an effort to discern how the exhibition speaks to the issues surrounding the representation of the Holocaust as they pertain to personal and cultural identity and the construction of history.


identifier: Dmytruk, Irmela Agnes  (2004) The manichaean body : Rebecca Belmore's art making in the context of socially responsive activist art.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: This thesis positions Rebecca Belmore's art making as a ritual space of concern for the socially constructed marginalized other. With processes that are as much personal and private as they are political and public, her art production reacts to societal injustices, and aims to expose transgressions and violations, in particular those involving women, the environment, and spirituality, in reference to her Aboriginal identity, thus linking considerations of race, class and gender.  Her performances and installations construct a social sculpture, anchored in the lived body as site of experience, referring both to her own body and to the body politic. With the Manichæan Body as a model for negotiating conflicting dualisms that shape social structures, her works are aesthetic and at the same time ethical strategies for transformation and social change. Conflict and violence as unavoidable realities of personal and political space, can be mediated by opening sites for concern, participation, and engagement, on intra- and interpersonal levels.  Belmore's art making connects her to other activist artists working in the field of socially responsive public art--and in particular Suzanne Lacy--who has addressed issues of social justice and the violation and marginalization of those who are different.


identifier: Zhu, Jianfei  (2004) Efficiently mining frequent itemsets from very large databases.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Efficient algorithms for mining frequent itemsets are crucial for mining association rules and for other data mining tasks. Methods for mining frequent itemsets and for iceberg data cube computation have been implemented using a prefix-tree structure, known as a FP-tree, for storing compressed frequency information. Numerous experimental results have demonstrated that these algorithms perform extremely well. In this thesis we present a novel FP-array technique that greatly reduces the need to traverse FP-trees, thus obtaining significantly improved performance for FP-tree based algorithms. The technique works especially well for sparse datasets. We then present new algorithms for mining all frequent itemsets, maximal frequent itemsets, and closed frequent item-sets. The algorithms use the FP-tree data structure in combination with the FP-array technique efficiently, and incorporate various optimization techniques. In the algorithm for mining maximal frequent itemsets, a variant FP-tree data structure, called a MFI-tree, and an efficient maximality-checking approach are used. Another variant FP-tree data structure, called a CFI-tree, and an efficient closedness-testing approach are also given in the algorithm for mining closed frequent itemsets. Experimental results show that our methods outperform the existing methods in not only the speed of the algorithms, but also their memory consumption and their scalability. We also notice that most algorithms for mining frequent itemsets assume that the main memory is large enough for the data structures used in the mining, and very few efficient algorithms deal with the cases when the database is very large or the minimum support is very low. We thus investigate approaches to mining frequent itemsets when data structures are too large to fit in main memory. Several divide-and-conquer algorithms are presented for mining from disks. Many novel techniques are introduced. Experimental results show that the techniques reduce the required disk accesses by orders of magnitude, and enable truly scalable data mining.


identifier: Zhang, Xiaobing  (2004) A framework for object-relational mapping with an example in C++.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: As the Object-Oriented programming technique becomes more and more popular in contemporary software design, issues related to persistent objects must be addressed. This thesis introduces a framework for Object-Relational Mapping. The framework is intended to simplify the handling of persistent objects in a Relational Database System.  The framework's architecture consists of two layers: an object layer that contains the infrastructure for persistent objects and a storage layer that provides an interface to the Physical Storage System. As contributions, I have introduced my original work including mapping inheritance with inheritance, a particular solution for aggregation and associations mapping, a cache of object references for constructing objects and name conventions for preserving object maps.  The Framework for Object-Relational Mapping is a C++ Framework (a set of Classes). It supports most of relational database systems. Developers can use these classes to obtain abilities about object relational mapping. In this thesis, a teaching assignment planner project is used to test my framework's performance in saving coding work.


identifier: Akbarpour, Behzad  (2005) Modeling and verification of DSP designs in HOL.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: In this thesis we propose a framework for the incorporation of formal methods in the design flow of DSP (Digital Signal Processing) systems in a rigorous way. In the proposed approach we model and verify DSP descriptions at different abstraction levels using higher-order logic based on the HOL (Higher Order Logic) theorem prover. This framework enables the formal verification of DSP designs which in the past could only be done partially using conventional simulation techniques. To this end, we provide a shallow embedding of DSP descriptions in HOL at the floating-point, fixed-point, behavioral, RTL (Register Transfer Level), and netlist gate levels. We make use of existing formalization of floating-point theory in HOL and introduce a parallel one for fixed-point arithmetic. The high ability of abstraction in HOL allows a seamless hierarchical verification encompassing the whole DSP design path, starting from top level floating- and fixed-point algorithmic descriptions down to RTL, and gate level implementations. We illustrate the new verification framework using different case studies such as digital filters and FFT (Fast Fourier Transform) algorithms.


identifier: Chan, Tzu-Hui  (2005) A visual culture approach for teaching meaningful content through art.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: This study is an exploration of approaches to the study of art which focuses on content and creating new levels of meaning. It examines postmodern art education theory and provides examples of practical and specific implementation of these theories. Some of the issues to be addressed are arguments for incorporating an issue-based approach as well as the benefits and limitations of using visual culture in the art classroom. I found successful approaches for teaching students to appreciate art as an important part of learning about life by observing one art teacher at work in her classes. I also interviewed her and her students about her teaching methods. Both her classes and the interviews were video-taped. A condensed video document is provided to support the written thesis.*  *This dissertation is a compound document (contains both a paper copy and a DVD as part of the dissertation). The DVD requires the following system requirements: Windows MediaPlayer or RealPlayer


identifier: Lu, Ying  (2005) Cross-border block share purchases and transfer of corporate governance.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Cross-border block share purchases represent a unique form of corporate restructuring that allow firms to alter the level of shareholder protection, while leaving target firms continuing as a going concern. In this study, I empirically investigate the announcement effects in stock returns and long-term stock market performance for target firms that represent large share acquisitions by foreign companies. In addition, I test the governance transfer hypothesis which states that target firms usually import the higher quality of shareholder protection of foreign acquirers in a more-protective legal system. This study documents the relationships between stock market performance and legal protection of shareholders' rights by employing a sample of cross-country block purchases, including 240 public target firms from 37 countries, spanning the period from January 1990 to December 2000. I find that the announcement returns for target firms are positive, and they are significantly higher for targets acquired by companies coming from countries with higher levels of shareholder protection. Interestingly, in the long run, target firms from countries with poor shareholder protection significantly underperform the benchmark, or the local market index. I do not find evidence of cross-border governance transfer in the long run. This study is the first attempt to document both the announcement effects and long-term stock market performance of cross-country block purchases, which are associated with different legal systems and shareholder protection in target and acquiring firms.


identifier: Huang, Li Ju  (2005) System design and analysis using simulation for hybrid cellular manufacturing systems in labor-intensive industry.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: This research investigates the problems of system design in a hybrid cellular manufacturing (CM) system with loop layout. A hybrid CM system comprises a cellular layout and a functional layout. In labor-intensive industry, the functional layout is organized into production modules. The operator of every module is able to perform different kinds of tasks for one specific function. However, each operator is assigned to only one of the operations. This manufacturing system has emerged due to the high product variety in fashion industry that is usually highly labor-intensive. This study presents a new approach for system design to improve system performance. A three-phased simulation model is derived. The bottleneck machines of a cell are located in the first phase, and the cell workload and system workload are balanced in the second and third phase. Incorporating simulation models and optimum seeking procedure, the appropriate values of controllable parameters are proposed according to the objective of the production. The three-phased method is applied to the hybrid CM system of a footwear factory.


identifier: Wang, Xiaotong  (2005) On the numerical evaluation of optimal variance components estimators in crossed classification credibility.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Credibility theory is a set of quantitative tools which allows insurers to perform prospective experience rating on a risk or group of risks in a heterogeneous portfolio. Credibility theory promotes a mechanism for the implementation of risk management strategies by differentiating between good and poor risks. It is used in the setting of rates for classification systems. Furthermore, application of credibility theory would also help to improve the ability of insurance companies to modify their price structure with the changing economic environment.  Dannenburg [7] introduced a crossed classification credibility (CCC) model applicable to contracts that could be affected by many risk factors, that can not be modeled as nested or hierarchical relationships. In practice, the main problem in crossed classification credibility is the estimation of structure parameters. In a two-way CCC model, these parameters are the collective mean m , the time variance s 2 , and the variance components b (1) , b (2) , and b (12) .  Dannenburg has already proposed estimators of these structure parameters. However, they have no known optimality property except unbiasedness. Goulet [24] proposed minimum variance unbiased (optimal) estimators for the mean and variance components.  This thesis focuses on the implementation of the variance components estimators calculation. Analysis of algorithms and numerical evaluation procedures are studied to achieve computing efficiency. Through a simulation study, optimality of these estimators is then assessed in comparison to estimators proposed by Dannenburg [7]


identifier: Hock, Virginia  (2005) Electrophysiological responses of the L1 and lateral styloconic sensilla sugar-sensitive cells of the spruce budworm Choristoneura fumiferana (Clem.) in response to various carbohydrates.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Spruce budworm larvae have 2 sugar-sensitive cells, one in the lateral styloconic sensillum (LST) of the galea and one in the L1 sensillum of the maxillary palp, indicating the importance of sugars to these insects. Several sugars, such as sucrose and fructose, are important phagostimulants. In fleshflies, two sites are responsible for binding with sugars, a pyranose (P) site that binds pyranose sugars (i.e. glucose), and a furanose (F) site that binds furanose sugars (i.e. fructose). The LST of spruce budworms responds to both pyranose and furanose sugars. In the present study it was found that, unlike the LST, the L1 sensillum in sixth instar larvae does not respond to any of the pyranose sugars tested. Furthermore, the L1 response to sucrose and fructose differed from that of the LST. This indicates that the two sugar-sensitive cells may have differences in the sites (P- and F-) that they possess.


identifier: Chan, Sambath  (2005) The Chinese minority in Cambodia : identity construction and contestation.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: This thesis is an anthropological study to investigate the complex processes of identity construction and contestation among the minority ethnic Chinese in Cambodia during the post Independence period. I call this group Sino-Cambodians. In myriad ways, the Sino-Cambodians have coped as "flexible citizens" (Ong 1999) in response to racist stereotypes, class antagonism, and the communist "fifth wheel" accusations imposed by various government regimes since Cambodia's independence in 1954. Castigated as "others". (i.e. by ethnic Khmers--the dominant ethnic group), envied for their economic wealth, and often branded with unsolicited political motivations, the Sino-Cambodian (Chinese-Cambodians) have nevertheless shown a remarkable ability to adapt, respond, and contest identities that have tended to marginalize them. In this thesis I reveal how the concept of Chinese identity is a racial construction by the ethnic Cambodia majority population, in particular the political elite, for purposes of political control. Moreover, I examine how multiple identities within the Chinese community, reflecting class, ethnic and political differences have contested this type of ethnic labelling, under each political regime and within the current context of globalization.