identifier: Morrice, Elliott  (2017) Validation of the International Reading Speed Texts in a Canadian Sample.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: The English language IReST is a measure of continuous reading, developed and normalized in the United Kingdom (UK) that is used to assess reading speed in normally sighted and visually impaired individuals. However, the IReST is used in rehabilitations settings across North America (NA) to assess reading speed despite not having been validated in an English- speaking NA sample. In addition to not having been validated in NA, the IReST has also not been validated in a sample of individuals with visual impairments; therefore the purpose of this thesis was to validate the English Language IReST in a NA sample, as well as examine the impact of a simulated visual impairment on reading speed on the IReST. As a high proportion of NA is bilingual, this thesis also examined the impact of language background and fluency on the IReST. Finally, as low vision rehabilitation specialists may not have received training on the administration of the IReST, there is the potential for administration errors; thus this thesis also examined the impact of improper administration on reading speeds on the IReST. The results of this the thesis found that: (1) the reading speeds of English-speaking NAs fell outside of the normative values of the UK English IReST; (2) simulated visual impairments significantly reduce reading speeds on the IReST; (3) assessing individuals in their non-dominant, yet fluent language, does not significantly impact reading speeds on the IReST; and (4) improper administration of the IReST significantly reduces measured reading speed on the IReST.


identifier: Aliakbar, Jafarpour  (2017) A Comparative Assessment of Insulated Concrete Wall Technologies and Wood-frame Walls in Residential Buildings: A Multi-Criteria Analysis of Hygrothermal Performance, Cost, and Environmental Footprints.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

type: Thesis NonPeerReviewed

abstract: Utilizing appropriate materials and assemblies in building envelope components could lead to energy savings, increased durability, and sustainability gains. This study aims at providing an integrated assessment framework to compare three different types of exterior wall systems: wood frame, insulated concrete forms (ICFs), and pre-cast insulated concrete panel (PICP). The focus will be on assessing the building envelope performance, cost efficiency, and environmental impacts of these technologies. Such an assessment will influence the decisions on design characteristics of exterior walls as well as the selection of required materials. In doing so, first, the exterior wall technologies will be compared in terms of hygrothermal performance according to ASHREA standards and other relevant literature. Then, a life cost analysis is conducted in order to establish the cost profile of each technology in buildings including capital costs as well as space heating costs over their service life. Finally, we will turn to assessing the environmental footprints of each technology and its components through life cycle assessment (LCA) using Simapro software. The proposed framework incorporates multiple performance assessment criteria including well-being aspects, hygrothermal performance, life cycle assessment (LCA), and life cycle cost (LCC). Using these criteria, a decision making framework is developed to compare and rank the alternative exterior wall technologies, identifying the one that is best suited to particular case study buildings.


identifier: Mercuri, Marisa  (2017) Love at First Touch: Maternal, Paternal, and Infant Touch During Early Triadic and Dyadic Parent-Infant Interactions.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
The parent-infant relationship is the first to develop for the infant, as parents are infants most common and significant social partners. Further, touch represents a critical means of communication between infants and their parents. As such, parent-infant interactions serve as a primary context in which the progression of touch can be studied.
A series of two studies examined the quality and quantity of mothers’, fathers’, and infants’ use of touch during triadic and dyadic parent-infant interactions using longitudinal research designs. The first study (Study 1) investigated mothers’ and fathers’ specific touching behaviours during their very first interaction with their newborn infants, as well as mothers’ and infants’ touching behaviours 3−months later both before and after a perturbed interaction (i.e. the still-face period). The second study (Study 2) investigated how both mothers and infants utilize touch during naturalistic face-to-face interactions from 3- to 5-months, and considered how mothers and infants compare in regards to their use of specific touching behaviours.
	Findings revealed that parents and their infants employ a wide range of touching behaviours over the course of their interactions, as well as the variability in the quantity (frequency, duration) and quality (type) of their touch during the first 5-months of life. Across both studies, infants were observed to employ many of the same types of touch as their mothers, and at frequencies and durations that were comparable to their mothers. As such, infants appear to be competent in their ability to utilize touch to communicate, and also contribute substantially to their interactions through touch.
	Taken together, the present research expanded our knowledge of the progression of parental and infant touch during early parent-infant exchanges and how it changes as a function of the infant’s age and the nature of the interactive context. Results highlighted the importance of investigating touch from multiple parameters and longitudinally. Finally, the results provide a first step in our understanding of how and how much mothers, fathers, and infants use touch to contribute to their social interactions.


identifier: Tavassoli, Abbas  (2017) A Multicriteria Framework for Benchmarking Sustainability Performance of Organizations.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Sustainability involves meeting the needs of present generation without compromising the requirements of future generations. It involves focus on three main pillars: economic, environmental and social for realizing overall performance. Sustainability assessment is very essential for business organizations to improve their competition capacity. Majority of them are moving towards sustainability practices for corporate progress and improving the business appearance for long term effectiveness, thereby receiving economic benefits as well.
In this thesis, we propose a multi-criteria framework for benchmarking sustainability performance of organizations. The indicators for evaluation are obtained using Sustainalytics database. Technique for Order Performance by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) and Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) are used to generate sustainability rankings and determine targets for improvement. The proposed techniques are applied to evaluate performance of 24 companies in two major sectors: manufacturing and service. The selected companies come from the Canadian market. The results of TOPSIS study show manufacturing sector to be doing better than the service sector with average Relative Closeness (Ci) values as 0.5 and 0.36 respectively. The DEA method identified 10 inefficient companies in each sector and provided targets for improvement.
Future work can involve integration of financial Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), cross-sector investigation and involvement of Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) techniques such as Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) for criteria weighting in the proposed study.


identifier: Aloraini, Nouf Saad A.  (2017) Social media in language learning: Perceptions of Saudi students.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
The current literature on students’ perceptions towards the use of Social Media (SM) for language learning reports mixed findings. While some studies indicate learners’ positive perceptions towards using SM for academic purposes (e.g., Bani-Hani et al., 2014; Borau et al., 2009; Cheng, 2012; Lee & Markey, 2014), others suggest that learners’ perceptions might vary as a result of their proficiency in the language (e.g., Gamble & Wilkins, 2014). In addition, there is evidence that suggests students have negative attitudes towards the use of SM for educational purposes (Venkatesh et al., 2016). The current study aims to investigate Saudi students’ attitudes towards the use of SM (WhatsApp, Snapchat, Instagram and Twitter) for learning English as a foreign language.
One hundred adult learners from a university in Saudi Arabia participated in this mixed-methods study, stratified among two proficiency levels: beginners and advanced. Data collection instruments consisted of individual surveys and interviews. A two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) revealed that there are differences between beginner and advanced students in their perceptions of the usefulness of SM applications for language learning, but not in their affective feelings towards SM use outside the classroom, nor their choice of SM application to use for learning. Frequency counts indicated that the groups’ choices of SM varied according to different language purposes and the skills to be learned (e.g., they preferred WhatsApp for communication with family and friends, Twitter for reading, and Snapchat for learning aural skills). Further qualitative analysis revealed advanced learners’ disinclination towards using SM for academic purposes, considering it to be used solely for personal reasons. The research also reports students’ perceived advantages and disadvantages of using these technologies for language learning.


identifier: Bakshi, Mahesh  (2017) Optimal Schedules for Data Gathering in Wireless Sensor Networks.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) are widely used for target monitoring: sensors monitor a set of targets, and forward the collected or aggregated data using multi-hop routing to the same location, called the sink. The resulting communication scheme is called ConvergeCast or Aggregated ConvergeCast.

Several researchers studied the ConvergeCast and the Aggregated ConvergeCast, as to produce the shortest possible schedule that conveys all the packets or a packet aggregation to the sink. Nearly all proposed methods proceed in two steps, first the routing, and then the scheduling of the packets along the routes defined in the first step.

The thesis is organized around four contributions. The first one is an improvement of the previous mathematical models that outputs (minimum-sized) multi-set of transmission configurations (TCs), in which a transmission configuration is defined as a set of links that can transmit concurrently. Our model allows the transmission of several packets per target, in both single-path and multi-path settings; we give two new heuristics for generating new improved transmission configurations. While such models go beyond the routing step, they do not specify an ordering over time of the configurations. Consequently, the second contribution consists of several algorithms, one exact and several heuristics, for ordering the configurations. Our results show that the approach of scheduling when restricted to a tree generated by the first contribution significantly outperforms the ordering of configurations of TC-approach for single-rate, single packet per sensor traffic patterns, but the TC approach gives better results for multi-rate traffic and when there are a large number of packets per sensor.

In the last two contributions, we propose an exact mathematical model that takes care, in a single phase, of the routing and the scheduling, for the ConvergeCast and the aggregated ConvergeCast problem. They both correspond to decomposition models in which not only we generate transmission configurations, but an ordering of them.

We performed extensive simulations on networks with up to 70 sensors for both ConvergeCast and Aggregated ConvergeCast, and compared our one phase results with one of the best heuristics in the literature.


identifier: Xiao, Bo  (2017) Two Dimensional (2D) Visual Tracking in Construction Scenarios.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
The tracking of construction resources (e.g. workforce and equipment) in videos, i.e., two-dimensional (2D) visual tracking, has gained significant interests in the construction industries. There exist lots of research studies that relied on 2D visual tracking methods to support the surveillance of construction productivity, safety, and project progress. However, few efforts have been put on evaluating the accuracy and robustness of these tracking methods in the construction scenarios. Meanwhile, it is noticed that state-of-art tracking methods have not shown reliable performance in tracking articulated equipment, such as excavators, backhoes, and dozers etc.
The main objective of this research is to fill these knowledge gaps. First, a total of fifth (15) 2D visual tracking methods were selected here due to their excellent performances identified in the computer vision field. Then, the methods were tested with twenty (20) videos captured from multiple construction job sites at day and night. The videos contain construction resources, including but not limited to excavators, backhoes, and compactors. Also, they were characterized by the attributes, such as occlusions, scale variation, and background clutter, in order to provide a comprehensive evaluation. The tracking results were evaluated with the sequence overlap score, center error ratio, and tracking length ratio respectively. According to the quantitative comparison of tracking methods, two improvements were further conducted. One is to fuse the tracking results of individual tracking methods based on the non-maximum suppression. The other is to track the articulated equipment by proposing the idea of tracking the equipment parts respectively.
The test results from this research study indicated that 1) the methods built on the local sparse representation were more effective; 2) the generative tracking strategy typically outperformed the discriminative one, when being adopted to track the equipment and workforce in the construction scenarios; 3) the fusion of the results from different tracking methods increased the tracking performance by 10% in accuracy; and 4) the part-based tracking methods improved the tracking performance in both accuracy and robustness, when being used to track the articulated equipment.


identifier: Jafari, Mina  (2017) Assessing the Impact of Sustainable Practices on Organizational Performance.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Over the past few decades, there has been a growing pressure on organizations to be fully responsible for their business operations in order to minimize their environmental impact. These pressures have evolved the green practice adoption procedures that companies are undertaking.
In this thesis, we study the overall impact of adoption of various green practices on firms’ performance outcome. The green practices included in the study are: Internal environmental management, green design and product development, green purchasing and procurement, green distribution, investment recovery, reverse logistics and finally socially sustainable practices. The effectiveness of each of these seven practices is examined against environmental and financial performance of organizations. The influence level of different environmental drivers in form of regulatory pressure and other non-coercive pressures is also investigated.
A survey among 45 Canadian firms is conducted for this purpose. The data obtained is subject to partial least square structural equation modeling using SmartPLS software for performing of statistical analysis. The model results show that internally oriented environmental practices such as internal environmental management and socially sustainable practices impact more the environmental and financial performance of companies than other practices. Furthermore, no significant relationship between product recovery practices and environmental and financial performance was observed.
Keywords: Green supply chain management, environmental performance, green practices, PLS-SEM, survey questionnaire.


identifier: Seys, Wendy  (2017) Voice of Practice: Building Knowledge in Adult Literacy.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: There is no single entry point, body of knowledge, or certification that prepares or qualifies someone to work in the field of adult literacy in the non-formal setting. Practitioners enter the field with a rich variety of education and experience, and cultivate knowledge in their practice; however, this knowledge (and voice) is notably absent from the “official” knowledge. In order to address the identified gap, this exploratory qualitative research study aims to understand the experiences of literacy practitioners who work in the community-based sector in building knowledge for their practice. Further, it aims to explore how the collective knowledge and voice of literacy practitioners can be reflected in the “official” knowledge base, and in the policy-making process. This study is based on narratives from six practitioners who work in the non-formal adult literacy field in Quebec.  The themes that emerged from the interviews speak to community, connection and creativity.  These are key elements to bridging gaps between theory and practice.  Emerging themes from the interviews are presented in detail, and used as the basis for recommendations and future directions.


identifier: MacNeil, Sasha  (2017) High-Frequency Heart Rate Variability Reactivity and Trait Worry Interact to Predict the Development of Sleep Disturbances in Response to a Naturalistic Stressor.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: High-frequency heart rate variability (HF-HRV) reactivity was proposed as a vulnerability factor for stress-induced sleep disturbances. Its effect may be amplified among individuals with high trait worry or sleep reactivity. This study evaluated whether HF-HRV reactivity to a worry induction, sleep reactivity, and trait worry predict increases in sleep disturbances in response to academic stress, a naturalistic stressor. A longitudinal study following 102 undergraduate students during an academic semester with well-defined periods of lower and higher academic stress was conducted. HF-HRV reactivity to a worry induction, trait worry using the Penn State Worry Questionnaire, and sleep reactivity using the Ford Insomnia Stress Reactivity Test were measured during the low stress period. Sleep disturbances using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index were assessed twice during the lower stress period and three times during the higher stress period. Greater reductions in HF-HRV in response to the worry induction predicted increases in sleep disturbances from the lower to the higher academic stress period. Trait worry moderated this association: individuals with both higher trait worry and greater HF-HRV reactivity to worry had larger increases in stress-related sleep disturbances over time, compared to participants with lower trait worry and HF-HRV reactivity. A similar, but marginally significant effect was found for sleep reactivity. This study supports the role of HF-HRV reactivity as a vulnerability factor for stress-induced sleep disturbances. The combination of high trait worry and high HF-HRV reactivity to worry might identify a subgroup of individuals most vulnerable to stress-related sleep disturbances.


identifier: Choubey, Ashutoshkumar  (2017) A tri-state 4 switch bi-directional converter for interfacing super-capacitors to DC nano-grids.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Supercapacitors are energy storage devices that can contribute with a fast varying current for the regulation of DC grids. However, their power electronics interface should present fast dynamic response as well, what is not exactly the case for the conventional 2-switch buck-boost bi-directional DC-DC converter operating with conventional dual-state modulation scheme. Besides, if the DC grid voltage happens to fall below the supercapacitor voltage, the anti-parallel diodes of the converter conduct and one loses control of the current injected into the DC grid. The alternative considered in this thesis is a 4-switch bi-directional DC-DC converter with an intermediate inductor, which allows the implementation of a tri-state logic that eliminates the RHP zero of the transfer function Iout/D, thus allowing the design of a fast acting controller. However it does not provide a solution for the earlier problem of losing control when grid voltage falls below the supercapacitor voltage. One alternative is to use the same 4-switch converter in the buck-boost mode using tri-state logic, which allows the input voltage to be lower or higher than the grid voltage while eliminating the RHP zero at the same time.
This work presents a dynamic model for the 4-switch tri-state converter operating in the boost and buck-boost mode and connected to a droop-controlled DC micro-grid. The tri-state has essentially 3 stages, wherein the Off state length is kept constant. Based on this control approach, there are 2 possible sequences, for which a thorough analysis has been done. Further, the component sizing, selection of various parameters and control loop design for a tri-state system operating with boost mode of operation for higher voltage gain requirement (supercapacitor voltage is significantly lower than DC bus voltage), and with buck-boost mode of operation for low voltage gain requirement (supercapacitor voltage is slightly lower than, equal to or higher than DC bus voltage), is discussed. The simulation result for both modes of operation is presented as well showing an improved performance when compared to the conventional dual-state scheme.
Finally, an experimental implementation of the converter is done and results for the same are provided to verify those described by theoretical analysis as well as simulation results.


identifier: Hillinger, Alexandra  (2017) La production et la réception dans l’Amérique du Nord anglophone des traductions de langue anglaise de romans canadiens-français publiés au XIXe siècle.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: En 1839, Lord Durham affirme que les Canadiens français sont un peuple sans histoire et sans littérature et prône leur assimilation à la langue et la culture anglaises. Le rapport Durham représente une véritable onde de choc dans le Canada français, menant à un essor de la production littéraire. Dans notre thèse, nous avons donc examiné les traductions vers l’anglais de quatre romans publiés à cette période : L’Influence d’un livre de Philippe Aubert de Gaspé (fils) traduit par Claire Rothman; Les Anciens Canadiens de Philippe Aubert de Gaspé (père) traduit par Georgiana Ward Pennée, Sir Charles G. D. Roberts et Jane Brierley; ainsi qu’Angéline de Montbrun et À l’œuvre et à l’épreuve de Laure Conan, traduit par Yves Brunelle et Theresa A. Gettin, respectivement. Premièrement, notre objectif était de retracer le parcours traductionnel de ces œuvres, parfois méconnues. Nous avons donc examiné le rôle joué par les différents traducteurs dans le cheminement des œuvres. Ensuite, nous avons illustré les circonstances dans lesquelles les projets de traduction ont vu le jour et l’impact que les traductions ont eu sur le lectorat anglophone de l’Amérique du Nord. Par conséquent, nous mettons en lumière les contextes de production et de réception des traductions vers l’anglais de ces romans. Deuxièmement, nous avons cherché à analyser le rapport entre « soi » et « autre » qui se dégageait des traductions anglophones des romans. Nous avons regardé si les textes traduits faisaient preuve d’hospitalité langagière à travers une analyse textuelle contrastive des traductions et des versions originales, ainsi que par le biais d’une analyse terminologique de termes décrivant la réalité canadienne-française. Finalement, notre travail contribue à l’élaboration d’une histoire de la traduction littéraire au Canada.


identifier: Xian, Yong Yi  (2017) Streaming Data Algorithm Design for Big Trajectory Data Analysis.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Trajectory streams consist of large volumes of time-stamped spatial data that are constantly generated from diverse and geographically distributed sources. Discovery of traveling patterns on trajectory streams such as gathering and companies needs to process each record when it arrives and correlates across multiple records near real-time. Thus techniques for handling high-speed trajectory streams should scale on distributed cluster computing. The main issues encapsulate three aspects, namely a data model to represent the continuous trajectory data, the parallelism of a discovery algorithm, and end-to-end performance improvement. In this thesis, I propose two parallel discovery methods, namely snapshot model and slot model that each consists of 1) a model of partitioning trajectories sampled on different time intervals; 2) definition on distance measurements of trajectories; and 3) a parallel discovery algorithm. I develop these methods in a stream processing workflow. I evaluate our solution with a public dataset on Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud cluster. From parallelization point of view, I investigate system performance, scalability, stability and pinpoint principle operations that contribute most to the run-time cost of computation and data shuffling. I improve data locality with fine-tuned data partition and data aggregation techniques. I observe that both models can scale on a cluster of nodes as the intensity of trajectory data streams grows. Generally, snapshot model has higher throughput thus lower latency, while slot model produce more accurate trajectory discovery.


identifier: Maneshgar, Behnam ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4984-8339 <https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4984-8339>  (2017) Spatial augmented reality in outdoor areas using long-range vision systems.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Projection mapping [also known as Spatial Augmented Reality] is a well known augmented reality technique which changes the appearance of the physical, real-world environment by projecting media on them. Projection Mapping is currently used in a variety of applications and it is increasingly becoming more popular. In this research, we investigate the use of computer graphics and computer vision techniques that can enable us to create an immersive augmented reality environment in an outdoor setting with large number of participants. Specifically, we address long range projection of stereoscopic media in anaglyph format. This is inexpensive and less intrusive among user immersion technologies, since participants have only to wear low cost anaglyph glasses. Since the projection surface is at a long distance, and is a real world object(s), and there is always ambient lighting, there are many challenges. These include calibration of the cameras and projectors, modeling the projection surface(s) geometry and light behavior and transforming the projection media to compensate for the surface properties. We address these problems and propose an innovative new framework which uses image-based techniques for automatic calibration, geometry and appearance properties capture, and a simulation based technique for creating compensated media. We have implemented our framework and demonstrate its effectiveness through multiple user studies in real world settings.


identifier: Chang, Lily  (2017) The Forever Stories.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

title: The Forever Stories

abstract: The Forever Stories is a collection of seven interconnected short fictions that explore, allegorically, the human ability to make, revise, and remove meaning across time, age, and social, political, religious, and cultural perspectives. Spanning more than a hundred and fifty years, the stories follow different characters interpreting and negotiating the ramifications of a mysterious phenomenon that has allowed sentient beings to live forever. By allowing each narrative to modify and re-contextualize the images, concepts, affects, and events of another, the collection seeks to satirize the idea of a concept, text, or reading as dominant, stable, or monolithic, demonstrate the adaptability and power of stories, and suggest both the fluidity and interconnectivity of experiences. The collection also aims to explore the human need for, vulnerability towards, and resilience against fictions and their harmful and restorative interpretations.


identifier: Farsi, Behrad  (2017) Social Event Organization.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

title: Social Event Organization

abstract:
In recent years, services such as Meetup, Plancast, and Eventbrite have provided platforms for planning and organizing live events. Social event organization (SEO), the problem of finding an assignment of users to events by considering their interests and social connections, is a problem that has received growing attention after being introduced by [24]. Given a weighted bipartite graph specifying the interest of every user in every event, and a social network between the users, the main goal of the SEO problem is to assign users to events so as to maximize a social welfare function, while respecting the minimum and maximum cardinality bounds associated with events.

The problem is shown to be NP-complete, and in fact, hard to approximate [24]. First, we review the previous solutions proposed in [24] and discuss some problems in these algorithms. Then, we propose the Second-Chance Dynamic Greedy (SCDG) and Community-Aware Static Greedy (CASG) algorithms to enhance the quality of the results produced by the existing algorithms. Our experiments using both synthetic and datasets from Meetup and Plancast show that our algorithms obtain a social welfare up to 60% better than that obtained by Phantom-Aware Dynamic Greedy (PADG), the best algorithm in [24].

Second, we propose the personality-oriented objective function that takes into account a user’s willingness participate in large events, or events with unknown people. We adapt PADG, SCDG, and CASG so as to optimize this new objective function. Our experiments show that the personality-oriented version of SCDG improves the social welfare by up to 100% over the adaptation of PADG.


identifier: Ledo, Melissa-Ann  (2017) How can Queering Contribute to Elementary Schoolteachers’ Understanding and Classroom Practice, as They Design and Implement LGBTQ Sensitive Visual Arts Curriculum?  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
As a Design Based Research (DBR) qualitative study, this thesis is positioned at the intersection of the Quebec Visual Arts Education Program and lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and queer (LGBTQ) youth studies. Specifically, it examined the creation process, precisely the design and implementation, of six elementary school teachers’ LGBTQ sensitive Visual Arts Curriculum and their learning, understanding, and practice of Queering. The six teachers work at two elementary schools in Montreal, Quebec: one in Notre-Dame-de-Grace and one in the Plateau Montreal,
including three teachers per school, one per cycle. The research illuminates the issues around their Queering of Elementary Visual Arts pedagogy, through the development and implementation of lessons that were: inclusive of various family constructs, confronting gender
stereotypes, and challenging the ideas around bullying. The study employed DBR combining qualitative data collection (interviews and logs). Keeping in mind queer as strategy, an attitude, and a new understanding (Smith,1996), while celebrating difference and breaking heteronormative binaries, was at the heart of the teacher’s design approach as they created the curriculum. This lead to the creation of a series of lesson plans and a guide of Best Practices to be used when implementing such lesson plans in the Elementary classroom.


identifier: Nettling, Pierson Christopher  (2017) It Took a Tenants' Movement: Tenants and the Making of Habitations Jeanne-Mance (1959-1994).  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: This thesis demonstrates how public housing tenants in Habitations Jeanne-Mance (HJM) used their collective agency to challenge governance power within HJM and Montreal from 1959 to 1994. Written from the perspective of tenants and positioned in relation to urban governance studies on public housing within human geography, which consistently undervalue the agency of tenants to shape or challenge governance structures, this history of the tenants’ movement within HJM critiques this prevailing view in documenting how tenants governed from below in altering the historical trajectory of their housing project. Framing these tenant struggles historically in relation to governance within a from below dialectical approach grounded within a Gramscian reading of “war of position,” I detail how tenants constructed HJM as a space of resistance to elite power and governance. In constructing this space of resistance, I contend the tenants alone fundamentally shaped the history of HJM as a housing project. Situating their movements within the Left and citywide housing movements in Montreal from the 1960s to the 1990s, HJM for tenants from this era also became the modality in which these tenants lived their politics. Incorporating class-based politics within the shifting Quebec nationalist positions into their struggles that shaped the institutions tenants established within HJM and their neighbourhood, the tenants’ movement was sustained by the formation of a white Québécois political bloc within the tenants association. With these foundations, tenants challenged local elite political power over the rental contract in demanding recognition in the 1960s; formed the tenants association in the 1970s; campaigned for tenants’ management in the 1980s; and defeated social mix redevelopment plans in the 1990s. Through these struggles, tenants changed how the political class within Montreal historically understood HJM and culminated in the tenants making HJM a present-day outlier within the postwar era of public housing history in North America.


identifier: Alshahrani, Hassan Abdullah  (2017) Bending Behavior of Textile Thermosetting Composite Prepregs during Forming Processes.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Composite materials are increasingly replacing metals for many modern structures used in the aerospace and automotive industry. Textile composites are favored due to their superior forming capabilities to produce complex shapes. However, the formability of a textile composite is limited by failure modes, such as wrinkling, which remain challenging issues during the forming process. The ability to accurately predict wrinkles and ultimately prevent them during the forming process is highly desirable for process optimization in an industrial environment. The success or failure of composite formation is determined by the properties of the material that is undergoing the deformation. A significant amount of time and effort has been devoted to characterizing and modeling these properties. Therefore, to predict those defects, a thorough understanding of the deformation behavior of textile-woven prepregs is required. Out-of-plane bending is one of the deformation mechanisms that govern the appearance of wrinkles during composite forming. This thesis therefore presents an experimental, theoretical, and numerical study on the out-of-plane bending behavior of woven out-of-autoclave prepregs with application in forming simulations.
Within this thesis, a new test method for characterizing the bending behavior of prepreg materials at forming conditions was developed based on a vertical cantilever test associated with a linear actuator and load cell. This test method allowed for sufficient control of the deflection shape, testing rates, and processing temperatures within the range of the thermosetting resin. Investigations for out-of-plane bending behavior and viscoelastic behavior in the forming process conditions were undertaken using the developed test method. Through the cantilever beam theory, where the prepreg yarn is composed of two external viscoelastic polymer plies with a linear elastic ply, a theoretical model is proposed to estimate the bending stiffness over a range of processing conditions. A new approach for considering the testing rate and temperature with respect to a reference value is also established. Experimental tests were carried out to estimate the model parameters and to validate the proposed model. The predicted bending stiffness was found to be in a good agreement with experimental values at selected conditions. However, there were slight differences due to the complexity of the undulation in the woven fabric structure. Then, a finite element model for the bending behavior of multilayered prepregs was developed by considering the actual bending behavior of the material. The prepreg ply was modeled by incorporating the characterized behavior of intra-ply shear and inter-ply friction. The effect of stacking sequences on out-of-plane bending deformation during the forming process was studied experimentally and numerically. Moreover, the feasibility of using a viscoelastic approach and its application in forming simulations were analyzed.
Finally, a series of real forming experiments using a double diaphragm process were carried out to investigate the formability of textile out-of-autoclave thermoset prepregs over complex geometry for aerospace applications. A one-step procedure was used for both the forming and curing processes using the same experimental setup. A finite element model was developed to simulate the double diaphragm forming process, with consideration for the diaphragm material properties at forming conditions. In addition, important considerations, such as local fiber compressive stresses, shear angle distributions, and stacking lay-up sequences, were analyzed to identify the potential causes of wrinkles in the formed parts. The resulting knowledge from the modeling methodology allowed the designers to reliably choose the appropriate stacking sequences and suitable process parameters for complex structures prior to conducting expensive trial and error tests.


identifier: Kaptsov, Maxim  (2017) An Energy Efficient Optimal Control Framework for General Purpose Flight Management Systems.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Global warming has become one of the biggest environmental issues. To reduce its effect on climate change, the aviation industry is constantly looking for ways to decrease fuel emissions of modern airplanes, either by applying new technologies to existing airplane structures or by increasing the aircraft performance in flight. These measures could reduce significantly the fuel consumption of today’s commercial airplanes. Among other solutions proposed by various engineers, the use of renewable energy sources looks especially promising since electric engines could provide near emission-free propulsion.

This thesis proposes an optimal control framework for flight management systems of turbofan and all-electric aircraft. The optimal control problem of economy mode is solved using Pontryagin’s minimum principle. The economy mode optimization problem corresponds to the minimization of a functional parameterized by a coefficient index that performs a trade-off between the cost of fuel or battery charge and time-related costs. For the turbofan, a sub-optimal numerical solution for the true airspeed of an aircraft flying at cruise altitude is obtained. The speed can be easily computed using fast-converging algorithms such as Newton’s method. For all-electric aircraft, an optimal algebraic solution for the true airspeed during the cruise segment is obtained. Additionally, the maximum endurance and the maximum range are obtained as analytical expressions of the parameters.

Overall, the developments presented in this thesis provide a method to obtain the optimal speed schedules for on-board flight management systems of commercial airplanes and also extend the theory of aircraft performance to the case of electric airplanes.


identifier: Tang, Huayi  (2017) How does the creditor conflict affect bond IPO underpricing?  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: In this paper, we find that the conflict of interest between loan holders and bondholders is positively related to bond IPO underpricing, which serves as compensation to the initial bond investors. We construct four proxies for the conflict between loan holders and bondholders, namely a loan covenant index, the outstanding loan amount, the number of lead banks, and the loan remaining maturity. Our empirical tests show that all four variables are positively related to bond IPO underpricing, indicating that the loan structure of firms has a real impact on the pricing of their bond IPOs.


identifier: Habibi, Rana  (2017) A BIM-based workflow concurrently generating quantitative and qualitative output — a focus on energy performance and architectural representation.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
The integration of quantitative building energy performance simulation with qualitative architecture representational 3D data can facilitate performance-based decision making in the early phase of building design process. However, there are some problems that delay decision making until the late stages of design.
Many interrelated parameters can affect building energy performance. Unlike design options conventionally created based on offered values of ASHRAE 90.1 or NECB, design alternatives with lower energy consumption can be suggested through the configuration of various parameters. A systematic strategy is needed to support performance-based quantitative evaluation. Due to the complexity of integration of interrelated energy simulation parameters with qualitative architecture representations, this approach is not being adequately accomplished in current architecture/energy-performance practices. There is a lack of an effective integrated workflow between architects and engineers to simultaneously represent visual qualitative 3D data related to quantitative energy performance-based data of each design alternative.
In addition, exchanging data between the architectural model and the energy model in large-scale evaluations is a time-consuming and error-prone process. Collaborative platforms are not sufficiently being used in current practices to facilitate geometric and physical data-sharing through a single environment. In this regard, there is no clear integrated design workflow between architectural needs and engineering needs.
The objective of this research is to propose a workflow to facilitate decision-making at the early design phase by automatically generating the quantitative energy performance data and qualitative visual representations of each design alternative, in order that architects and engineers can collaborate within a common platform of communication. This proposed workflow will be implemented through the utilization of a case study, within the collaborative platform of Building Information Modeling (BIM).
Numbers of 1296 quantitative energy-performance results and their related qualitative 3D designs have been generated automatically through the BIM platform. These results support architects and engineers with a variety of “best performance-based design solutions,” while involving them simultaneously in the design process from the early phase without needing to perform the error-prone and time-consuming process of energy model data re-entry.


identifier: Zhou, Xichen  (2017) Automatic 2D to Stereoscopic Video Conversion for 3DTV.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: In this thesis we address the problem of automatically converting a video filmed with a single camera to stereoscopic content tailored for viewing using 3D TVs. We present two techniques: (a) a non-parametric approach which does not require extensive training and produces good results for simple rigid scenes and, (b) a deep learning approach able to handle dynamic changes in the scene. The proposed solutions both include two stages: depth generation and rendering. For the first stage, for the non-parametric approach we utilize an energy-based optimization, and for the deep learning approach a multi-scale convolutional neural network to address the complex problem of depth estimation from a single image. Depth maps are generated based on the input RGB images. We reformulate and simplify the process of generating the virtual camera’s depth map and present how this can be used to render an anaglyph image. Anaglyph stereo was used for demonstration only because of the easy and wide availability of red/cyan glasses however, this does not limit the applicability of the proposed technique to other stereo forms. Finally, we have extensively tested the proposed approaches and present the results.


identifier: Zhang, Siyang  (2017) The effect of particle geometry and surface asperities on the result of Discrete Element Simulations.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
In recent years, analysis of the behavior of brittle materials, such as concrete, rocks or granular materials, is receiving more attention. These brittle materials share common characteristics, which are their high complexity and heterogeneity, especially when they fragment from their original shape into smaller particles. Traditionally, it was common to use continuum methods (like the finite element method) to reproduce the behavior of these materials, even though these methods require complex constitutive models, which contain a lot of parameters and variables. The Discrete Element Method (DEM), originally developed by Cundall and Strack (1979), in contrast to continuum methods, has been proven to be an irreplaceable and powerful tool for conducting analysis and modelling the behavior of granular (spherical) and polyhedral (non-spherical) particle systems, which also focus on micromechanics of soil particle interactions and displacements. Meanwhile, the DEM has been proven to be suitable for analysis of continuum materials and models as well. In addition, there is another method named The Combined Finite-Discrete Element Method (FEM/DEM) (Munjiza, 2004), which is a numerical solution that focuses on the analysis of problems for solids that are considered as both continua and discontinua.
This research will present the basic numerical principles of DEM and FEM/DEM, then by using these methods, the analysis of the influence of the changes of the geometry or asperities of polyhedral granular particles will be investigated. Both the influence on solution time and solution accuracy will be critically reviewed and recommendations will be given for practical use in simulations.


identifier: Munger, Françoise  (2017) Contingent Work: The Experience of Contractors in Learning and Development.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Market globalization and rapid changes in technology have led to an influx of contingent work arrangements in many occupational fields. This research investigates contracting, which is one of the growing contingent work arrangements for knowledge professionals. The study objective is to relate the attitudes and perceptions of contractors regarding satisfaction of work, life, and work-family balance. Sixty-two (62) independent contractors in learning and development across Canada responded to an invitation sent by a professional association in this field and completed the 54-item questionnaire. Learning and development is a broad field that encompasses many distinct roles, including instructional designers, instructors, and facilitators. Respondents assessed variables such as volition or preference to adopt contracting, autonomy of work, market demand, financial security, and feedback from organizations. Hypotheses on correlation between variables and outcomes were confirmed. Factor analysis provided three critical factors that explained 72 percent of the variance in 23 items. These factors are interpreted as (1) Performance Driver, (2) Environmental Enabler; and (3) Financial Stabilizer. Multiple regression provided significance on two outcome items that represent “Ideal Life” and “Fulfillment in Life.” The results suggest that the desire for contract work as well as traits, personal qualities, and life experience of contractors, positively affect the autonomy and uncertainty of the contractors. Organizations providing attractive conditions to contractors will appeal to qualified individuals. Scholars and professional associations play a key role in pursuing the dissemination of new knowledge and have the expertise to foster the success of self-employed professionals.

Keywords: contingent work, non-standard work, contractors, independent contractors, knowledge contractors, Institute of Performance and Learning, IPL, learning and development, instructional design, facilitation.
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                         RÉSUMÉ
Travail non classique: L’expérience des travailleurs autonomes dans le domaine de la formation et du développement des compétences

La mondialisation des marchés et les changements rapides technologiques ont amené une multitude de formes de travail non classiques dans plusieurs domaines professionnels. Cette recherche examine le travail autonome, une des formes de travail atypiques en croissance pour les professionnels du savoir. L’objectif de l’étude est d’établir un rapport entre les attitudes et les perceptions des travailleurs indépendants quant à la satisfaction au travail, satisfaction par rapport à la vie, et la conciliation travail-famille. Soixante-deux (62) travailleurs autonomes dans le domaine de la formation et du développement des compétences à travers le Canada ont répondu à l’invitation expédiée par une association professionnelle reconnue dans ce domaine et rempli le sondage de 54 questions. Le domaine de la formation et du développement des compétences est vaste et il inclut plusieurs rôles différents, y compris concepteurs pédagogiques, instructeurs, et facilitateurs. Les participants évaluaient les variables telles que la préférence d’adopter le travail autonome, l’autonomie au travail, la demande du marché, la sécurité financière, et la rétroaction des organisations. Les hypothèses sur le rapport entre les variables et la satisfaction ont été confirmées. L’analyse factorielle a décelé trois facteurs essentiels qui expliquent 72 pourcent de la variance dans 23 éléments. Ces facteurs sont interprétés comme (1) Moteurs de la réussite, (2) Catalyseurs environnementaux, et (3) Stabilisateurs financiers. La régression multiple a fourni de l’importance à deux éléments de satisfaction représentant « La vie idéale » et « l’Épanouissement dans la vie. » Les résultats suggèrent que le désir de devenir travailleur autonome aussi bien que le caractère de l’individu, les qualités personnelles, et l’expérience des travailleurs ont un effet positif sur l’autonomie et l’incertitude vécu par les travailleurs autonomes. Les organisations qui procurent des modalités attrayantes d’emploi aux travailleurs autonomes attireront des candidats qualifiés. Les universitaires et les associations professionnelles jouent un rôle essentiel dans la poursuite de la diffusion de la connaissance,et ils ont l’expertise pour favoriser la réussite des travailleurs autonomes professionnels.

Mots clés: travail non classique, travail atypique, travailleur autonome, travailleur indépendant, professionnel du savoir, l’Institut pour la performance et l’apprentissage, IPL, formation et développement des compétences, concepteur pédagogique, facilitateur.


identifier: Arsenault, Ashley C. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3105-3143 <https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3105-3143>  (2017) Higgs vacuum stability in Standard Model extensions.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
After 40 years of searching, the Higgs boson was finally found at CERN's Large Hadron Collider in 2012 and weighed in at 125 GeV. However, this small mass gives rise to a vacuum stability problem, namely that the Standard Model Higgs quartic self-coupling becomes negative below the Planck scale, necessitating new physics beyond the Standard Model.

In this thesis, we study four minimal extensions of the Standard Model which solve the Higgs vacuum stability problem by adding a second Higgs-like scalar boson. In addition to the new scalar boson, we study the effects of adding new fermion singlets and doublets. It is shown that while new fermion generations only decrease the Higgs quartic coupling at high energies---only exacerbating the problem---the addition of a new Higgs-like scalar provides a positive contribution which is enough to overcome the vacuum stability limit.

We consider four Standard Model extensions containing different combinations of new fermions with this extended Higgs sector, and identify the allowed masses and mass mixing angles of these hypothetical particles that satisfy the vacuum stability condition. The allowed masses surround the 1 TeV range approximately, explaining why such particles have not yet been found.


identifier: Elsherbini, Yasser Mahmoud Sami Abdelsamea  (2017) Fatigue behavior of carbon/epoxy AFP laminates containing gaps.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Composite materials are widely used in many applications owing to their advantages over conventional ones. Among the different available manufacturing techniques of composites, automated fiber placement (AFP) attracted the attention of many industries due to its speed of material deposition and repeatability in manufacturing. Unfortunately, the occurrence of gaps between material strips during AFP manufacturing process is unavoidable. Even though there have been many studies that focused on the effect of these gaps on the static properties of the AFP laminates, to our knowledge, no work has been performed to test their effect on fatigue behavior.
In this dissertation, the effect of the induced gaps on fatigue performance of carbon/epoxy AFP laminates was investigated both experimentally and numerically. In the experimental part, fatigue tests were conducted on both reference, free from defects laminates, and defective laminates. Then, the fatigue performance of both types was compared and analyzed to obtain the effect of gaps. For better understanding the fatigue behavior of laminates containing gaps, many parameters were taken into consideration such as laminate stacking sequence, gap shape, gap orientation and number of gaps. Based on analyzing the results of fatigue testing of different stacking sequences, a few design recommendations are provided that can enhance the performance of the defective laminates and alleviate the effect of gaps.
In addition, infrared thermography was used as a non-destructive technique for in-situ detection of damage during fatigue loading. In order to examine the nature of the inherent damage within the laminate due to gaps, sectioning and inspection of specimens using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) were performed. The extensive fatigue experiments revealed the existence of a threshold stress value below which the effect of gaps on fatigue performance diminishes. The main drawbacks in obtaining this threshold values using the traditional long fatigue testing method were the large number of specimens and long-time for the fatigue tests.
Consequently, infrared thermography and Risitano method were applied on AFP laminates containing gaps to provide a quick method for obtaining the threshold values. This method has a great potential in saving time and material required for performing traditional fatigue tests to develop stress/life curves. The obtained results of threshold values were in good agreement with the results obtained from the conventional method.
In the numerical part, a fatigue progressive damage model (FPDM) was developed using Ansys Parametric Design Language (APDL) and applied to the case of laminates containing gaps. The progressive damage model presented in this work is an integration of fatigue life model, failure criterion, sudden and gradual degradation of strength/stiffness. The predicted results from the model were compared to the experimental results for different stacking sequences. The model showed a good agreement with the experimental results for the case of unidirectional laminates. For the case of cross-ply laminates more work should be done for better prediction of results due to the complex nature of damage for off-axis laminates. Nevertheless, the model can be helpful in saving time and material in the preliminary design steps to have an idea about the damage behavior and the performance of the designed part.


identifier: Akaber, Parisa  (2017) Towards a Smarter Power Grid: Vulnerability Assessment and Security Metric Deployment.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Smart Grid is considered as one of the most critical cyber-physical infrastructure; leveraging the advanced coupled communication infrastructure, it is designed to address the limitations and drawbacks of the current power grid and offer a more available, reliable, and efficient power delivery system. Despite its promised advantages, coupling a cyber system with the power grid would increase the grid attack surface by adding known cyber vulnerabilities and threats. Furthermore, security solutions proposed for the traditional power system may not be applicable for the smart grid since they do not consider all smart grid added characteristics (e.g., synchronization). Therefore, it is crucial to lay out a study for the smart grid vulnerabilities and propose corresponding security evaluation and mitigation techniques.

In this thesis, our objective is to model the smart grid as a cyber-physical network considering all the characteristics of power and communication networks as well as the interdependencies among their component. We first propose a contingency analysis security evaluation framework for the smart grid considering concurrent failures resulting from malicious compromises. The proposed framework enables the utility to quantify and monitor the criticality level of the system under study from the security perspective, and decide on proper mitigation/protection actions to avoid catastrophic power outages.

Then, we investigated the critical link (power or communication) identification problem in the smart grid. We highlight the importance of considering the interdependencies among the power and communication network components by showing how a single failure in one side of the grid (cyber or physical) could cascade through both sides and disrupt the power delivery service for a large area immediately. We study the minimum number of links whose removal would have the largest impact on the system in terms of unserved load. The result of this study is beneficial for efficient and optimal resource allocation while designing protection mechanisms for the grid.

Finally, we address the power service restoration problem through network reconfiguration in the presence of distributed energy storage systems. Service restoration is a mandatory procedure which should be performed after any failure occurrence in order to increase the consumer satisfaction and decrease the penalty paid by utility. In this chapter, an optimal restoration approach is devised which is a combination of minimizing the restoration time, unserved load, and energy storage usage cost.


identifier: Mia, Md Manik  (2017) Investigation of Load-Slip Behavior and Fatigue Life of Headed Shear Stud Connector.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: The use of composite structures in highway bridges has become a widespread practice and for developing composite action between steel beam and concrete slab, shear connectors are widely used. These shear connectors transfer the longitudinal shear forces developed at the interface between concrete slab and steel beam. Among different types of shear connectors, headed shear stud is most commonly used in practice. The strength and ductility of these connectors greatly influence the capacity of composite structures. In bridges, these shear studs are subjected to rapidly fluctuating stresses which may result in fatigue failure during the lifetime of the structure. Thus, the fatigue resistance of shear studs in composite beams is significant for the safe of whole structure and needs to be well investigated. The aim of this research work is to investigate the load-slip behavior and fatigue life of headed shear studs and assess the strength and fatigue requirements of current Canadian Standard, CSA S6-14. A three-dimensional finite element (FE) model of push out test is developed using commercial software package ABAQUS for predicting both fatigue life and static strength of headed shear studs. The FE model included both geometric and material nonlinearities. For fatigue life prediction both fatigue crack initiation life and crack propagation life are estimated. Excellent correlation against the test results for both fatigue life and static strength of shear stud is found. After validation, an extensive parametric study has been performed to investigate the effects of different parameters on load-slip behavior and fatigue life of shear stud connectors. Results from the FE analysis were also compared with current code of practices, such as European code (EC4), American code (AASHTO LRFD), Canadian code (CSA S6-14). The parametric study showed that both AASHTO and CSA S6-14 usually overestimate the static strength of headed shear stud connectors. The design provisions of European code, EC4 is found to give conservative estimation of shear capacity of headed shear stud. For fatigue life of shear stud a significant underestimation was found in case of AASHTO LRFD, while notable amount of overestimation was observed in case of CSA S6-14 demanding more study in this area. Currently, there is no provision available for fatigue life of shear studs when they are subjected to tension. This research project also examines the applicability of the current Canadian fatigue curves for design of shear studs when they are subjected to tension.


identifier: Zhang, Chun  (2017) Brand Hate.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

title: Brand Hate

abstract: This thesis on brand hate comprises two manuscripts. The first essay: Understand Brand Hate adopts grounded theory method and examines the brand hate construct coherently. Guided by the triangulated method, the depth interviews were carried out among 25 participants across 12 nationalities, and related brand hate documents were collected. Overall, 179 brand hate cases were obtained on 71 brands. Atlas.ti was used to conduct the qualitative analysis. Results present the attributes of brand hate, including associations, antecedents, and consequences. Three different brand hate states are also uncovered in the findings, which are mild brand hate, moderate brand hate, and strong brand hate. Three dimensions of brand hate are also suggested by the findings from essay 1: emotional, cognitive, and physical. In the second essay: Dimensions of Brand Hate: Scale Development and Validation, a comprehensive measurement scale of brand hate is developed based on the work that is done in the first essay. Through a series of Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) and Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA), the second essay develops a nine-factor measurement scale consisting 28 items. More importantly, the essay 2 confirms the observation in essay 1 that brand hate is a multidimensional construct with three dimensions. The nine-factor measurement scale is further validated through testing a group of causal relationships between brand hate and negative word-of-mouth, complaint, protest, and patronage reduction. This work contributes to the understanding of consumer-brand relationship both theoretically and practically.


identifier: Wang, Weichen  (2017) Ambidexterity in the Cellphone Industry: An Empirical Study of Asian Firms.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Leveraging a hybrid research approach between quantitative and qualitative methods, the present research project intended to investigate 1)in the Chinese cellphone market, the difference in level of organizational ambidexterity exhibited by East Asian and Non-East Asian manufacturers, and 2)whether there exists a positive correlation between cellphone manufacturers’ market performance and organizational ambidexterity. This study drew from He & Wong’s (2004) framework of a dual-dimensioned organizational ambidexterity which includes the Balance Dimension (BD) that describes a balanced effort in organizational exploitation and exploration, and the Combined Dimension (CD) that describes the totality of effort devoted to exploitation and exploration activities. The present study proposes a positive correlation in the Chinese cellphone market between a cellphone manufacturer’s sales growth rate and 1a)BD, 1b)CD, and the simultaneous pursuit of 1c)BD & CD. The study also proposes that East Asian firms would exhibit a higher level of organizational ambidexterity in both 2a)BD and 2b)CD based on my discussion of cultural and institutional factors. The analytical results indicated that East Asian cellphone firms indeed demonstrated a higher level of organizational ambidexterity across both dimensions compared to their Non-East Asian counterparts. Mixed findings were obtained concerning organizational ambidexterity’s impact on organizational performance. The results partially supported that BD ambidexterity has a positive correlation with organizational performance. Contrary to expectations, the findings revealed a negative effect of CD ambidexterity on organizational performance. In addition, no significant relationship was detected between the simultaneous pursuit of BD & CD ambidexterity and organizational performance. Overall, the results support Raisch & Birkinshaw’s (2008) findings that the relationship between organizational ambidexterity and organizational performance is complex. The present study contributes to the literature by providing empirical evidence to the presence of a complex relationship between organizational ambidexterity and performance using the BD & CD framework. Discussion of the findings also offers insights into business practices in the consumer electronics industry.

Keywords: organizational ambidexterity, exploration, exploitation, innovation, cellphone, mobile phone, Chinese market, East Asian


identifier: DeCoste, Joseph  (2017) The impact of cyber-attacks on publicly traded companies.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: This thesis explores the financial impact of cyber-attacks on publicly traded companies as determined by equity market investors, and attempts to identify the significant determinants of this impact. A hand collected sample of 313 events is analyzed using an event study methodology. The average (median) cumulative abnormal return when a company experiences a cyber-attack is -0.69% (-0.37%), which translates into an average (median) $134,604,868 ($30,506,757) destruction of firm value. Smaller firms are hit harder than larger firms, and the number of cyber-attacks in a trailing 30-day period is negatively related to average cumulative abnormal returns. Attacks on technology and telecom companies have become less frequent and less damaging, while attacks on Finance and Retail companies have become more frequent. Retail damages have become significantly worse, and Finance companies have experienced some of the most damaging attacks ever revealed. Hacktivism and State Sponsored attacks are relatively inexpensive to firm value over the studied period, as are breaches of proprietary and identity information.


identifier: Sanches, Marlon Fernandes  (2017) Strengthening democracy through citizenship education and participation in times of neoliberal ideology: Searching for an inclusive framework.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: The neoliberal ideology is dramatically changing the field of education. By applying enterprise and market-oriented principles to education, neoliberalism has transformed the relation between students and educators.  Educators see the precarization of their work conditions by increasing accountability because neoliberalism is based on the promise that education can be capitalized and result in better jobs. At the same time, citizens show high dissatisfaction with representative democracy. Citizens do not trust politicians and do not exercise their rights to vote in elections. Frustration with education, work, and focus on individualism and consumerism, lack of collective actions, absence of sense of community and apathy towards politics are all repercussions of neoliberalism. The purpose of this study is to find an inclusive framework that promotes critical citizenship education and participation. By analyzing the Participatory Budget model as it started in Porto Alegre, Brazil, we could see that the more people participate in direct democracy and see the results, the more they want to participate. From a study of the application of the Participatory Budget in schools, we learned that the more people learn how to participate, the more they participate. Through citizenship education and participation in deliberation and decision-making processes, people develop political critical awareness, increased sense of community and emancipation and this is a tremendous antidote to neoliberal policies. The tango between critical citizenship education and participation in deliberation and decision-making processes promotes social justice and develops a strong form of democracy where marginalized voices are heard and the status quo is challenged.


identifier: Galambo, Deema  (2017) The Effect of Cardiolipin on Vascular Smooth Muscle Cell Dedifferentiation, Function, and Mitochondrial Respiration.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: The initial phases of atherosclerosis involve the transition of normal vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) to a synthetic, dedifferentiated phenotype, which can migrate and proliferate. This could potentially obstruct blood flow, which, when destined to the cardiomyocytes, can lead to myocardial infarction. Studies have demonstrated that cardiomyocytes, undergoing apoptosis, release a phospholipid molecule called cardiolipin (CL) into the systemic circulation. The objective of this project was to investigate the impact of cardiolipin on VSMCs, specifically addressing cellular dedifferentiation, migration, proliferation, and whether these modifications are mitochondria-mediated. The effect of CL on aortic contractility was also examined. Using adult mice aortas, we quantified a number of differentiation and dedifferentiation markers (αsmooth actin, calponin1, calpain I, and MMP14), following 48 hours of organ culture with physiological concentrations of CL (1µM and 10 µM) through immunoblotting. These CL concentrations were also used to investigate VSMC migration and proliferation over six days using cell culture, and to study blood vessel contraction following 48 hours of organ culture. Additionally, the acute effects of cardiolipin on VSMC mitochondria were examined through the use of high-resolution respirometry and selected substrate-inhibitor-uncoupler titration protocols. We found that calponin1 protein expression has significantly decreased by CL, while the other proteins remained unaffected. VSMC migration was ceased when treated with CL, while proliferation and contraction seemed unaffected. Mitochondrial respiration was significantly decreased for complex I and III. In conclusion, our results demonstrate that CL significantly reduces VSMC migration, calponin levels, and mitochondrial respiration, which could potentially act as an anti-atherosclerotic factor.


identifier: Perks, M  (2017) Indexing Behaviours Indicative of Ecological Citizenship in Canada.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: The concept of ecological citizenship, a transformative ideology of citizenship whereby citizens are connected through their moral environmental obligations, has been mainly theoretical in nature within contemporary literature. In addition, the literature on pro-environmental behaviours presupposes that individuals face barriers both externally and internally, preventing their participation in these activities. A lack of nationally representative data exists that quantifies the impacts on pro-environmental behaviour participation. This thesis aims to address these three components by applying the theoretical foundation of ecological citizenship to a dataset covering the environmental household behaviours of a sample of Canadian households (N = 22,363) representative of the majority of the Canadian population. The creation of an index of behaviours that could be theoretically associated with ecological citizenship is the primary goal of this thesis. The analysis then examines the index alongside variables that situate both the geographic, socio-economic, and demographic characteristics of these households. Using a combination of multivariate linear and logistic regressions, the impact of these variables will be analyzed to identify the strength and direction of these variables, taking into consideration the effect of all variables at once. Findings suggest that certain variables have a greater impact on the number of behaviours a household can participate in. From these findings, a discussion of how best to address these impacts is explored within the context of our foundation on ecological citizenship and how best to bring this theoretical concept into an applied sphere of thinking.


identifier: Tahseen, Muhammad M.  (2017) Analysis and Design of Reflectarray Antennas for Bandwidth Enhancement, Feed Matching, and Portability.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Reflectarray (RA) antennas are introduced as an alternative to the conventional parabolic reflectors and antenna arrays. The RA provides the advantages of both reflectors and arrays. The narrow bandwidth is one of the distinct disadvantages of RA. The RA bandwidth is primarily limited by two factors, the element bandwidth, and the spatial phase delay. As the RA size is fixed with a proper focal distance, the second factor is hard to be used in the RA bandwidth optimization. It is impossible to design a broadband RA using narrowband elements, so wideband elements are developed in a unit cell of a periodic structure to further provide wider overall antenna bandwidth. In the literature review, 10-15 % RA bandwidth has been observed, which is mainly because of the used narrowband elements.
Several RA antennas operating in the Ka-Band are designed and fabricated to learn an understanding of the RA with wideband characteristics. New wideband elements for linear polarization (LP) and circular polarization (CP) are utilized. A bandwidth of 22 % in LP-RA antennas is achieved using the proposed wideband elements. Over 50 % gain, and 50 % axial ratio bandwidth, and 57-62 % maximum aperture efficiency are experimentally measured for the CP. The effect of the edge diffraction on the phase correction is also investigated. The initial study showed little effect, but the considered RA size is small to highlight this effect. The matching of the feed is deteriorated when placed in front of the reflector. Therefore, few methods are implemented to improve the antenna reflection coefficients. The experimental results show possible improvements.
The proposed work is categorized into three Parts. Part A provides a comprehensive study of the wideband element designs for both LP- and CP-RA. Part B utilizes the wideband elements developed in Part A, in the RA environment and introduces the performance of the antenna. In part C, textile-reflectarray (TRA) is proposed using conductive thread and shielded fabric, which is the first to be considered as a new trend in the field of RA. The element analysis and measurements show promising results. However, when implemented in the RA, the shielded fabric does not perform as expected. This problem is resolved by introducing a dual-sided embroidered reflectarray antenna where a flexible frequency selective surface (FSS) embroidered at the textile material using a conductive thread is used at the back side of the radiating elements replacing the ground plane. The measured results of the first ever built flexible, portable textile-RA show good antenna performance. An FSS based flexible portable and rollable circularly polarized TRA design is also presented using the wideband cross Bowtie elements. The radiating elements are embroidered using conductive thread.
The initial results exhibit good performance of the proposed CP TRA antenna. For RA with small f/D, the spatial delay problem is the main reason for limiting the bandwidth even with wideband RA elements. This issue is solved by introducing a new split aperture into panels that reduce the difference in the path length between the center and those away towards the RA edge. This method shows a significant improvement in the RA bandwidth.


identifier: Atiia, Ali A ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3116-7415 <https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3116-7415>  (2011) DNA Computation of Solutions to Edge-Matching Puzzles.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
The resilient, ancient, and fine-tuned DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) has inspired many
researchers to harness its power for material purposes. In this work, we use synthesized DNA
strands to compute the solution to an instance of edge-matching puzzles (EMP), where the
challenge is to pack a collection of edge-coloured square tiles on a square board such that all
adjacent edges match in colour. We encode tiles with DNA strands and make use of structural,
chemical and enzymatic properties of DNA to effectively carry out a brute-force search of the
solution to the puzzle. The solution ultimately results as a 2-dimensional DNA lattice encoding
the position and orientation of each tile on the solution board. Our approach has been to
represent a tile as the union of two half-tiles. This conceptual representation allows for the use
of a supremely powerful heuristic: polymerase chain reaction (PCR), which can be inserted at
any step of the protocol to selectively amplify certain strands to exponential quantities. Our
abstract formalization of half-tiles and the DNA protocol we use to manipulate them have
relevance in three ways. First, by solving an instance of the (NP-Complete) EMP problem we
make precise characterizations of the processing power of DNA Computing. Second, the 2-
dimensional self-assembly of half-tiles is Turing-complete.
Thirdly, the 2-dimensional self-
assembly of half-tiles can serve as a PCR-powered model for massive nano-scale fabrication of 2-
dimensional DNA nano-shapes.


identifier: St-Pierre, Émile  (2017) Salvage in Yūbari: Machizukuri Against Decline.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Using Anna Tsing‘s (2015) concept of salvage, this thesis examines how machizukuri (town-building) activities salvage the effects of decline in the former mining city of Yūbari into building a rural Japanese town. Rather than evaluating machizukuri activities based on their ability to produce capitalist value, reverse demographic decline, and restore progress, these activities are discussed as projects of salvage concerned with finding value in and caring for places and people left behind by progress. I review the history of teleological projects of progress in Hokkaido to showcase Yūbari‘s historical association with progress, and its subsequent association with economic and demographic decline following the end of the mining industry from the 1950s and its bankruptcy in 2006. I discuss the activities of a local organization and its re-use of a former power plant, using this example to highlight how heritage and pride in local history is salvaged from what would otherwise be ruins. I then use the example of slag heaps to unearth problems with the use of ―nostalgia‖ to describe rural revitalization efforts. Slag heaps are also used to interpret how the emotionally powerful language of the rural hometown is salvaged to showcase Yūbari as a warm, rural Japanese town instead of a declining coal mining city of the colonial frontier. I also consider how the conditions of rural decline can be salvaged to be part of networks of care in Yūbari: better ways of relating might be emerging from the places left behind by growth-driven development.


identifier: Kendall, Sara  (2017) On the Revitalized City, At-Risk Youth, and Other Ways of Telling.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: This thesis builds on my work as an educator in the small city of Hudson, NY. It is focused on two dominant narratives about urban development in our city: the story of revitalization, and the story of risk. I begin by unpacking the celebratory story of Hudson's revitalization, drawing on oral histories to consider all that this story forgets, and the structural factors and conditions that it obscures. I examine the consequences of equating gentrification with economic health, and instead consider how what we call "revitalization" is inextricably bound with deepening inequalities. I then look at the construction of "at risk youth" to understand how our language justifies the erasure and displacement of marginalized communities necessary to this kind of economic development. I consider how young people, and especially youth of color, are imagined as both at risk of failing school, and as risks themselves to the city's growth. I utilize the lens of risk to examine the racial imaginaries that shape how we see and understand space, and the ways that seemingly race-neutral language and landscapes serve to produce and maintain racialized inequity. After examining the context of revitalization and risk in Hudson, I make an argument for the critical role educators can play at the intersection of community organizing, youth work, and urban development. Reflecting on the work of Kite's Nest, a center for liberatory education in Hudson, I consider how we can develop teaching pedagogies that aim not only to transform the experiences of young people, but also the places we live.


identifier: Hashemi, Hoda Sadat  (2017) Ultrasound Elastography: Time Delay Estimation.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: A critical step in quasi-static ultrasound elastography is estimation of time-delay between two frames of Radio-Frequency (RF) data that are obtained while tissue is undergoing deformation. This thesis presents a novel technique for Time-Delay Estimation (TDE) of all samples of RF data simultaneously. A nonlinear cost function that incorporates similarity of RF data intensity and prior information of displacement continuity is formulated. Optimization of this nonlinear function involves searching for TDE of all samples of RF data, rendering the optimization intractable with conventional techniques given that the number of variables can be approximately one million. Therefore, the optimization problem is converted to a sparse linear system of equations, and is solved in real-time using a computationally efficient optimization technique. We call our method GLUE (GLobal Ultrasound Elastography), and compare it to Dynamic Programming Analytic Minimization (DPAM) (Rivaz, Boctor, Choti, & Hager, 2011) and Normalized Cross Correlation (NCC) techniques. We test our method on simulation, phantom, and in-vivo data. The results show that the proposed method outperforms both DPAM and NCC techniques. In another proposed method, we assume tissue deformation can be efficiently approximated by an affine transformation, and hence call our method ATME (Affine Transformation Model Elastography). The affine transformation model is utilized to obtain initial estimates of axial and lateral displacement fields. The nonlinear cost function of GLUE method is used to fine-tune the initial affine deformation field. Results on simulation and RF data we collect from in-vivo patellar tendon and medial collateral ligament (MCL), show that ATME can be used to accurately track tissue displacement.


identifier: Thieblemont, Hélène ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0477-4682 <https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0477-4682>  (2017) Simplified Predictive Control for Load Management: A Self-Learning Approach Applied to Electrically Heated Floor.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
In a cold climate, the electrical power demand for space conditioning during certain periods of the day becomes a critical issue for utility companies from an environmental and financial point of view. Shifting a portion or all of this demand to off-peak periods can reduce peak demand and stress on the electrical grid. One possibility is to use an electrically heated floor as a storage system in residential houses.
To shift a significant part of the consumption while maintaining occupants’ thermal comfort, predictive supervisory control strategies such as Model Predictive Control (MPC) have been developed for forecasting future energy demand. However, MPC requires a building model and an optimization algorithm. Their development is time-consuming, leading to a high implementation cost. This thesis reports the development of a new simplified predictive controller to control an electrically heated floor in order to shift and/or shave the building peak energy demand.
First, a method to model an EHF in TRNSYS was proposed in order to study the potential of using an electrically heated floor (EHF) in terms of load management without predictive control. Some parametric studies on the floor assembly and its impact on the thermal comfort were conducted. Results showed that a complete night-running control strategy cannot maintain an acceptable thermal comfort in all rooms. Therefore, it is required to predict the future demand of the building in order to anticipate the charging/discharging process of the storage system.
Therefore, a simplified self-learning predictive controller was proposed. The function of the proposed simplified predictive controller is to increase the rate of stored energy during off-peak periods and to decrease it during peak periods, while maintaining thermal comfort. To achieve this goal without using a detailed building model, a simplified solar prediction model using available online weather conditions forecast was proposed. The controller approach is based on a learning process; it takes building responses of previous days into consideration. The developed algorithm was applied to a single-storey building with and without basement. Results show a significant decrease in thermal discomfort, average applied powers during peak and mid-peak periods. The approach has also proven to be financially attractive to both supplier and owner.


identifier: Jiang, Feng  (2017) Government Policy, Trade under Oligopolistic Competition and Pollution.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
This thesis is a study on the strategic interactions between governments and firms under pollution. Governments make environmental policies and put them on their domestic firms. Firms decide their outputs and compete in the international market. Pollution are local or transboundary.
First, we discuss governments’ preference when their firms compete Cournot in the international market. Our results suggest that under local pollution governments tend to apply looser environmental policies on their firms which decrease their production costs. However, these polices become more stringent if governments and firms are under transboundary pollution.
Second, we analyze firms’ payoffs in Stackelberg competition and find that under this case, both governments and firms obtain less payoffs than what they can get when firms compete Cournot. This is different from the results that a firm can get more profits as the leader in Stackelberg model than its profits in Cournot model if there is no intervention from governments.
Finally, we discover governments’ and firms’ payoffs by collusion and compare all the possible choices for governments and firms. Our results shows that in the first stage governments choose collude in making environmental policies and in the second stage firms would collude in deciding their outputs.


identifier: Li, Yiran  (2017) Chinese Cross-listing and Dividend Policy: Empirical Evidence on Bonding Theory.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: The purpose of this thesis is to examine the effects of overseas cross-listing on Chinese companies’ dividend policy and to present evidence on the prevalence of the bonding theory. We believe that by cross-listing, Chinese companies bond themselves to a well-developed capital market with a more stringent legislation environment and therefore facilitate the improvement of their corporate governance. We hypothesize that cross-listing has a positive effect on the corporate governance, which results in a higher propensity of dividend payments. We collect data on all dual-listed and multiple-listed Chinese companies listed on the Hong Kong stock exchange, Singapore stock exchange, NYSE, or NASDAQ from 1993 to 2014. We use two samples to conduct the analyses: a full sample covering all cross-listed and non-cross-listed Chinese public firms, and a subsample containing all the cross-listed firms with their propensity score-matched non-cross-listed firms. The results for the full sample indicate more dividends per share, a higher dividend payout ratio, and a higher likelihood to pay cash dividends in cross-listed firms, while the results for the matched sample only suggests a higher dividend payout ratio in cross-listed firms compared to their counterparts. The results also reveal that Chinese cross-listed companies pay more dividends to overseas investors than domestic investors and the issuance of the Corporate Governance Code in 2002 improved corporate governance in Chinese companies.


identifier: Maharaj, Tarran  (2017) Continuing Conversations On The Socio-Pedagogical Role of Food Literacy & Food Kinship: An On-Going Project.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Thesis Abstract:
 “Gandhi had offered a talisman, to recall the face of the poorest, most defenseless person, and ask whether what we are attempting does help touch her life with dignity and worth. If it does, he suggested it must be the right thing to do – in policy and in practice” (excerpt from Rampal & Mander, 2013)
This thesis is about introducing food kinship and redefining food literacy as per my approach. My goal in doing so is to support and give a voice to my fellow co-citizens, who regardless of poverty issues, wish to change their dietary habits and lifestyle, with dignity and worth. Using food literacy and food kinship as core principles, I apply a humanistic, holistic approach with an emphasis on self-reflective and experiential learning, offering empowerment to those who are less fortunate.
Poverty, like hunger, has held a significant and pronounced place in the industrialized society and will continue to do so. In this thesis, I will prove that if food literacy is introduced to those within this group, hunger can be reduced, not eliminated. Due to the inter-disciplinary approach to food systems within this thesis, I can confirm that there is no shortage of food on planet earth, just a lack of food literacy.
Based on my observations at food themed conferences where I have presented, and numerous food related articles that I have read, I must conclude that the targeted audiences are society’s middle to upper class; those in the lower class, which contains many sub categories are socially excluded, rendering them even more vulnerable, invisible and less respected.


identifier: Pauls, Katherine  (2017) Playing in the digital sandbox: An exploration of social play behaviours in Minecraft.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
This qualitative study looks at children’s social play behaviours during online Minecraft play, focusing on the research questions: 1. What types of social behaviours are taking place in
digital play? 2. Do social play behaviours look different in digital play than in Parten’s (1932) foundational study? Through observation of four online play sessions of five participants, ages 7-10, and follow-up interviews, a rich description of social play behaviours was recorded and six play episodes were selected for further analysis. The researcher began by addressing how nonplay behaviours can still be categorized as play in a virtual world. By using Parten’s social play theories as a framework for interpreting what was observed, the researcher was able to give
examples of all six social play categories outlined by Parten (1932): non-play, onlooker, solitary, parallel, associative and cooperative. Four thematic findings emerged: the importance of
communication in a virtual world, rapid transitions during play, YouTube’s influence on onlooker play and the cognitive potential of solitary play. The researcher concluded that with minor adjustments, Parten’s classic categories can be applied to this example of online Minecraft play. This study adds to the small pool of research on social play behaviours during online play
and has implications for teachers, parents and video game designers.


identifier: Ward, Brenna  (2017) When Picture Becomes Place: A Spatial and Temporal Analysis of Nature and Wilderness as Playground and as Resource in the Canadian Nation.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Canada’s identity as a nation is tied to fantasies of nature and wilderness that are historically bound and hegemonically produced while simultaneously experienced on individual levels. This thesis puts forth two case studies for analysis, Riding Mountain National Park and the Columbia Project to argue that within the nation-building project, nature has been staged as both playground and resource. The author examines how this is produced discursively and ideologically on the side of hegemonic production as well as how a sense of place is constructed from close, proximal, relational experiences between individual and place. She takes up affect theory to unsettle the presumably settled. Using an experimental tourism-as-method, the author gathers fragments of experience by drawing from a number of methodologies including discourse analysis, archival work, oral history, and ethnography. Moving experientially through the landscape on an investigative road trip, the author moves concomitantly between a synoptic view and an on-the-ground positionality to unsettle the settled, that is, to reveal the frail ideological, historical, and colonial compositions of these national sites. At stake in this project are themes of resilience, resistance, and reciprocity.