identifier: Saucier, Mylène  (2010) Effects of vertical whole-body vibration parameters on rate of muscle fatigue in submaximal isometric contraction : a pilot study.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Vibration training is a modality used to improve human performance. measured by muscle strength and power via a reflexive muscle contraction called Tonic Vibration Reflex. Reported improvements of this novel training practice are inconsistent which leads to poor understanding of Whole-Body Vibration (WBV) and suggest lack of research supporting the beneficial physiological effects of the modality on the human body. This study examined the effects of vertical vibration parameters (frequency and amplitude) on the rate of muscle fatigue while subjects performed an isometric single leg squat exercise under WBV until exhaustion. Thirty healthy college level athletes volunteered in this study. Three levels of each independent parameter were examined for nine combinations of vibration. Surface electromyographic (SEMG) activity of eight muscles was measured: tibialis anterior, fibularis longus, vastus medialis oblique (VMO), gastrocnemius (medial head), biceps femoris, gluteus medius, rectus abdominis, and erector spinae (L4). Spectral analysis of the integrated EMG (iEMG) was performed to determine the rate of muscle fatigue under each vibration condition. Analysis of variance evaluating the effect of the vibration parameters was performed on the spectral analysis responses with a significance of p {600}0.05. Results found no main effect of any individual vibration parameter or any interaction effect on the rate of muscle fatigue. These findings aid our understanding of vibration parameter effects on the human body. Since vibration training's popularity is still growing, further studies on the matter should be pursued.


identifier: Guo, Pei Fang  (2010) A gaussian mixture-based approach to synthesizing nonlinear feature functions for automated object detection.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

type: Thesis NonPeerReviewed

abstract: Feature design is an important part to identify objects of interest into a known number of categories or classes in object detection. Based on the depth-first search for higher order feature functions, the technique of automated feature synthesis is generally considered to be a process of creating more effective features from raw feature data during the run of the algorithms. This dynamic synthesis of nonlinear feature functions is a challenging problem in object detection. This thesis presents a combinatorial approach of genetic programming and the expectation maximization algorithm (GP-EM) to synthesize nonlinear feature functions automatically in order to solve the given tasks of object detection. The EM algorithm investigates the use of Gaussian mixture which is able to model the behaviour of the training samples during an optimal GP search strategy. Based on the Gaussian probability assumption, the GP-EM method is capable of performing simultaneously dynamic feature synthesis and model-based generalization. The EM part of the approach leads to the application of the maximum likelihood (ML) operation that provides protection against inter-cluster data separation and thus exhibits improved convergence. Additionally, with the GP-EM method, an innovative technique, called the histogram region of interest by thresholds (HROIBT), is introduced for diagnosing protein conformation defects (PCD) from microscopic imagery. The experimental results show that the proposed approach improves the detection accuracy and efficiency of pattern object discovery, as compared to single GP-based feature synthesis methods and also a number of other object detection systems. The GP-EM method projects the hyperspace of the raw data onto lower-dimensional spaces efficiently, resulting in faster computational classification processes.


identifier: Gagnon, Justin  (2010) Bringing up the dead : revisiting the study of suicide in light of the youth problem.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: The study of suicide developed in the nineteenth century with the aim of understanding the phenomenon of suicide. Recently, however, the goal of understanding suicide has largely been abandoned and replaced with approaches concerned with suicide prevention. The emergence of youth suicide within the past few decades demands a return to the project of understanding suicide to make sense of this contemporary change. Research on suicide reveals a division between psychological and sociological approaches, and only a few works have sought to theoretically link them. Prompted by the lack of reconciliation of psychology and sociology, this investigation aims to bridge the gap between these disciplines. This is accomplished through a survey of literature illuminating various perspectives on suicide and a reflection on two approaches to the study of youth suicide that empirically link the individual and collective dimensions of study. The exploration of the convergence between these approaches provides insight into problems pertaining to youths' identity development and into features of contemporary reality.


identifier: Naseri, Ehsanallah  (2010) Cost based rescheduling approach to handle disruptions in flexible manufacturing systems.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Rescheduling is an essential operating task to efficiently tackle uncertainties and unexpected events frequently encountered in today's complex and flexible manufacturing systems. The main purpose of this thesis is to develop a real time reactive scheduling methodology in order to respond to such disturbances and uncertainties in a cost efficient manner. In order to assess the impact of schedule changes, a compound rescheduling cost function is developed based on machine, job, and material related rescheduling activities. A Total Rescheduling (TR) approach based on the Filtered-Beam-Search-heuristic algorithm (FBS) is proposed to generate a prespecified number of cost efficient suboptimal schedules by using the proposed cost function in case of each disruption. Thereafter, the current schedule is replaced by the alternative schedule which causes the minimum rescheduling cost. Responding to each single disruption with TR may cause system nervousness and increase the operational cost. Hence, a partial rescheduling approach is developed by a Modified Filtered-Beam-Search-heuristic algorithm (MFBSR) in order to generate a prespecified number of sub optimal cost-efficient schedules with a lower rescheduling cost and fewer deviations than TR. In order to validate the performance of the proposed methodologies, TR and MFBSR, different case studies and experimental designs have been performed considering various disruption scenarios. The performance of the suggested methods in terms of rescheduling cost, makespan efficiency and stability have been compared with similar rescheduling and repair methods in the literature. The results reveal that the proposed methodologies could be considered as competitive methods in responding to disruptions in flexible manufacturing systems


identifier: Xin, Zhao  (2010) Photosystem II-based biosensor for the detection of explosive compounds.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Research on herbicide biosensors based on plant photosystem II (PS II) or on reaction centers of purple bacteria (BRC) has been on-going for the past decade. Herbicides inhibit functioning of the PS II by competitively binding to the QB plastoquinone binding site. The structural similarity between nitric explosives and nitrophenolic- and atrazine-type herbicides inspired us to explore whether nitric explosives would inhibit photosynthesis via the same mechanism (involving Q B site) as the herbicides. The design of the explosives biosensor was similar to that of the biosensors for herbicides. The detection was achieved by photo-electrochemical methods, employing PS II immobilized on a screen-printed electrode as a part of electrical circuit; optical spectroscopy was used as a supplementary method. We have demonstrated that this electrochemical biosensor is capable of detecting explosives such as picric acid, TNT and tetryl. The magnitude of the peak current induced by illumination depends on the concentration of the explosive in the same manner as in the case of herbicides, which suggests that Q B binding site is indeed involved in the PS II inhibition of the selected explosive compounds. However, the limits of detection for explosives, especially for TNT, appear to be higher (i.e. worse) than for the herbicides. Modeling of photosynthesis inhibitor docking on PS II has also been performed to determine the reasons for poor TNT detection


identifier: Spasic, Ksenija  (2010) Songs of place.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

title: Songs of place

abstract: The poems in this collection centre on travel experiences. The opening section touches on childhood memories, while the closing one considers the speaker's present home. The notions of home and willing displacement from it are present throughout the collection. The "North Bay" and "Echo" sections chart the disintegration of a relationship. The central "Terra Australis" section is a mosaic of Australia; a search for the place even as it is transformed by memory and some fragments are exalted to become emblems of longing. The journey to Australia also gives rise to "Caves," a sequence addressing the legend of the Jenolan Caves' discovery and their continually accumulating strata of myth. The final section, "Verdun," presents diverse views of a home which the speaker struggles to accept as hers; a place that is at once fantastic and mundane.


identifier: Harris, Jesse  (2010) The frequency and distribution of written and spoken anglicisms in two varieties of French.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: This study examines the frequency and distribution of anglicisms in written and spoken French using a corpus of over 100,000 words collected from two reality television shows and from blogs - data representing two varieties of French: Quebecois French (QC), and French from France (FR). The following research questions guided this study: (1) Which variety of French uses a higher total percentage of anglicisms? (2) Which language mode (written or oral) is characterized by a higher frequency of anglicisms? (3) How does the distribution of different anglicism categories (Wholesale, Direct Translations, Hybrids, and French Inventions and Modifications) compare across French language varieties? The results indicate that, overall, anglicisms tend to make up less than one percent of the corpus (0.99%) when using a token analysis, and 2.80% when analyzing anglicism types. Furthermore, of this total, the percentage of tokens/types in FR was 0.94% / 2.80%, while QC totaled 1.03% / 2.80%. Concerning language mode, anglicisms also appear to be equally frequent in the spoken (TV programs) and written (Internet blogs) corpora for both tokens and types. However, when taking language variety into consideration, FR uses a higher percentage of anglicisms in writing, while QC employs more anglicisms in spoken language. Finally, distribution results suggest that while FR and QC share the preference for anglicizing most frequently within the Wholesale and Hybrid categories, the two language varieties differ in the distribution of anglicisms among the Direct. Translation, and French Invention and Modification categories


identifier: Charlebois, Christelle  (2010) Le design d'exposition comme support à la pédagogie de musée : analyse critique des concepts et approches en muséographie.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Ce projet de thèse présente une étude qualitative sur l'usage du design d'exposition comme alternative ou complément aux pratiques éducatives les plus courantes dans les musées, telles le guide ou accompagnateur de visite, l'audio-guide, les catalogues, etc. L'intérêt de cette recherche est de soutenir la réflexion sur l'usage du design en tant qu'agent de communication, réflexion qui se veut d'abord une tentative de rapprochement entre plusieurs domaines: le design, l'éducation muséale, la psychologie cognitive, l'esthétique et la communication. Sous la forme d'une revue synthèse de l'actualité du sujet, nous souhaitons questionner les modes de communication s'adressant plus spécifiquement au visiteur adulte de catégorie grand public. La difficulté de définir avec clarté la valeur éducative du design d'exposition justifie l'orientation méthodologique de notre recherche. Elle consistait principalement à effectuer une revue littéraire en lien avec les domaines impliqués par le sujet d'étude et visait la clarification des nombreux concepts qui s'y rattachent. En portant un regard critique sur les définitions et perspectives théoriques du domaine du design, du design d'exposition, de l'éducation et de la muséologie, notre analyse débouche sur une mise au point des connaissances sur le visiteur de musée en tant qu'apprenant et les limites communicationnelles des pratiques expographiques usuelles. Dans le but d'expliciter les enjeux et solutions existantes aux problèmes de communication étudiés, la recherche conclut en proposant une plus grande considération de l'approche psycho-cognitive du design d'exposition dans les pratiques muséales et d'expérimenter cette solution dans le cadre de futures recherches conduites sur le terrain9780494801642.


identifier: Legge. Laura A.  (2010) The effect of fear of pain on rehabilitation of acute musculoskeletal injury.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: The Fear-Avoidance Model (FAM) is a psychological theory that was created to explain why some patients develop chronic back pain while others do not. However, there is little research on the influence of the FAM and acute extremity injuries. Therefore, the aim of our study was to determine if the FAM is correlated to time to return to play from an acute injury. Twenty six student athletes who had suffered an acute injury that required up to six weeks of rehabilitation volunteered for this study. The FAM, including fear of pain (FPQ-III), kinesiphobia (TSK), fear avoidance (FABQ), and catastrophizing (PCS) was assessed using self-report questionnaires. Physical measures recorded included range of motion (ROM), strength, pain, disability, and evoked tenderness. All measurements were taken within 24 hours of an athlete being injured and every two weeks until the athlete returned to play. Return to play (RTP) was defined as returning to competition or practice in days. No significant correlations were discovered between RTP and the FABQ and the TSK. Moderate correlations were found between the medical pain subscale of the FPQ-III and the magnification subscale of the PCS and RTP -0.372 ( p = 0.061) and 0.370 (p = 0.063) respectively. The FABQ was significantly correlated with many of the physical measures, including disability, pain, and ROM. Although we could not confirm the ability of the FAM to predict the length of rehabilitation following an acute injury, moderate trends were found signifying that the FAM provides an important indicator of physical signs.


identifier: Zamani Fekri, Mohsen  (2010) Hierarchical robust supervisory control of discrete-event systems.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: The problem of Robust Supervisory Control (RSC) of Discrete-Event Systems (DES) is concerned with situations in which the DES plant model has dynamics uncertainty. A main challenge in the development of solutions for supervisory control problems (including RSC) is the issue of complexity of resulting solutions. Hierarchical approaches to supervision have been found to be effective in mitigating the above issue. In hierarchical control, a high-level supervisor designed based on a simplified high-level model of the plant, receives information about important events in the plant and issues high-level supervisory commands. In this thesis, the problem of hierarchical robust supervisory control under partial observation is studied. First, the setup of Zhong-Wonham for hierarchical control is extended to the case of control under partial observation. A Factorization property is derived that the reporting map must satisfy so that the reports sent to the high-level supervisor rely only on the low-level observable sequences. Furthermore, the three properties of Unobservable-and-Unique-Controllability (UUC), Unobservable-and-Uncontrollable-Prefixes-for-Observability (UUPO) and Partially-Observable-Strict-Output-Control-Consistency (PO-SOCC) are introduced and showed to ensure hierarchical consistency. Algorithms for modification of the plant model and reporting map (if necessary) to satisfy the Factorization, UUC, UUPO and PO-SOCC properties have also been developed. Next, the problem of robust supervisory control of a finite family of discrete-event plants is studied. Each plant has a separate closed specification language. A hierarchical solution is developed assuming full observation and then extended to the case of partial observation, following the approach in the thesis for hierarchical control under partial observation. Finally, a case study involving a flexible manufacturing system production line is studied where a machine is prone to failure. Following the approach developed in this thesis, a hierarchical robust supervisory control is designed to solve the control problem.


identifier: Beauregard, Yvan  (2010) A multi-criteria performance study of lean engineering.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: The context of product development (PD) in the aerospace sector is one of intense competitive pressure. To ensure the continued competitiveness of this industrial sector in Canada, enhancing the productivity of PD is an urgent necessity. Key tenets of lean include value, flow and continuous improvement. In the PD context, arguments have been made that lean is not minimizing cost, cycle time or waste, but maximizing value. The research reported in this thesis supports the overarching lean goal of continuously improving the value of information flow in PD by reducing span time. While lean has been used with much success in the manufacturing world, there is an absence of comprehensive models measuring the benefits of lean improvements in PD. The first major contribution to address is the development of a lean engineering multi-criteria performance model. In addition to the lean concept of `one piece flow', notions of economic order and production quantity are used in manufacturing to address the objective of flow improvement, and the related objective of inventory management. Equivalent economic design quantity concepts to address inventory of intellectual work in progress are lacking in PD. Thus, the second contribution of this work is the development of both analytical and experimental models to help ascertain the existence of optimal PD job size. The final contribution of this thesis is the development of lean decision-making models to enable optimal allocation of PD resources, supporting the lean objective of improving the value of information flow


identifier: Chen, Shijing  (2010) Understanding normative influence on green consumption behavior : the moderating role of self-construal and self-regulatory resources.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: The purpose of this paper is to address how and when social influences shape green consumption behaviors. The results of research in social influences on consumer's green consumption behaviors have been mixed. This paper focuses on descriptive normative influences and proposes two moderating factors: self-construal and self-regulatory resources. Past literature has identified these factors as moderators of susceptibility to social influences in different domains. It is expected that people with interdependent (independent) self-construal would be more (less) susceptible to social influence, and self-regulatory resources depletion would render people more susceptible to social influences. Interestingly, the impact of social influences on behavior can be reversed when these two factors are considered together. Contrary to past literature, the results show that independent people are not susceptible to normative influence once they are depleted, yet, interdependent people become more susceptible to normative influence once they are depleted.


identifier: Nguyen Ngoc, Hoang  (2010) Competitiveness assessment model for construction companies.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: The Construction industry is facing an enormous number of challenges due to continuous advancements in construction technologies and techniques. Consequently construction management theories have to confront critical newly issues concerning market globalization and construction innovations. The key factor to address these challenges is to improve the competitive abilities of the competing construction firms. Literature reports that existing competitive practices for construction companies do not fully address the recent industry problems or consider the available technologies and challenges. Therefore, this research proposes a competitive assessment model with a wide range of essential factors and attributes that covers broad aspects of the present competitive market. Four new pillars (4P) for competitiveness assessment are proposed for construction firms: (1) Organization Performance, (2) Project Performance, (3) Environment and Client, and (4) Innovation and Development. These pillars have the potential to assist construction firms manage not only short term strategic plans but also long term ones. Based on the 4P concept, 21 factors and 80 criteria are defined and incorporated in the proposed company competitiveness assessment model. A questionnaire survey is conducted in the Canadian and Vietnamese market in order to collect 2 main sets of information. The first set includes pair wise comparison feedback regarding the relative importance of each factor, while the other set collects utility scores concerning their impacts. Based on the collected data, the AHP technique is used to calculate the factors' relative weight. In addition, the utility functions are developed in order to build the competitiveness assessment model using multi-attribute utility theory (MAUT). The developed MAUT model is tested via three case studies in which the results show that the model has a potential to demonstrate a detailed performance analysis pertaining to the competitive ability of any given construction firm.


identifier: Nurujjaman, Mohammad  (2010) How far can we go with OBS networks.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

title: How far can we go with OBS networks

abstract: Optical Burst Switching (OBS) was proposed ten years ago as an alternative switching paradigm in order to overcome some of the drawbacks of Optical Circuit Switching (OCS). While OBS is no more necessarily perceived as a competitor to OCS, but more of a more adapted switching for networks with bursty and highly dynamic traffic, there is still a debate around OBS, i.e., how far an OBS network can go in terms of throughput with no or limited burst losses. This thesis attempts to answer this question by investigating how to devise an upper bound on the throughput of an OBS network, assuming no recourse to electrical buffering is made at any intermediate node. We investigate both the burst scheduling and routing issues, with a larger focus on routing in three directions: (i) exploration of weighted k -shortest paths, (ii) revisiting load balancing, (iii) examining tree decomposition. Simulations have been conducted to compare and evaluate each of the new ideas with adapted (with respect to throughput upper bounding) previously proposed routing algorithms on different network and traffic instances. A comparison of the best upper bound with lower bounds obtained under various assumptions is presented


identifier: Pikula, Magdalena  (2010) Earnings management as predictor of acquisition probability.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: There are many reasons why firms choose to manage earnings. Planning to acquire another company may be one of them. This paper tests the hypothesis that the probability of making an acquisition is positively related to a firm's level of earnings management, as proxied by current and total discretionary accruals. We also test the hypothesis that the level of discretionary accruals helps to predict the type of target to be acquired. We expect that firms planning to acquire a target in an emerging market would manage earnings more than a firm making an acquisition in a developed market. Firms financing their acquisitions with shares are also expected to have a high level of earnings management. The results support the hypothesis that the level of earnings management does indeed help predict the likelihood of making an acquisition, and that acquirers manage earnings to a higher degree than do nonacquirers. Acquirers paying with shares have highest discretionary accruals. In contrast to our second hypothesis, we find that acquirers of US firms have the highest discretionary accruals. Finally, firms acquiring targets from emerging economies earn highest abnormal returns around the time the acquisitions are announced


identifier: Hul, Sokunthear  (2010) A yeast two-hybrid screen identifies a novel interactor of the TRAPP sunbunit sedlin.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Sedlin is implicated in a diverse set of cellular roles that include membrane trafficking and gene regulation. Mutations in sedlin lead to a skeletal disorder called SEDT. However, a complete understanding of the function(s) of sedlin remains elusive. Sedlin is one component of a large heteromeric complex called TRAPP ( tra nsport p rotein p article) that is involved in membrane traffic between the endoplasmic reticulum and the Golgi. To begin to characterize the function of sedlin a yeast two-hybrid (Y2H) screen was performed. This screen identified a novel sedlin interactor called SPATA4. The interaction was confirmed both in vitro , using an MBP-pulldown assay, and in vivo , using coimmunoprecipitation. A gel filtration experiment showed that SPATA4 co-fractionates with the TRAPP complex, a result that was supported by in vitro work. Since SPATA4 was originally identified as a protein involved in spermatogenesis, the interaction between TRAPP and SPATA4 may suggest a specialized role for TRAPP and/or TRAPP isocomplexes in spermatogenesis. Alternatively, SPATA4 may play a previously unreported role in membrane traffic. A bioinformatic analysis of SPATA4 revealed a domain found in another potential sedlin-interactor called SPEF1. A portion of this domain is known to mediate interaction with microtubules. Taken together, the SPATA4- TRAPP interaction may link the TRAPP vesicle tethering complex to the cytoskeleton which transports Golgi-destined vesicles


identifier: Eftekhari Hesari, Mohsen  (2010) Load balancing in multi-hop wireless ad hoc networks.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: In this thesis we study the load distribution and load balancing problem in wireless ad hoc networks. Using a discrete unit disk graph model of the network, we analyze the distribution of load induced by greedy routing in the network with an all-to-all communication pattern between the nodes. We derive an estimate for average load of the nodes in the network. We also calculate the expected load of a node as a function of its geometric coordinates in the network. We express the actual load of a node in the network as a random variable and obtain the parameters of this random variable. Using this random variable we derive an estimate for the maximum load of the nodes in the network. Our result is more accurate than previous studies which were based on a continuous model of the network. We analyze how different parameters of the network, i.e., number of nodes, transmission range, and different routing algorithms can affect the parameters of the load distribution. We give a technique to reduce the variance of the load distribution, and hence decrease the maximum load of the nodes in the network. Our technique can be combined with any location-based routing algorithm. We also introduce a class of algorithms that improve the maximum expected load of nodes in the network. Experimental results show that our algorithms outperform other existing algorithms in reducing the maximum load of the network


identifier: Levesque, Kyle  (2010) How do children process words in stories? differential semantic and perceptual processing of words read in context and isolation.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Many researchers have endeavoured to clarify whether children are more successful when learning words in context or in isolation. However, the cognitive processes elicited during contextual and isolated-word reading have yet to be examined in children. The current study investigated whether semantic and perceptual processes are differentially activated when words are read in context and isolation. Twenty-two younger children (7- 9 years old), 21 older children (11 -13 years old), and 24 undergraduates (18 - 35 years old) were exposed to a total of 20 target words: 10 words were read in a story (context) and 10 different words were read in a list (isolation). Participants then completed a surprise explicit recall task as a gauge of semantic processing and an implicit word stem-completion task as a gauge of perceptual processing. Words read in isolation were both explicitly recalled and used on the implicit word-stem task to a greater extent than words read in context. The results are discussed in terms of their relation to semantic and perceptual processes.


identifier: Hossain, Md Shakhawat  (2010) Microfluidic-microstructure interaction study under oscillating flows : design, modeling, testing and verifications.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: In microsystem applications, many MEMS devices are submerged in fluid and their responses and performances are directly influenced by the microfluid-microstructure interactions. Recent developments in microfluidic devices such as micro pumps, micro valves, micro viscometer, biomedical related micro fluidic chips, have necessitated investigations on fluid-structure interactions at the micro levels. A microcantilever submerged in microfluidic channel forms the simplest model for such investigations. The study of such interactions however necessitates systematic developments in suitable experimental methods. In this dissertation, a polymer base micro-fabrication process called "soft-lithography" is adopted to fabricate microcantilever integrated microfluidic channels. An experimental setup is designed to characterize the dynamic behavior of the submerged microcantilever using a new method called DVIP (Deflection using Video Image Processing) method. The DVIP method is used to estimate the deflection or dynamic responses of microcantilever under different flow conditions. The flow behaviors could also be characterized from the response of the microcantilever. A finite element model of the microstructure is developed and results obtained from this model are validated using the experimental results. The finite element model also provides considerable potential to investigate the influence of fluid viscosity on the dynamic responses of the microcantilever. A microcantilever integrated within the microfluidic chip was subsequently tested in the laboratory with fluids of different viscosities. The results obtained are analyzed and discussed in the context of an application development such as a viscometer. An effort is made to visualize the flows near the cantilever tip using the fluids mixed with fluorescent particles. The DVIP method is further extended to estimate the full cantilever beam deflection, which can be applied for determining the mode of vibration. Finally, it is established that the DVIP method is a reliable approach to estimate the dynamic deflections of a microcantilever subject to fluid forces. The concept of the micro viscometer that is developed in the current study can be miniaturized by integrating a miniature camera and an integrated circuit within the microfluidic chip. The current study, however, is limited to square cross-section microfluidic chip, while the proposed methodology would be applicable to study the responses of the microcantilever integrated within channels of different cross-sections. The DVIP method also offers considerable potential to characterize nano-electromechanical devices by integrating a more efficient and faster camera


identifier: Maasouman, Mohammad Ali  (2014) Development of Lean Maturity Model for Operational Level Planning.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
The purpose of this thesis is to develop a visual, data-driven operational lean maturity model (LMM). The model intends to assess the level of lean maturity and the lean effectiveness in different axes of production cells (PCs).

Lean is a transformation journey, in which, change management and organizational culture are critical elements of successful implementation. Diverse maturity and assessment models have been developed to evaluate and lead the organizational transformation toward leanness. The main goal of lean is to create more value for the customers by removing wastes. Despite the important role of PCs in creating value, the transformation principles in the operational level have not been considered as deserved. Moreover, the research on lean assessments has used either inputs (tools and processes) or outputs (performance) to evaluate leanness. However, to evaluate the effectiveness of lean practices, both groups of indicators should be measured separately but analyzed together.

Considering the mentioned gaps, the findings of a thorough literature review on lean principles, tools, metrics and assessment models were synthesized to develop LMM for PCs through four stages: defining maturity levels; defining lean axes; suggesting main control items and performance measures; and suggesting enablers. A case study is carried out for gathering data of analysis and explanatory study of results. The qualitative and quantitative data on lean capability and performance results of two PCs was collected through direct observation and audit. To quantify the qualitative indicators of leanness, a scoring system is used based on the major and minor non-conformance items. Minimum of fuzzy membership value is selected to calculate the overall performance of each lean axis. Then, the results of leanness are compared with the performance of PCs to find the gaps between requirements of leanness and results of their practices, and to fill that gap by focusing on the areas of strength and those needing improvement.

Results of the case study show that the developed model can be successfully used to measure both leanness and lean effectiveness through assessment of lean-performance. The model can be applied by practitioners as a framework to design and develop a company-specific LMM.


identifier: McManus, Karla  (2014) Eco-Photography: Picturing the Global Environmental Imaginary in Space and Time.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Engaging with art historical, visual cultural, and ecocritical analysis, this thesis asks the question: why has the environment-in-crisis become a central focus in contemporary photography? 'Eco-photography' visualizes the global environmental imaginary, both representing and contributing to the planetary awareness of environmental risk. Defining eco-photography as a category of images that participates in critical ecological and environmentalist practices by maintaining the ideal of an earth in 'balance', I reveal the conceptual underpinnings of this body of images as a continually shifting set of social values and relations.

In Part I, I frame this category of eco-photography as a communicative genre that reflects and contributes to environmental discourse in public cultural spheres. The photographs I analyse employ realism as a rhetorical and aesthetic approach to envision the environmental imaginary in a direct and naturalizing manner. As such, eco-photography requires careful reading to understand how such images communicate, and especially the rhetorical, visual, and affective strategies that they employ.

Part II focuses on the temporal dissonance of eco-photography and the problem of expressing concern for the future using a medium that is bounded in time. I argue that eco-photography is best understood as a mode of temporal slippage that offers valuable insights into environmental concerns as they are evolving. Looking at examples of repeat photography, I analyse the discourse of objectivity and witnessing in eco-photography. Nuclear photography is considered in this section for its impact on our global sense of anxiety for the future. Eco-photography is seen to be a source of hope as it records for the future images of a world at risk.

Part III explores the deterritorializing impact of images and considers how the circulation of eco-photography is contributing to a sense of global cultural dislocation through the representation of local and global environmental justice issues. This section asks the question: how can photography help to visualize the complexity of humanity's relationship to the planet? I conclude by considering whether the cosmopolitan notion of a global citizenry of photography can be a positive force for promoting environmental change.


identifier: Rowley, Marc  (2014) Lire Twitter.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

title: Lire Twitter

abstract:
Il s’est dit beaucoup de choses du réseau socionumérique Twitter depuis sa création en 2006.
Plusieurs sociologues, chercheurs et théoriciens suggèrent que cette application web représente
un dispositif permettant aux utilisateurs la constitution de réseaux de liens faibles activables,
l’accumulation de capital social et le maintien d’un contact avec leurs amis et leurs proches.
Cependant, aux propos tenus et aux histoires racontées en apparente sincérité s’opposent des
contradictions volontaires, des incohérences assumées et des fictions ouvertement fantaisistes :
comprendre la signification qui émerge de la rencontre de ces discours hétérogènes devient dès
lors une tâche quasiment impossible.

Dans ce contexte, nous allons analyser quelques-uns de ces discours ludiques ou ironiques (p. ex.,
le bashtagging ou les avatars créés au nom d’objets inanimés) en adoptant la perspective du
simple lecteur, ce qui permettra une compréhension plus juste de l’impact sémantique du texte
twittéraire ainsi constitué, texte qui mettrait en scène des avatars au nom de vraies personnes dont
des personnages publics et célèbres, mais aussi de personnages fictifs, imaginaires ou décédés. À
travers cette lecture, accompagnée d’un examen de certains textes littéraires dont les visées
résonnent avec la contrainte et la potentialité inhérentes au texte de Twitter (p. ex., les
expériences de l’OuLiPo, la forme du haïku, @Pentametron), nous allons comprendre, en
convoquant les travaux de Mikhaïl Bakhtine sur la forme romanesque, que : « c’est précisément
la diversité des langages, et non l’unité d’un langage commun normatif, qui apparaît comme la
base du style ».

Dans un dernier temps, nous allons considérer la possibilité qu’il se déploie une démarche
artistique claire et cohérente dans certaines de ces pratiques, (p. ex., Weird Twitter), démarche qui
ferait écho à celle des mouvements anti-corporatistes, anticapitalistes, anti-commerciaux, bref,
des mouvements s’opposant entre autres à l’ordre dominant du discours médiatique
contemporain. En conclusion, le mémoire considérera les tendances globales dans l’évolution des
dispositifs et des normes médiatiques depuis le début du 20e siècle pour constater que Twitter
n’est qu’une étape dans un long processus d’évolution qui se poursuit.


identifier: McDonald, Eric  (2014) Development and Testing of a Virtual Flow Meter for Use in Ongoing Commissioning of Commercial and Institutional Buildings.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Ongoing commissioning of commercial and institutional buildings relies on the available trend data from a building automation systems (BAS) to be able to monitor the buildings energy performance using developed tools. However, it is often that the BAS has no information of the chilled and condenser water flow rates that pass through the evaporator and condenser, respectively, of a chiller.
This thesis proposes a virtual flow meter (VFM) to estimate the chilled and condenser water mass flow rates. The virtual flow meter uses a thermodynamic analysis of a chiller under six different scenarios of available sensors from a BAS with some manufacturer data to fill the gaps left by the missing sensors.
This thesis presents the use of the VFM in three case studies to estimate the chilled and condenser water mass flow rates. The evaluation of the accuracy of the VFM model is performed using an uncertainty analysis, statistical indices (CV-RMSE, NMBE) and a paired difference statistical hypothesis test to provide insight into the limits of CV-RMSE and NMBE that determine an acceptable model. Then, the estimates from the VFM are used to estimate the virtual coefficient of performance of the chiller and the cooling plant for use with developed ongoing commissioning methods of cooling plants.
This thesis presents the development of a graphical user interface for the VFM model and the sensitivity of the virtual flow meter to it inputs is discussed to aid the user in achieving accurate results.


identifier: Bhabak, Puspal  (2014) Approximation Algorithms for Broadcasting in Simple Graphs with Intersecting Cycles.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Broadcasting is an information dissemination problem in a connected network in which one node, called the originator, must distribute a message to all other nodes
by placing a series of calls along the communication lines of the network. Every time the informed nodes aid the originator in distributing the message. Finding the
minimum broadcast time of any vertex in an arbitrary graph is NP-Complete. The problem remains NP-Complete even for planar graphs of degree 3 and for a graph
whose vertex set can be partitioned into a clique and an independent set. The best theoretical upper bound gives logarithmic approximation. It has been shown that
the broadcasting problem is NP-Hard to approximate within a factor of 3-ɛ. The polynomial time solvability is shown only for tree-like graphs; trees, unicyclic graphs,
tree of cycles, necklace graphs and some graphs where the underlying graph is a clique; such as fully connected trees and tree of cliques. In this thesis we study the
broadcast problem in different classes of graphs where cycles intersect in at least one vertex. First we consider broadcasting in a simple graph where several cycles have common paths and two intersecting vertices, called a k-path graph. We present a constant approximation algorithm to find the broadcast time of an arbitrary k-path graph. We also study the broadcast problem in a simple cactus graph called k-cycle
graph where several cycles of arbitrary lengths are connected by a central vertex on one end. We design a constant approximation algorithm to find the broadcast time of an arbitrary k-cycle graph.
  Next we study the broadcast problem in a hypercube of trees for which we present a 2-approximation algorithm for any originator. We provide a linear algorithm to
find the broadcast time in hypercube of trees with one tree. We extend the result for any arbitrary graph whose nodes contain trees and design a linear time constant approximation algorithm where the broadcast scheme in the arbitrary graph is already known.
   In Chapter 6 we study broadcasting in Harary graph for which we present an additive approximation which gives 2-approximation in the worst case to find the broadcast time in an arbitrary Harary graph. Next for even values of n, we introduce a new graph, called modified-Harary graph and present a 1-additive approximation
algorithm to find the broadcast time. We also show that a modified-Harary graph is a broadcast graph when k is logarithmic of n.
  Finally we consider a diameter broadcast problem where we obtain a lower bound on the broadcast time of the graph which has at least (d+k-1 choose d) + 1 vertices that are at a distance d from the originator, where k >= 1.


identifier: Keshmiri, Mohammad  (2014) Image Based Visual Servoing Using Trajectory Planning and Augmented Visual Servoing Controller.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Robots and automation manufacturing machineries have become an inseparable part of industry, nowadays. However, robotic systems are generally limited to operate in highly structured environments. Although, sensors such as laser tracker, indoor GPS, 3D metrology and tracking systems are used for positioning and tracking in manufacturing and assembly tasks, these devices are highly limited to the working environment and the speed of operation and they are generally very expensive. Thus, integration of vision sensors with robotic systems and generally visual servoing system allows the robots to work in unstructured spaces, by producing non-contact measurements of the working area. However, projecting a 3D space into a 2D space, which happens in the camera, causes the loss of one dimension data. This initiates the challenges in vision based control. Moreover, the nonlinearities and complex structure of a manipulator robot make the problem more challenging. This project aims to develop new reliable visual servoing methods that allow its use in real robotic tasks.

The main contributions of this project are in two parts; the visual servoing controller and trajectory planning algorithm. In the first part of the project, a new image based visual servoing controller called Augmented Image Based Visual Servoing (AIBVS) is presented. A proportional derivative (PD) controller is developed to generate acceleration as the controlling command of the robot. The stability analysis of the controller is conducted using Lyapanov theory. The developed controller has been tested on a 6 DOF Denso robot. The experimental results on point features and image moment features demonstrate the performance of the proposed AIBVS. Experimental results show that a damped response could be achieved using a PD controller with acceleration output. Moreover, smoother feature and robot trajectories are observed compared to those in conventional IBVS controllers. Later on, this controller is used on a moving object catching process.

Visual servoing controllers have shown difficulty in stabilizing the system in global space. Hence, in the second part of the project, a trajectory planning algorithm is developed to achieve the global stability of the system. The trajectory planning is carried out by parameterizing the camera's velocity screw. The camera's velocity screw is parameterized using time-based profiles. The parameters of the velocity profile are then determined such that the velocity profile guides the robot to its desired position. This is done by minimizing the error between the initial and desired features. This method provides a reliable path for the robot considering all robotic constraints. The developed algorithm is tested on a Denso robot. The results show that the trajectory planning algorithm is able to perform visual servoing tasks which are unstable when performed using visual servoing controllers.


identifier: Firoozi, Maryam  (2014) Three Essays on Corporate Governance.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

title: Three Essays on Corporate Governance

abstract:
This thesis is comprised of three essays on corporate governance issues. The first essay focuses on how board members’ geographical diversity relates to financial reporting quality. In principle, it is often argued that diversity has a positive impact on a group’s decision-making and monitoring abilities. In governance matters, while the attention has recently been placed on gender diversity, diversity is in fact multi-dimensional and encompasses attributes such as gender but also experience, expertise, independence and origins. The results show that a local board is more successful in monitoring financial reporting quality. The first essay provides evidence that although regulators are encouraging the diversity of boards of directors in all aspects, they may not be aware that each dimension of diversity may have a different impact on the performance of directors.
The second essay ponders how the presence of foreign directors on audit committees affects their effectiveness. The rules-based approach of Canadian regulators with respect to audit committee membership has caused many Canadian firms to nominate foreign directors on their audit committees, especially from the U.S. The second essay provides evidence that the nomination of foreign directors to a monitoring committee, mainly due to the requirements regarding audit committee membership, may have reverse outcomes on the quality of financial reporting, even though these directors may share many similarities with directors from the country in which they are sitting on a board and to which they are geographically close.
The last essay looks at the effects of the adoption of a new set of accounting standards within a single national context, Canada, with different legal regimes (common law outside Quebec, code law within Quebec). The third essay offers evidence that the introduction of a new set of accounting standards may even result in a different level of financial reporting quality between firms, dependent on firm- and country- level governance mechanisms.
Key words, Board of Directors, Geographical Diversity, Earnings Quality, Audit Committee, Foreign Directors, IFRS, Firm- level governance mechanisms, Country – Level Governance Mechanisms


identifier: Lu, Yanchen  (2014) Do Financially “Healthy” Bidders Make Better Acquisitions?  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) activities have been common research topics for decades, and there are numerous methods being developed to analyze the financial status or predict the performance of a company. In this thesis, companies are classified into two groups, as “healthy” and “unhealthy” bidders based on the financial leverage ratio and interest coverage ratio. I compared the performance of the “healthy” bidders group and the “unhealthy” bidders group over both the 60-trading day short and 42-month long term. The empirical results indicate that shareholders of “healthy” bidders gain from the takeover decision in general, while the shareholders of “unhealthy” bidders lose. In addition, a significant relationship is observed between the bidders’ financial health and their announcement abnormal returns, with “healthy” bidder shareholders achieving higher abnormal returns.


identifier: Nejaty Jahromi, Ali  (2014) Geo-visual Analytics of Canada-U.S. Transborder Traffic Data.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: This research aims to investigate new geo-visual analytics methods and techniques for visually analyzing the large amount of historical and near real time geospatial and temporal traffic data at the border crossings between Canada and the U.S. Historical traffic-related time-series data are available from different agencies in both countries for at least the last four decades for different modes of transportation and different purposes. Supplementary historical and near real-time data about delays, weather conditions, and different types of alerts and conditions at the ports of entry can be used to analyze the decision processes behind changes in traffic patterns. The data are gathered, processed, and linked to a web-based Geographic Information System (GIS) that can be accessed by authorized users over the Internet using an intuitive graphical user interface (GUI) to support different types of queries. The resulting database and information system can be beneficial for understanding the impact of the different factors affecting delays at the ports of entry and the impacts of these delays on the decision-making of travelers, planners, and supply chain operators.


identifier: Zibin, Nicholas  (2014) A Bottom-Up Method to Calibrate Building Energy Models Using Building Automation System (BAS) Trend Data.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Ongoing commissioning based on calibrated building energy models is one of the most promising means to improve the energy performance of existing buildings. Many calibration methods in the literature relied on whole-building utility data to calibrate building energy models. Recent studies revealed that only using this data could result in offsetting errors occurring at sub-utility levels. To reduce offsetting errors, a new bottom-up calibration method was developed where the zone, system, plant, and whole-building models are sequentially calibrated.

The number of candidate measurement points required for bottom-up calibration is large. Fortunately, building automation systems (BASs), common in many commercial/institutional buildings, can provide some of the required data. To reduce the time for BAS trend data analysis, a new proof-of-concept prototype, called the Automatic Assisted Calibration Tool (AACT) was developed and tested to couple trend data with calibrated simulation by automatically generating inputs to update an eQUEST input file.

This thesis documents the use of the AACT and bottom-up method to calibrate an eQUEST energy model of a case study building focusing on the zone and system level models. Using inputs generated from trend data and calibrating the zone level first often yielded a calibrated system level model. Limitations representing measured physical performance in eQUEST were encountered causing unintended offsetting errors occurring at the sub-utility levels. Overall, the use of BAS trend data with a bottom-up method can reduce offsetting errors during calibrated simulation.


identifier: Potter, Trevor  (2014) Blessed to Build God's Kingdom: The Blessing of Abraham (Gen. 12:1-3) in Light of the Primeval History.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Through a macro-syntactic analysis and a word study, this thesis has demonstrated that the root BRK (blessing), throughout the Primeval History and the calling/blessing of Abraham (Gen. 12:1-3), is consistently related to the Kingdom of God.  The undergirding presence of the Kingdom of God makes the root BRK intelligible.  Gen. 1:26-28 demonstrates that the purpose of creating and blessing (BRK) mankind was for mankind to rule as God’s representatives on the earth, and that it is the BRK of God that gives mankind the ability/capability to rightly rule on behalf of God.  This thesis has defined the root BRK, based upon an analysis of its uses in the Primeval History and the calling/blessing of Abraham (Gen. 12:1-3), in the following way: The BRK of God provides the recipient with life-giving power and potency.  As the term applies more specifically to humans, while incorporating life-giving power and potency, the BRK of God provides the recipient (i.e. one who bends the knee in recognition of the Lordship of God) with the ability/capability to rule rightly, as God’s representatives – to rule in a non-coercive, non-tyrannical way – for the express purpose of building/extending God’s Kingdom – a Kingdom that is meant to encompass all the families of the earth.


identifier: Tobin, Geoffrey  (2014) Registering justice: A critical discourse analysis of daily newspaper coverage surrounding key queer rights changes between 1992-2005.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Mobilizing James W. Carey's role for journalists as “professional communicators” who “forge a link between distinct persons or differentiated groups” (1997, p.13), this thesis explores discursive shifts within Canadian daily newspaper coverage of rights issues for queer communities through a critical discourse analysis of three news narratives from the 1990s and 2000s. It examines and compares aspects of the language, symbols, phrases, and connotative meanings surrounding themes of justice, difference, and Canadian identity, and contrasts these historic shifts through literature that examines queer news discourses. Through this analysis, this thesis explores how Canadian journalists increasingly embraced justice as a “register” or “argument strategy” in coverage, how this news discourse has been positive for news readers’ understanding of sexual difference, how it has been problematic, and how it has been Canadian. This thesis maintains that a thoughtful, reflective approach to the way that queer difference is addressed through journalistic narratives is necessary to staying at the forefront of progressive discourse surrounding queer sexual identities and, in its conclusion, offers starting points for how journalists can most professionally navigate the representation of sexual identity moving forward.


identifier: Ratto, Nicolina  (2014) Attachment Style with Mother and Relationship Context as Predictors of Late Adolescents’ Conflict Behaviours with a Romantic Partner or Close Friend: A Multi-Method Study.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
The roots of adolescent management of peer interaction and its associated emotions are important for understanding adolescents’ socio-emotional functioning, yet there is a lack of observational studies with multiple informants.  The current thesis examined late adolescents’ attachment style with mother and self-reported, partner-reported and observed conflict behaviours with a close peer.
 Forty-four adolescents (30 females; Mean age = 17.9 years, SD = .63) rated their attachment to their mother (anxious and avoidant attachment) at two different time points a year apart, scores were averaged.  Target adolescents were videotaped with a romantic partner or same-sex friend discussing two problems in their relationship.
As hypothesized, friend dyads were more harmonious and less conflictual than romantic dyads on self-rated collaboration, observer-rated disagreements, and observed negative and positive emotions.  Attachment findings pertained primarily to romantic dyads as observed by partners and/or independent observers.  Adolescents avoidantly attached to their mother displayed more disagreements in shorter romantic relationships whereas those in longer relationships who were more avoidantly attached showed both less disagreement and negative emotions with their partners.  Adolescents more anxiously attached to mother, surprisingly however, exhibited less disagreement and negative emotion, and more positive emotion, opposite to hypothesis.  As well, adolescents more anxiously attached demonstrated less negative emotion during the discussion with friends.  These findings support the continued role of attachment with mother in late adolescents’ emotion regulation behaviors with close peers, especially romantic partners.  Future research directions and implications for clinical interventions for both parents and adolescents are discussed.


identifier: Bhowmik, Ashis Kumar  (2014) An Architecture for M2M Enabled Social Networks.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Social Networks (SNs), such as Facebook, Twitter, Google+, are becoming more and more popular nowadays. People are now more connected than before. They share information, pictures, videos and news with their family and friends. However, sharing physical phenomena in SNs is still a manual process done by people themselves. For instance, people would like to share current health status, feelings, thoughts, weather or riding information with friends. The sharing of ambient information automatically in SNs can promote independent living. Moreover, it can enhance the autonomy and confidence of elderly people via continuous monitoring and health support. A set of biometric sensors, for example, placed within a patient body can inform a doctor about patient’s health status; hence the doctor can perform a remote diagnosis.

Nowadays people are surrounded by devices like smartphone, sensors, cameras, computers and many other devices known as machines. These devices can automatically collect contextual information from the neighborhood. This thesis proposes an architecture for posting contextual information in SNs to support the automatic sharing of physical phenomena. In the proposed architecture, machines collect the contextual data through an overlay-based gateway to support scalability in terms of number of devices. Considering the resource-constrained devices, the architecture makes use of the Constrained Application Protocol (CoAP), a lightweight standard protocol. An SN processes that data into shareable information and disseminates it as appropriate within the users’ Community of Interests (COIs) (e.g., family, friends).

A proof of concept prototype is developed to verify the feasibility of the proposed architecture and its performance has been partially evaluated.


identifier: Karimzadeh Reghbati, Peyman  (2014) A Cognitive Sensing Algorithm for Coexistence Scenario with LTE.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Increasing demand for high data rate wireless communication motivates the wireless engineers to develop advanced technologies to address such needs. LTE and LTE-Advanced are examples of such wireless technologies, which support high data rate and a large number of users. However, higher data rate communication requires more frequency bandwidth.
Recent studies have shown that the inefficient utilization of frequency spectrum is one of the main reasons for the scarcity of frequency bandwidth. Cognitive Radio Network is introduced as a promising solution for this problem. It increases the utilization of bandwidth, by intelligently sensing the channel environment and dynamically providing access to the available resources (frequency bands) for a secondary user.
In this thesis, we developed an algorithm for dynamically detecting and anticipating the existence of underutilized resources in LTE system. The algorithm should be a real-time operation, i.e. the decision on availability of a detected resource should be made within a time much less than scheduling update period of LTE. This is the only way that rest of the unused resources becomes usable. For each specific channel assignment, the algorithm requires to start sensing as soon as possible.
Therefore, we develop the algorithm in three main steps. The first step is to blindly detect and identify the LTE-Downlink signal using cyclostationarity property of OFDM scheme. The second step is the acquisition of the LTE-Downlink sub-frame timing, which is basically performed by detecting the Primary Synchronization Signal.
The third step is to detect unused resources, for the duration of their transmission. This step is using a frequency domain energy detector. By performing the first and second steps, the sub-frame timing and scheduling update instances are known. So basically the algorithm does not require any previous knowledge of the LTE signal.
We evaluate the performance of the proposed algorithm with respect to the tolerable amount of interference at the primary user side. Using the proposed algorithm, in average up to 81 % of unused resources can be used by the secondary user.


identifier: Dolezsar, Cynthia M  (2014) Discrimination and Cardiovascular Disease in Blacks.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: This thesis is comprised of three studies conducted to further understand the role of racial discrimination in the increased risk of hypertension among individuals of African descent in North America.  These studies extend previous research by testing the proposed link between racism and cardiovascular functioning in a laboratory setting and by quantitatively summarizing research findings.  The pool of studies having estimated the association between perceived discrimination and blood pressure has yielded mixed results.  As well, previous literature reviews have been qualitative and thus did not ascertain the magnitude of the relationship nor have they quantified the effect of moderator variables.  To fill this gap in the literature, in the first study a meta-analysis of previous research examining the link between perceived racism and blood pressure was conducted.  Results revealed a small relation between perceived racism and hypertension, but not with resting blood pressure.  Blacks also experience a higher degree of stress than Whites due to racial discrimination and its consequences.  Over time, sustained activation from stress has been posited to lead to structural changes in the vascular system resulting in disease.  Exaggerated cardiovascular reactivity to stress has been found to be predictive of future cardiovascular disease (Chida & Steptoe, 2010).   Several studies have demonstrated increased vascular reactivity to stress in Blacks as compared to Whites.  This line of research, however, has exclusively been tested on American samples.  The second study therefore sought to examine reactivity in a Canadian population, where the macro culture for Blacks differs from the U.S. in important ways.  Black men were shown to exhibit greater vascular response to laboratory stress.  A direct association between perceived racism and reactivity to stress was, however, not observed.  Several researchers have proposed that other factors moderate the relation between discrimination and cardiovascular functioning.  Anger has extensively been studied in relation to cardiovascular disease but few studies have looked at its relation to perceiving racism.  The final study revealed that the influence of perceived racism on blood pressure reactivity depends on how anger is typically expressed.  Taken together, these explain the increased risk of cardiovascular disease among Blacks.


identifier: Mostafania, Mohammad  (2014) Do Fire Sales Really Exist? An Empirical Study on Distressed Targets' Premiums.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Firms can be de-listed from public market due to different reasons. They could go bankrupt which would be a negative outcome for their shareholders, they could merge with or acquired by other firms, or they could go private, outcomes that are usually pleasant for their stakeholders. What if a firm becomes an acquisition target in the period right before going bankrupt? Is it still a positive event for shareholders or because of the firm’s distressed situation there will be no positive return for them? We estimate the likelihood of firm failure and examine the premium offered for distressed public firms in both contractions and normal economic periods. We use Survival Analysis and Artificial Neural Networks, both using multi-period inputs, to categorize firms into distressed and not-distressed groups. These models claim to be more successful compared to the single-period static models widely used in the extant literature. Results of analyzing 1378 targets in different market conditions shows that acquirers tend to overpay for distressed targets and even more in contraction periods. on the other hand, we observe a huge discount when we calculate the mean target premium in reference to targets' highest price in the 52-week period before the announcement . It seems that acquirers bid reference is not the current market valuation, but the target’s best position in the one year prior to announcement.


identifier: You, Qian  (2014) Experimental Investigation of Flow Boiling Instability in a Single Vertical Microtube:Effects of Hydraulic Diameter and Flow Orientation.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Flow boiling in a microchannel heat sink is considered as a suitable and an efficient method to dissipate high heat flux from a small surface. Especially, this technique can achieve uniform axial temperature distribution and low noise with a little coolant and low pumping power consumption. However, the main drawback of this attractive technique is flow instability which is induced by the flow phase change. Flow instability can constrain the advantages of flow boiling heat transfer, or even damages systems.
	In this thesis, the fundamental investigations on the flow instability in a single vertical microtube are conducted. The objectives are to understand the flow oscillations types and features in vertical flow directions, the effects of geometric factors (hydraulic diameter of microtube and flow orientation) and operating conditions (mass flux and heat flux) on flow instability behaviors, and to investigate the inlet orifice for controlling flow instability in vertical flow directions. Three different sizes of stainless steel microtubes with 0.305, 0.533 and 0.889 mm hydraulic diameters are tested. The working fluid FC-72 maintains around 24 °C at the inlet of microtube. The mass flux varies from 700 to 1600 kg/m2•s, and the heat flux is applied on the tube surface uniformly up to 9.6 W/cm2. For the flow instability controlling study, two sizes of inlet orifices (50% and 20% area ratio) are investigated, respectively. The experimental results show that in a large hydraulic diameter, the onset of flow instability with obvious and sustained oscillation features is usually observed, and it can be delayed by large mass fluxes. In a small hydraulic diameter, the transient point is most detected and occurs earlier than in large size microtubes at a given mass flux, and the mass flux effect on its occurrence can be ignored. The buoyancy force impacts the flow instability appearance and characteristics. The irreversible flow blockage is observed in the smallest tube in downward flow direction and not sensitive to the mass flux. With more heat flux applied on the largest tube, the flow oscillations change to intensive in upward flow direction, but tend to be re-stabilized in downward flow direction. The 50% inlet orifice shows better performance at large mass fluxes or in upward flow direction. The 20% inlet orifice has a good ability to eliminate flow instability in the current investigation, but it induces higher pressure drop than 50% inlet orifice.


identifier: Anderson, Kristin Gem  (2014) Avoidable Uncertainty: Understanding the Relationship between Anxiety and Anger.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Heightened levels of anxiety are associated with elevated levels of anger (Moscovitch et al., 2008). Given that the relationship between anxiety and anger is not well understood, the general goal of this dissertation is to better understand this relationship. More specifically, the goal of this dissertation is to propose and test a general theory to account for the co-occurrence of these two negative emotional states. Specifically, it is proposed that heighted expectations for certainty, when violated, explain the co-occurrence of anxiety and anger. That is, when one’s state of uncertainty is perceived as unavoidable, anxiety is experienced, however; when one’s state of uncertainty is perceived as avoidable, anxiety and anger result. In study 1, the Violated Expectations for Certainty Diary (VEC-D) was developed to assess expectations for certainty. The VEC-D contains 18 scenarios where uncertainty is present but could be perceived as avoidable. For each scenario, participants (N = 389) rated the extent to which they expected to attain certainty, along with other emotional reactions. The VEC-D demonstrated good psychometric properties with excellent test-retest reliability over a 2-week period, good internal consistency, and evidence of convergent and divergent validity. Exploratory factor analysis revealed that the scenarios included in the VEC-D loaded onto two distinct but related factors: scenarios where the potential negative outcome is non-social and scenarios where the potential negative outcome is social. The goal of study 2 was to experimentally induce a state of uncertainty and then to manipulate whether that state is avoidable. To do this, all participants experienced the uncertainty induction and then were randomly assigned to the avoidable uncertainty condition (experimental group n = 40) or the unavoidable uncertainty condition (control group n = 45). Results showed that the uncertainty induction was successful such that participants reported higher levels of anxiety relative to baseline. Consistent with the hypothesis, those in the experimental group reported increases in anger following the manipulation whereas those in the control group reported decreases in anger. Taken together these findings suggest that when heightened expectations for certainty are violated, anger is experienced in the context of anxiety.


identifier: Madularu, Dan  (2014) Advancing rodent models of the behaviours and the neurobiological pathology associated with schizophrenia.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Schizophrenia is a psychiatric illness affecting roughly 1% of the population worldwide. The symptomatology is generally classified in terms of the enhancement or absence of otherwise normally-functioning features, and has been partially recreated in rodents and non-human primates for research purposes. The overarching goal of this thesis is to address some of the shortcomings of rat models of the behaviours and the neurobiological pathology associated with schizophrenia. Specifically, we examined the effects of estradiol on dopamine release to address the potential role of sex differences in schizophrenia development and response to treatment. Furthermore, we explored the effects of prenatal glutamatergic blockade on cognition and locomotor activity at two different stages in rat adult development. Finally, we investigated the involvement of prefronto-cortical dopamine transmission on working memory, a cognitive function disrupted in schizophrenia. When paired with estradiol, chronic haloperidol treatment was effective in blocking the hyperlocomotor-inducing effects of amphetamine, supporting clinical findings. Although we attributed this effect, in part, to dopamine transmission within the nucleus accumbens, supplementary studies offer a complete map of possible estradiol-dopamine interactions within the central nervous system. In an effort to further investigate the developmental and glutamatergic aspect of schizophrenia, we found that prenatal glutamatergic blockade results in impairments similar to those seen in other animal models, as well as patients with schizophrenia. In investigating the role of prefronto-cortical dopamine transmission vis-a-vis of working memory function in the rat, we found that working memory as measured by a delay-non-match to place task, is not driven by prefronto-cortical dopamine transmission.


identifier: Mehrjoo, Navid  (2014) Experimental Investigation on the Failure Mechanism for Critical Tube Diameter Phenomenon of Gaseous Detonations.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
In this thesis, an experimental investigation is carried out to study the mechanism governing the successful transmission or failure on the critical tube diameter phenomenon when a fully developed, self-sustained detonation propagating in the confined tube transmits into an open space. The result of this study contributes to a better understanding of fundamental physical processes on the initiation, propagation and failure of the detonation.
To demonstrate the dependence of critical tube diameter dc on combustion chemistry, two kinds of explosive mixtures are studied. The first is typical for common hydrocarbon mixtures characterized by irregular cellular structures and turbulent reactions zones. The other is referred to as stable mixtures particularly with combustibles highly-diluted with argon. A parametric study is carried out to measure critical tube diameters using stoichiometric acetylene-oxygen diluted with varying amount of argon to obtain these two types of mixtures. The present study validates that the well-accepted universal relation dc = 13λ holds for 0% - 30% argon diluted mixtures and breaks down when argon dilution increases up to 40%. Cell size measurement also indicates that the cellular detonation front starts to become more regular (or stable) when the argon dilution reaches above 40 - 50%. These results hence support that the physical process of critical tube diameter phenomenon is related to the stability nature of the detonation front and failure mechanism.
Failure mechanisms for the critical tube diameter phenomenon were previously postulated in the literature for the two kinds of mixtures. For unstable mixtures, the failure is based on the inability to form explosion centers in the failure wave when it has penetrated to the charge axis.
For stable mixtures, the failure is caused by excessive curvature of the entire detonation front when the corner expansion waves have distributed the curvature over the diverging wave surface.
To discriminate between the two aforementioned modes of failure and clarify the importance of instability, two series of experiments are conducted: one by generating artificially small flow instability using small obstacles with different blockage ratios and the other by damping
transverse instability using porous media to see how the critical tube diameter phenomenon responds to these perturbations. Results show that both generation and suppression of flow instability leads to a significant change in the critical condition for successful transmission. The critical pressure obtained in unstable mixtures is found lower with flow perturbation by the
obstacles but adversely increases with the damping of instability using porous walled tube; while no noticeable effect could be observed in stable, argon-diluted mixtures.
The general implications of the present study are that in common unstable mixtures, instability is essential for the critical tube diameter problem and more generally, for the initiation and propagation of detonation, providing an efficient mechanism of gas ignition. For only a very special class of stable mixtures, the propagation of the detonation wave relies solely on the global coupling between the reaction front and the shock and instabilities only play a minor role on the dynamics of the detonation.


identifier: Bélanger-Smith, Katrina  (2014) Evaluating the effects of wildlife exclusion fencing on road mortality for medium-sized and small mammals along Quebec’s Route 175.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Increasingly, transportation agencies are implementing mitigation measures with the aim of alleviating the negative effects of roads on wildlife. Few studies have examined the responses of medium-sized and small mammals to these mitigation measures. Route 175 between Quebec City and Saguenay was widened from two to four lanes and in conjunction wildlife passages and associated exclusion fencing designated for medium-sized and small mammals were implemented. We surveyed mammal mortality along a 68 km section of Route 175 to address two research questions: (1) Do passages in combination with exclusion fences reduce road mortality? and (2) Are small-meshed fences effective in guiding animals towards the passages or do they displace road mortality to fence-ends? Daily mortality surveys were conducted between June and October 2012 and 2013, detecting 528 road mortalities comprising 18 species or taxonomic groupings. There was no statistically significant reduction in wildlife vehicle collisions (WVCs) with the existing exclusion fencing design. Additionally, WVCs occurred at a higher rate at fence-ends than in unfenced road segments for all medium-sized mammals grouped and for red fox.  Habitat variables were found to influence the locations of WVCs, however these effects are highly species-specific. We recommend the implementation of species appropriate exclusion fencing to better guide animals towards wildlife passages. Species morphology, behavior, and daily movement range should be considered in the construction of exclusion fencing.


identifier: Zeng, Qi  (2015) Corporate Governance and Shareholder Litigation.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Firms with agency problems are more vulnerable to litigation, i.e. they are more likely to be sued. The U.S. securities laws allow shareholders to file a lawsuit against a firm when they feel that their investment in firm was misappropriated or misproperly managed by the firm’s executives. This paper examines the link between shareholder litigation and various corporate governance practices. Focusing on seasoned firms, we employ a sample of 1613 sued firms and a matching sample of 1613 non-sued firms. We find that poor corporate governance mechanism, shorter CEO tenure, lower CEO salary, and lower incentive pay in the form of restricted shares increases the probability of litigation, holding constant a wide range of control variables. We further document that sued firms improve their governance practices after a lawsuit by increasing the proportion of outside members on the board and dissolving the CEO-chairmanship link. These findings support the view that corporate governance has an impact on litigation risk, and that litigation leads to governance changes, at least at the board level.


identifier: Maghsoudi, Reza  (2014) Towards a Capacity-based optimal allocation of storm pipes’ replacements: Considering the effects of Climate Change and Urbanization.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Storm pipes are a major component of any municipal infrastructure system, however, poor attention is commonly paid to their management and replacement of pipes is typically guided by condition criteria. Pipes replacement also faces the issue that their capacity is not considered, and the proposed pipes replacements are of the same diameter as the previous ones. However, lagged replacements of storm pipes can compromise urban system ability to drain runoff-water from rainfall and this could lead into flooding. This research extents optimal condition-based allocation of pipes by considering demand-capacity ratios, in order to prevent flooding. The effects of urbanization and climate change are also incorporated. A general method for detecting the impacts of urbanization currently exist, however, a simplified approach due to the lack of data is suggested. A case study of the city of Kindersley in Saskatchewan is used to illustrate the application of the method. Hydrological models based on current and future land uses were used to estimate changes in demand-capacity ratios for each pipe in the system. Performance curves for capacity and condition were developed, and validated by change detection of observed historical land use cover for the past 25 years. An extra 18% rainfall intensity was used to model the impacts of climate change. It was found that CAN$40,000 were enough to sustain current levels of condition and capacity-demand ratios, however, condition was at unacceptable level. Budget was raised and weights were adjusted until a combination with 45% capacity and 55% condition with $100,000 was found to be the departure at which compliance begins to reach desirable point minimum levels of demand-capacity ratios and condition, possibly higher values of budget would be necessary as the municipality adjust such minimum requirements to the desired ones.


identifier: Mariotti, Alexa  (2015) Characterizing Asymmetric Ingression in Mammalian Epithelial Cells.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Cytokinesis occurs at the end of mitosis to divide the cell into two daughter cells. An actomyosin contractile ring forms at the equatorial cortex and ingresses to pinch in the cytosol and membrane. Anillin is a highly conserved protein that binds to components of the ring, mitotic spindle and membrane, and is a key regulator of cytokinesis. The division plane occurs perpendicular to the axis of asymmetry in epithelial cells to ensure that each daughter cell inherits apicobasal polarity. However, these cells undergo dramatic shape changes that involve reorganization of the cytoskeleton during mitosis, and it is not clear how the daughter cells re-establish polarity. Interestingly, contractile ring ingression occurs asymmetricaly in epithelial cells, where one part of the ring appears to move faster and closes near the apical surface. Recent studies using Drosophila epithelial tissue showed that asymmetric ingression occurs due to forces generated near the apical surface of dividing cells, through adhesion with neighbouring cells. We studied cytokinesis in mammalian epithelial cells using Madin Darby Canine Kidney (MDCK) epithelial cells as a model system. Interestingly, we observed that MDCK cells with none or fewer than four neighbours displayed asymmetric ingression, while cells with four or more neighbours were more likely to ingress symmetrically, suggesting that both intrinsic and extrinsic mechanisms influence contractile ring ingression. When induced to form cysts, ingression varied depending on the location of cells within the cyst. The localization of myosin and anillin were uncoupled in asymmetrically dividing MDCK cells, with anillin being more enriched on the ingressing cortex. Anillin may have an important role in asymmetric ingression, since its asymmetric distribution correlated with asymmetric ingression, and its depletion caused cells to ingress more randomly. These results suggest that mammalian epithelial cells possess intrinsic mechanisms for asymmetric ingression, and extrinsic forces applied by neighbouring cells influence their ingression.


identifier: Cano Perdomo, Mario  (2014) Visual Approaches to Understanding Pedestrian Safety in Roundabouts.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Although road safety research has traditionally considered driving as the central mode of interest, recent work has turned to non-motorized modes, particularly cycling and walking, to analyze their conditions within traffic flow, and their interaction with vehicles. ï¿½Visual Approaches to Understanding Pedestrian Safety in Roundaboutsï¿½ is a thesis developed by Mario Perdomo where pedestrian safety is targeted as the main object of study. The research includes two separate studies. The first, based on a Stated Preference (SP) research tool, aims to describe the preferences of pedestrians towards design and operational features of roundabouts, an intersection whose construction has become more frequent in recent years in Quebec. This study describes the process of designing, administering and analyzing the SP survey, offering as its main outcome relevant conclusions regarding pedestrian preferences in terms of safety in roundabouts. The use of substitution rates, estimated from the analysis of the SP survey, are suggested as a means to help guide the design of roundabouts with pedestrians in mind. The second study examines pedestrian-vehicle interactions in roundabouts using automatic pedestrian and vehicle tracking with videos. These interactions were analyzed, making it possible to observe actual pedestrian behavior in such intersections. The core of the thesis relies on two scientific papers: one published in Accident Analysis and Prevention journal in 2014; and the other submitted to the Transportation Research Board the same year.


identifier: Xiao, Ling Peng  (2014) Development of A Hybrid Fuzzy-Stochastic Modeling Approach for Examining the Environmental Performance of Surface Flow Constructed.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Storm water is considered as a significant source of contaminants to receiving rivers and the constructed wetland has been used to treat storm water before the discharge. In this study, a hybrid fuzzy-stochastic modeling approach is developed to examine the wetland treatment efficiency, to analyze the environmental impact associated with the wetland effluents into the receiving water, and to quantify system uncertainties. The proposed approach first incorporates a water quality model to simulate storm water flow going through the wetland and the fate and transport of nutrients in the wetland. A Monte Carlo modeling method is next developed to extend the water quality model, providing a stochastic simulation of the concentration distribution of nutrients in the wetland effluents. It is intended for the analysis of probabilistic environmental risks associated with wetland effluents on the receiving waters. The fuzzy membership functions are further used to quantify the variability or suitability of regional surface water guidelines, which is incorporated into the Monte Carlo modeling framework to identify the integrated risks from the discharge on the river.

The developed modeling approach has been applied to the Kennedale wetland, a storm water treatment system, in the city of Edmonton, Canada. Before the environmental risk assessment, the HEC-RAS (Hydrologic Engineering Centers River Analysis System) model and the QUAL2K (River and Stream Water Quality) model are applied to simulate the flow and nutrients removal efficiency in the wetland. According to the simulation results from the HEC-RAS model and the QUAL2K model, the removal efficiencies of TN (Total Nitrogen) by the wetland are 25.64% and 13.59%, respectively. The removal efficiencies of TP (Total Phosphorus) are 50% and 50.91%, respectively. The differences between the HEC-RAS simulation results and on-site field data are 0.05% for TN and 6.1% for TP. The differences between the QUAL2K simulation results and on-site field data are 13.99% for TN and 4.35% for TP based on this study. The water quality simulation results from the two models are both acceptable compared to the monitoring data. It is seen that the HEC-RAS model has better performance on modeling this field case, and is integrated with the environmental risk assessment process. Consequently, the results of the integrated risk assessment referring to different guidelines in the North America show that the concentrations of TN at the wetland discharge port have a high possibility of violating the TN guidelines in both Alberta, Canada and the US EPA (Environmental Protection Agency). Similarly, the concentrations of TP at the wetland discharge port have a high possibility to violate the Canadian and US TP guideline during this study period. Therefore, the nutrients in storm water discharges from the Kennedale wetland may have a great risk to adversely affect the receiving river (North Saskatchewan River) at the time of this study. The analysis results of nutrient guidelines have supported the management of decision making process, and the study results indicate that the developed hybrid fuzzy-stochastic modeling approach is a useful tool for the practical managing of wetland systems and the impact of the wetland discharges on the receiving waters.


identifier: Sultan, Khalid Ibrahim  (2015) Modeling and Verifying Probabilistic Social Commitments in Multi-Agent Systems.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Interaction among autonomous agents in Multi-Agent Systems (MASs) is the key aspect for solving complex problems that an individual agent cannot handle alone. In this context, social approaches, as opposed to the mental approaches, have recently received a considerable attention in the area of agent communication. They exploit observable social
commitments to develop a verifiable formal semantics by which communication protocols can be specified. However, existing approaches for defining social commitments tend to
assume an absolute guarantee of correctness so that systems run in a certain manner. That is, social commitments have always been modeled with the assumption of certainty. Moreover, the widespread use of MASs increases the interest to explore the interactions between different aspects of the participating agents such as the interaction between agents’ knowledge and social commitments in the presence of uncertainty. This results in having a gap, in the literature of agent communication, on modeling and verifying social commitments in probabilistic settings.

In this thesis, we aim to address the above-mentioned problems by presenting a practical formal framework that is capable of handling the problem of uncertainty in social
commitments. First, we develop an approach for representing, reasoning about, and verifying
probabilistic social commitments in MASs. This includes defining a new logic called the probabilistic logic of commitments (PCTLC), and a reduction-based model checking
procedure for verifying the proposed logic. In the reduction technique, the problem of model checking PCTLC is transformed into the problem of model checking PCTL so that
the use of the PRISM (Probabilistic Symbolic Model Checker) is made possible. Formulae of PCTLC are interpreted over an extended version of the probabilistic interpreted systems
formalism. Second, we extend the work we proposed for probabilistic social commitments to be able to capture and verify the interactions between knowledge and commitments.
Properties representing the interactions between the two aspects are expressed in a new developed logic called the probabilistic logic of knowledge and commitment (PCTLkc).
Third, we develop an adequate semantics for the group social commitments, for the first time in the literature, and integrate it into the framework. We then introduce an improved version of PCTLkc and extend it with operators for the group knowledge and group social commitments. The new refined logic is called PCTLkc+. In each of the latter stages, we respectively develop a new version of the probabilistic interpreted systems over which the
presented logic is interpreted, and introduce a new reduction-based verification technique to verify the proposed logic. To evaluate our proposed work, we implement the proposed verification techniques on top of the PRISM model checker and apply them on several case studies. The results demonstrate the usefulness and effectiveness of our proposed work.


identifier: Pileggi, Steven  (2015) Breaking Customs in an Algebra Classroom for Mature Students and Providing Them With Opportunities to Engage in Theoretical Thinking.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: When an adult student returns to mathematics classes, it can sometimes be after a years- long absence, and often they may hold a negative attitude towards the subject as a whole. They arrive with a clear belief about what a mathematics classroom should look like, specifically with regards to the role of the teacher and the role of the student – a belief that has been formed over many years of exposure to ‘traditional’ mathematics classrooms. There are also certain customs that the students have come to believe should be features of all mathematics courses – that the teacher will lecture on how to solve the different kinds of problems they will encounter, that the teacher will always tell them whether their work is correct or incorrect, and that there is only one ‘acceptable’ method of solving a given mathematics problem. In this thesis we discuss a teaching approach that was taken in an algebra course designed for adults – a teaching approach that tried to break away from these customs. The Teachers of the course felt that by breaking custom they would be better able to succeed in achieving the three goals that they had set up for their course: First, they wanted to engage their students in theoretical thinking, following Sierpinska et. al’s (2002) model. Second, they wanted to respect and acknowledge the students’ different (mathematics) backgrounds and life goals. Third, they wanted their students to succeed in the institutional sense. As Researchers, we will be investigating the design and implementation of this teaching approach to discuss whether or not the Teachers were successful in achieving their goals.


identifier: Montes, Juan  (2015) A study in the topology-aware reconstruction of thin tubular structures.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: This thesis is dedicated to the 3D reconstruction of thin tubular structures, such as cables or ropes, from a given image sequence. This is known to be a challenging task, mainly because of self-occlusions of the structure and its fine details. This new approach combines image processing tools with physics simulation to faithfully reconstruct jumbled and tangled cables in 3D. This method estimates the topology of the tubular object in the form of a single 1D path and also computes a topology-aware reconstruction of its geometry. This method is evaluated on both, synthetic and real datasets and demonstrate that this method favourably compares to state-of-the-art methods.


identifier: Mostofi Darbani, Javad  (2014) Gaming Platform vs. Traditional Text-only Stated-Preference Survey of Neighborhood Choice.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
This research explores the influence of representational methods as they are used in stated-preference (SP) surveys of neighbourhood choice. These types of surveys have traditionally been administered in text-only format, by asking subjects which alternative they prefer based on written descriptions of neighbourhoods. It has been argued, alternately, that the visual presentation of attributes can either dominate in SP surveys, or that it can be used to help improve the realism of choice tasks, and/or increase the number of attributes that can be included in such surveys. A few studies have tested the difference between multimedia and text-only SP surveys of housing choice. While these studies have been informative, they have drawn conflicting conclusions, and have been based on small sample sizes.
The research presented here sought to take advantage of the capabilities made available by gaming engines to compare the results of SP surveys of neighbourhood choice administered either on a gaming platform, or as a traditional text-only survey. A sample of 368 (184 for each survey) respondents was used to compare neighbourhood choice model parameter estimates drawn from data administered with the two different survey methodologies. We found that while both surveys result in similar models, the model estimated using data obtained from the gaming platform show slightly better performance; providing 3D simulations appears to better focus respondent attention. At the same time, these 3D simulations have the unfortunate drawback of decreasing the generalizability of some visual parameter estimates, as they need to provide precise visual representations of their characteristics.