identifier: Nassar, George J  (1996) Adaptive unified thinning algorithm.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

title: Adaptive unified thinning algorithm


identifier: Bélisle, Marc  (1996) Foraging group size : models and a test with jaegers kleptoparasitizing terns.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

type: Thesis NonPeerReviewed


identifier: Subramanian, Selvakumaran N  (1996) Traffic modeling in a multi-media environment.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.


identifier: Ahmed, Haider J  (1995) Design of a 2-dimensional single-chip accelerometer.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.


identifier: Gottlieb, Erika  (1969) The "long-short progresse" : an enterprise in the study of the metaphor of polar opposites in baroque and romantic sensibilities.  Masters thesis, Sir George Williams University.


identifier: Leduc, Camille  (1972) Les poupées magiques.  Masters thesis, Sir George Williams University.

title: Les poupées magiques.


identifier: Herbert, Nancy Davina  (1974) An invocation to Mona religion and learning : an alchemist's dream.  Masters thesis, Sir George Williams University.


identifier: Baumgarten, Charles  (1971) The use of the pastoral in four early poems by Milton.  Masters thesis, Sir George Williams University.


identifier: Pearson, John Eric  (1973) Matthew Arnold in France: an essay in Victorian biculturalism.  Masters thesis, Sir George Williams University.


identifier: Rose, Marilyn J  (1973) The concept of Manawaka in the fiction of Margaret Laurence ; A bird in the house, A jest of God, The fire-dwellers and The stone angel.  Masters thesis, Sir George Williams University.


identifier: Fainaru, Joseph  (1974) Le dessin de figuration et son développement dans l'évolution de l'adolescence prepubertaire, pubertaire et postpubertaire.  Masters thesis, Sir George Williams University.


identifier: Krupski, Jadwiga  (1974) The leafy paradox ; a study of the tree image in the works of five major English Romantic poets.  Masters thesis, Sir George Williams University.


identifier: Cheshire, Dean  (1967) A method of testing verbally children's readiness for the identification of stylistic elements in painting.  Masters thesis, Sir George Williams University.


identifier: Lin, Kuang-Chun  (1970) The typology of a manufactured surface and its relations to the mechanical properties.  Masters thesis, Sir George Williams University.


identifier: Rabbani, Waheed Ghulam  (1974) A review of theories of fatigue failure due to random loading : a major technical report in the Faculty of Engineering.  Masters thesis, Sir George Williams University.


identifier: Kar, Rampapda  (1973) A finite element study of the effective width of simple and continous T-beams.  Masters thesis, Sir George Williams University.


identifier: Purohit, M. R  (1972) Buckling strength of simply supported stiffened plate having a plain circular perforation.  Masters thesis, Sir George Williams University.


identifier: Young, Robert Yat-Jing  (1970) An immersed vehicular tunnel under the Rio Panuca, Mexico.  Masters thesis, Sir George Williams University.


identifier: Thinh, Ngo Dinh  (1975) An analytical study of confined vortex flow.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.


identifier: Lee, Pai Mow  (1973) Boundary effects on flow past bluff bodies.  PhD thesis, Sir George Williams University.


identifier: Farag, Essam Ahmed  (1971) An investigation of the confined vortex flow of liquids.  PhD thesis, Sir George Williams University.


identifier: Verma, Pramode Kumar  (1970) Some properties of integrals of network functions.  PhD thesis, Sir George Williams University.


identifier: McAuley, John  (1974) Three relics : [poems].  Masters thesis, Sir George Williams University.

title: Three relics : [poems]


identifier: Choubey, Nirmalendu  (1973) Preliminary studies on flow past a gate with cylindrical lips : a major technical report.  Masters thesis, Sir George Williams University.


identifier: Mukerjee, Kumar K  (1973) A critical review of the mechanics of metal rolling, its application to the design of hot strip mills ; a major technical report.  Masters thesis, Sir George Williams University.


identifier: Sourial, Nagy N  (1974) Some wall interference effects for flow past triangular prisms: major technical report in the Faculty of Engineering.  Masters thesis, Sir George Williams University.


identifier: Shannon, Michael A  (1975) Electron paramagnetic resonance of the Ti3+ ion in KAl (SO4) 2.l2H2O.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.


identifier: Dalli, Özkan  (1970) Attenuation and dose measurements using 14.1 MeV neutrons.  Masters thesis, Sir George Williams University.


identifier: Barbopoulos, Leonidas Odysseus  (1971) Recoilless fraction of gammas in tin dioxide (Sn02).  Masters thesis, Sir George Williams University.


identifier: Heese, Norbert R  (1969) Acceleration of electrons by an electrodynamic spacecharge effect.  Masters thesis, Sir George Williams University.


identifier: Lewis, Norman Robert  (1972) Semi-empirical approach to the description of ground-state rotational bands of deformed even-even nucli.  Masters thesis, Sir George Williams University.


identifier: Azad, Abul Kalam  (1973) An analytical and experimental study of orthotropic steel bridge decks.  PhD thesis, Sir George Williams University.


identifier: Silverman, Alan  (1973) The French provincial, communal movement and Paris, 1870-1871.  Masters thesis, Sir George Williams University.


identifier: Kroon, Laurence  (1970) The enigma of visibility and orginality; essays, historical in approach, on things only imperfectly understood.  Masters thesis, Sir George Williams University.


identifier: Lawn, Kaethe-Maria  (1972) Selected writings.  Masters thesis, Sir George Williams University.

title: Selected writings


identifier: Szilasi, Doreen Lindsay  (1969) Report of an attempt to judge the relative merits of sequential and non-sequential learning in colour.  Masters thesis, Sir George Williams University.


identifier: Drouin-Martineau, Michèle  (1974) Les rapports de structures de l'image creatrice poetique et picturale.  Masters thesis, Sir George Williams University.


identifier: Beaupré, Georges  (1974) Familles.  Masters thesis, Sir George Williams University.

title: Familles


identifier: Youssef, Isis Sélim  (1973) Etude sur la socialisation de l'enfant inadapté par l'expression artistique.  Masters thesis, Sir George Williams University.


identifier: Major, Laure  (1974) L'espace pictural = [Pictorial space].  Masters thesis, Sir George Williams University.

title: L'espace pictural = [Pictorial space]


identifier: Henri, France  (1974) Evaluation d'un cours télévisé de niveau universitaire intitulé Politique Canadienne d'Immigration (1896-1914).  Masters thesis, Sir George Williams University.


identifier: Lagounaris-Bhéreur, Astrid  (1970) Relation entre art, pédagogie et télévision à l'occasion d'une émission d'enseignement des arts plastiques à l'élémentaire par le médium télévision.  Masters thesis, Sir George Williams University.


identifier: Lamy, Thérèse  (1975) Les effets de la télévision en circuit ferme dans l'enseignement de l'histoire au cours secondaire.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.


identifier: Desjardins, François  (1969) The integration of design in arts education.  Masters thesis, Sir George Williams University.


identifier: Calvé, Micheline  (1974) L'éducation artistique et l'université.  Masters thesis, Sir George Williams University.


identifier: Galella, Gerardina  (1972) An electrolytic titrator method for the determination of acetylcholine hydrolase activity.  Masters thesis, Sir George Williams University.


identifier: Shearing, David James  (1968) Studies in [infinity]-acetylenic carbonyl compounds -- isozazole formation.  Masters thesis, Sir George Williams University.


identifier: Schulz, Theodore Arnold  (1971) The mass spectra of N-alkyl-a-chloroacetamides.  Masters thesis, Sir George Williams University.


identifier: Lequoc, Sinh  (1972) Hybrid fluidic heading reference system and the control of systems with pure time delay.  UNSPECIFIED thesis, Sir George Williams University.


identifier: Hersh, Kenneth Aaron  (1975) Stereochemical studies, and kinetics of environmental averageing processes in some organometallic acetylacetonate complexes of tin (IV), germanium (IV), and silicon (IV).  Masters thesis, Concordia University.


identifier: Fraser, Alan Richard  (1973) X-ray crystallographic studies of some derivatives of dicobaltoctacarbonyl and tetracobaltdocecacarbonyl with Pi bonding ligands.  PhD thesis, Sir George Williams University.


identifier: Icli, Siddik  (1974) Proton and carbon-13 NMR studies on the stereo chemistry and kinetics of hindered internal rotational processes in 1-aryl hydantoins.  PhD thesis, Sir George Williams University.


identifier: Ishayek, Rouben  (1973) Ligand exchange equilibrium studies of some MO8 anionic beta-diketonate complexes of Yttrium (III), and kinetic and mechanistic studies of intermolecular ligand exchange in some organotin (IV) acetylacetonate complexes by 1H NMR spectroscopy.  Masters thesis, Sir George Williams University.


identifier: Giles, Howel Gwynne  (1973) On the stereochemistry and kinetics of conformational change involved in restricted internal rotation.  PhD thesis, Sir George Williams University.


identifier: Nguyen, Anh Duy  (1974) Interelement absorption and enhancement effects in aqueous matrix solutions by X-ray fluorescence spectrometry.  PhD thesis, Sir George Williams University.


identifier: Clarke, David Ross  (1968) Nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy : the "asymetry effect" and its contribution to magnetic nonequivalence.  Masters thesis, Sir George Williams University.


identifier: Wan, Chi-chung  (1975) Determination in aqueous media of interelement correction coefficients to be used in the analysis of aluminum alloys by ARF and determination of the absorptive effects of mylar film specimen cell coverings.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.


identifier: Skarpathiotakis, Michael  (1974) Electron paramagnetic resonance of Gd3+ in SmCl₃.6H₂O, NdCl₃.6H₂O and YCl₃.6H₂0.  Masters thesis, Sir George Williams University.


identifier: Bhattacharya, S  (1973) Dependance of pressure induced phase transition of mercury chalcogenides on nearest neighbors' distance : a major technical report.  Masters thesis, Sir George Williams University.


identifier: Ghicopoulos, Basile  (1973) Nearest neighbour dependence of the pressure induced phase transitions of HgSexTe(l-x).  Masters thesis, Sir George Williams University.


identifier: Lee, Edmund Y. M  (1974) Hall coefficient and electrical resistivity measurements on mercury chalcogenides : a major technical report in the Faculty of Engineering.  Masters thesis, Sir George Williams University.


identifier: Clarke, James G  (1971) Electron paramagnetic resonance of the V3+ ion in Cs Al(SO4)2.l2H2O.  Masters thesis, Sir George Williams University.


identifier: Banerjee, Sujit  (1974) The mechanisms of bromination of mono-and dioxo-pyrimidines.  Masters thesis, Sir George Williams University.


identifier: Friend, Richard J  (1972) Simultaneous limbic-hypothalamic stimulation: effects on electrically-induced feeding behavior, and on the development of seizure activity.  Masters thesis, Sir George Williams University.


identifier: Kwatra, Madan Mohan  (1973) Kinetics of acetylcholinesterase inhibition by eserine and a mono-quaternary propargylic ether.  Masters thesis, Sir George Williams University.


identifier: Warner, Glenfield  (1974) A new technique for continous monitoring of systolic blood pressure.  Masters thesis, Sir George Williams University.


identifier: Aczel, Joanne  (1973) 3H-actinomycin D autoradiographic and Feulgen-cytophotometric investigation of the DNA content of normal hepatic cells and hepatoma cells.  Masters thesis, Sir George Williams University.


identifier: Moussali, Rita Benoit  (1972) Les recepteurs adrenergiques des melanophores du fundulus heteroclitus.  Masters thesis, Sir George Williams University.


identifier: Cholette, Thérèse B  (1974) L'influence du milieu familial sur l'expression de l'image visuelle et verbale.  Masters thesis, Sir George Williams University.


identifier: Feldman, Anatol  (1975) Studies in chemistry.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

title: Studies in chemistry


identifier: Parent-Vidal, Louise  (1970) L'éducation artistique et l'éducation par l'art : l'École de Montréal 1940-1969 : le travail d'Irène Senécal = Art education and education through art : the Montreal School 1940-1969 and the work of Irène Senécal.  Masters thesis, Sir George Williams University.


identifier: Charbonneau, Olivier  (2008) La jurisprudence en accès libre à l’ère du contenu généré par les usagers.  Masters thesis, Université de Montréal.

abstract:
User generated content and collaboration, also called « Web 2.0 », offer new possibilities in the context of a thriving and open Internet. Digital environments that employ these production mecanisms allow user communities to enrich a virtual space. Using a constructivist approach, we explore how collaboration can serve the users of an open access database of court rulings, namely the Canadian Legal Information Institute’s website (www.CanLII.org).

Collaboration is set within a framework that we name the « Collaboration Framework ». There are two classes of objects, users and documents, that interact following four relationships : links between documents, exchanges between users, writing (from users to documents) and consumption (from documents to users). In turn, we can better understand how collaboration functions, given a specific class of documents.

Following an analysis of court rulings as a system of documents and an illustration of user needs in civil society, the Collaboration Framework is applied to an open access database of court rulings in order to determine how users can enrich the system’s content.

This thesis was submitted to the 'Faculté des études supérieures' of the 'Université de Montréal' for the LL.M. degree, Information Technology Law option


identifier: Endo, Masaki  (1974) 1, 3-disubstituted-1,2-dihydro-2-oxo-pyrimidinium cations.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.


identifier: Lavoie, Kim Louise  (2003) Myocardial ischemia and reduced heart rate variability in coronary artery disease patients with mood and anxiety disorders : the impact of anxiety sensitivity.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: There is evidence linking mood disorders (MDs) and anxiety disorders (ADs) to coronary artery disease (CAD) risk, morbidity and mortality. However, research on the mechanisms mediating this association is immature. Mental stress-induced myocardial ischemia and reduced heart rate variability (HRV) (a marker of autonomic nervous system (ANS) dysregulation) are two mechanisms proposed to link MDs and ADs to CAD risk. The aim of this study was to evaluate (1) the frequency, duration and triggers of myocardial ischemia during daily life in CAD patients with comorbid MDs and ADs; (2) HRV in panic disorder (PD) patients with established CAD; and (3) the relationship between Hi versus Lo anxiety sensitivity (AS) and HRV in patients with CAD. Seventy-one patients (n = 28 with primary AD (n = 20 with PD); n = 20 with primary MD; n = 23 controls) with exercise ischemia underwent 48-hour Holter monitoring to evaluate ST-segment depressions (ischemia) and HRV (time and frequency domain indices). Patients completed a diary and the Anxiety Sensitivity Index (ASI), Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), State-Trait Anxiety and Anger Inventories (STAI-STAXI), and the Cook-Medley Hostility Inventory (CMHO). All patients were maintained on cardiac medication. Chi-squares and ANCOVAs were conducted for nominal and continuous variables respectively; frequency domain indices of HRV were assessed via spectral analysis. A total of 21 ischemic episodes were recorded for 6 patients. Because so few patients had ischemia results were not significant. While 2/21 ischemic episodes occurred in controls (mean = 1; mean duration = 20 min) 19 episodes occurred in AD patients (mean = 4.75; mean duration = 127 min). Diaries indicated that 42% of episodes in AD patients (versus none in controls) were preceded by mental stress (negative emotions). Interestingly, more MD patients (70%) reported having at least 1 episode of chest pain during the 48-hour period compared to AD patients (50%) and controls (30%) (p < 0.05). MD patients also reported having more episodes of chest pain (4.45) compared to AD patients (1.75) and controls (0.87) (p < 0.05). HRV analyses showed that after controlling for important confounders, PD patients with CAD exhibited significantly lower LF:HF ratios compared to controls (p < 0.05), and HiAS patients exhibited significantly lower LF, VLF and ULF power relative to LoAS patients (p's < 0.05). Interestingly, HRV was not related to BDI, STAI, STAXI or CMHO scores. Findings suggest that CAD patients with a MD reported more chest pain (without evidence of ischemia) but those with an AD demonstrated more (though not significantly) mental stress-induced ischemia relative to patients with a MD or no psychiatric diagnosis. Findings also suggest that PD patients with CAD show dominant parasympathetic tone under baseline (ordinary daily life) conditions that may reflect a dysregulation of ANS functioning. Finally, results show that high AS is associated with reduced HRV suggesting an association between high AS and dysregulated cardiac autonomic tone.


identifier: Mokhov, Serguei A.  (2005) Towards Hybrid Intensional Programming with JLucid, Objective Lucid, and General Imperative Compiler Framework in the GIPSY.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Pure Lucid programs are concurrent with very fine granularity. Sequential Threads (STs) are functions introduced to enlarge the grain size; they are passed from server to workers by Communication Procedures (CPs) in the General Intensional Programming System (GIPSY). A JLucid program combines Java code for the STs with Lucid code for parallel control. Thus first, in this thesis, we describe the way in which the new JLucid compiler generates STs and CPs. JLucid also introduces array support.
Further exploration goes through the additional transformations that the Lucid family of languages has undergone to enable the use of Java objects and their members, in the Generic Intensional Programming Language (GIPL), and Indexical Lucid: first, in the form of JLucid allowing the use of pseudo-objects, and then through the specifically-designed the Objective Lucid language. The syntax and semantic definitions of Objective Lucid and the meaning of Java objects within an intensional program are provided with discussions and examples.
Finally, there are many useful scientific and utility routines written in many imperative programming languages other than Java, for example in C, C++, Fortran, Perl, etc. Therefore, it is wise to provide a framework to facilitate inclusion of these languages into the GIPSY and their use by Lucid programs. A General Imperative Compiler Framework and its concrete implementation is proposed to address this issue.


identifier: Kruzynski, Anna  (2004) Du silence à l’affirmation : Women Making History in Point St. Charles.  PhD thesis, McGill University.

abstract:
Women made, and continue to make history in Point St. Charles, and in doing so, transform selves, groups and community.
Building on the literature on class and gender in community organising, read through the conceptual lens of “translocational positionality” (Anthias, 2002a), I tell a story of the journeys of a group of ten women activists through four decades of neighbourhood organising. I show that although all the women were first involved in citizens’ committees around practical needs such as housing, welfare, urban renewal and education, most of them, stimulated by feminist agitators in their midst, came to new awareness about gender inequalities, to new and deepening analyses, and to individual and collective actions around strategic gender needs. Part and parcel of this spiral of change (Nadeau, 1996) were the tensions that emerged with their families, friends and neighbours, and even with the agitators themselves. Out of these tensions came transformations at the macro level – community, public opinion and government, at the meso level – organisational structures and cultures, and at the micro level – family and selves.
Next I do a metanarrative on the methodology that underlies the project upon which my thesis is based, one that borrows from feminist community organising practice (Gutiérrez & Lewis, 1994) to deal with the many ethical dilemmas inherent to feminist life history methodology (Geiger, 1990). In line with the notion of “translocational imaginings in dialogue”, the project was conceptualised to pre-figure power-with (Starhawk, 1987) in order to construct narratives of belonging that break with processes of differentiation and stratification. The project is about doing community history with the people who make that history. Because of this, when tensions emerged around power relations, instead of paralysis, individual, interpersonal and collective transformations emerged.
Through this work, I am not only releasing new voices into the collective narrative, but I am also contributing to debates on life history methodology. And, my thesis, and the other historical products that will emerge from this project, will enable organisers and activists to learn from the past, and will, hopefully, entice younger people to get involved in community activism.


identifier: Wong, Michael  (2010) Dielectric Waveguides for Electromagnetic Band Gap (EBG) Structures, Antennas, and Microwave Circuits.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Dielectric waveguide structures, formed using rectangular blocks of dielectric, can guide electromagnetic energy in a frequency range suitable for new microwave antennas and devices, or between 2 GHz and 18 GHz.  In this thesis, we present the analysis and design of thin dielectric waveguide structures so small that for the first time, they can be made economically out of readily available substrates, or circuit boards, even at these frequencies.  These strikingly thin metallic-bound dielectric waveguides (H-guides), to be operated in a single fundamental mode, are analyzed and subsequently applied to three brand new applications: a square periodic H-guide structure, an antenna, and a thin H-guide dual-directional coupler.

In the first application, we investigate periodic dielectric structures, or Electromagnetic Band Gap (EBG) structures, where a new model for periodicity applies thin H-guide transmission lines with discontinuities.  This model allows for the resonant frequency, transmission (S21), and reflection (S11) parameters of such structures to be found quickly and quite accurately with closed form expressions, without the need for any numerical methods.  As an added benefit of the new model, which can be represented as a z-transform, an inverse operation exists, creating the possibility to design a structure that meets a certain frequency response.

In the second application, we explore the use of the thin H-guide as a transmission line feed for a new type of aperture horn antenna that is not only high gain, but also wideband.  Incredibly, with proper design, the antenna can also meet low-sidelobe levels between frequencies of 8 and 18 GHz.  The proposed thin H-guide aperture horn antennas have wider bandwidths than typical array designs, have similarly high gains as compared to traditional air-filled horn antennas, and can even be easily fabricated using typical two dimensional substrate machining processes.  The prototype operates from 8 to 18 GHz with a peak gain of about 18 dBi with reference to the H-guide transmission line.

To make antenna fabrication and measurement of periodic dielectric structures possible, a new transition based on microstrip design has been carefully developed that exceeds the performance of all previous microstrip to dielectric waveguide transition designs.  This wideband, low loss, Bézier-shaped microstrip to thin H-guide transition has been carefully developed and is discussed in detail in this thesis.  This transition can even be fabricated using the same two dimensional substrate machining processes used for the H-guide aperture horn antenna, which allows for the seamless integration of the two structures.

Finally, a dual-directional H-guide coupler is discussed that is much thinner than air-filled waveguide designs.  The structure is so thin that its total thickness can be less than 2 millimeters, where the design obtains a directivity of better than 25 dB over a large bandwidth of 8 to 14 GHz.


identifier: M D Issa, Rana  (2009) Design Patterns in Erasmus.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

title: Design Patterns in Erasmus

abstract:
This thesis presents design patterns for the emerging programming language Erasmus that
is based on a process-oriented paradigm. We have developed these patterns using the
current version of Erasmus, μE, and its corresponding compiler MEC. The design patterns
are inspired on some of the patterns presented in the book [GHJV95]. Also, we have
followed the elements of documentation templates that appear in that book. The patterns
are presented visually; the gures show the high-level structure of the design patterns.
Since the tendency of software development is to shift to concurrent and distributed
computation, new paradigms are emerging to accommodate this shift. Erasmus is one of
these new developing paradigms. We try in this thesis, through developing design patterns
for Erasmus, to demonstrate and prove that process-oriented programming is a viable and
valid paradigm. We also compare process-oriented programming presented by Erasmus with
object-oriented programming in the implementation of the design patterns.
We have chosen a set of design patterns that represent the dierent categories that
appear in the book [GHJV95] and we tried to preserve the essential concepts of the original
designs. However, the designs are not a direct translation of their counterparts in OOP.
Rather, the designs make use of the abstraction of POP and nd solutions from within the
paradigm itself. That is why in some designs, for one pattern in OOP we have created two
or three design patterns in μE.


identifier: Fraser, Sarah  (2010) Fine motor control and aging: A role for executive functions in sequential tapping.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: The primary objective of the current thesis was to examine age differences in sequential finger tapping with concurrent cognitive tasks of varying levels of difficulty. The first study was designed to determine the point at which age equivalence would be reached on the finger tapping task. Results of Study 1 established age equivalence in sequential tapping after one block of practice. The second study was designed to assess age differences in sequential tapping when combined with a low-load semantic judgment task that had also shown age equivalence under single-task conditions. Despite age equivalences in single-task performance, age differences in fine motor performance emerged when the sequential tapping task was paired with semantic judgments. Older adults had greater dual-task costs than younger adults in both motor measures (accuracy and reaction time). Neither age group incurred cognitive costs. Study 3 was designed to examine the boundary conditions of these results using a within-subjects manipulation of cognitive load. The same sequential tapping task was paired with a mental arithmetic task that had two levels of difficulty. Age differences in motor accuracy were evident in low-load conditions and both age groups had motor and cognitive costs in the high load condition. These results suggest that older adult’s resources were already taxed in the low-load condition whereas younger adults’ performance only faltered when load was high. Taken together, these results demonstrate that older adults require greater executive control to tap sequentially than younger adults. These results converge with existing simple tapping and gross motor aging research in demonstrating cognitive penetration of motor task performance with age.


identifier: Bedard, S. Holly  (2010) Testing the role of dopamine in olfactory sensitivity and learning in the entorhinal cortex.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Dopaminergic innervation of the entorhinal cortex may contribute to the integration and encoding of sensory information. The primary olfactory cortex (piriform cortex) projects to the superficial layers of the entorhinal cortex, and converging dopaminergic inputs from the ventral tegmental area may modulate processes in the entorhinal cortex related to the salience of olfactory stimuli. In the current study, food-restricted rats were trained to dig in cups filled with scented sand and to discriminate between two different odours to obtain a buried food-reward which was always associated with one odour (CS+). Upon reaching criterion performance on this task, animals underwent sham surgery or 6-hydroxydopamine lesions of the entorhinal cortex.  After retraining on the original discrimination rule, olfactory sensitivity was tested using cups containing decreasing amounts of the original CS+ odour. Animals showed graded decrements in response accuracy as the concentration of odorant was reduced, but no significant differences were observed between control and lesioned animals. In addition, lesioned animals did not differ in their ability to learn to perform the discrimination task with a new odour pair at low concentrations, and did not show differences in their ability to respond accurately to either the initial or novel odour pair after a delay of two weeks. These findings show that scented sand can be used as an effective stimulus to assess the sensitivity to olfactory stimuli in the rat, but do not provide evidence for deficits in olfactory sensitivity or memory performance in animals with 6-OHDA lesions of the entorhinal cortex.


identifier: Germain, L. Marie-France  (2010) Solidarity Economy in Montreal: Women's Activism Creating Alternatives Through the Ethics of Care.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
The feminization of poverty has been, and still is, a problem in North America.  Canadian public policies have a negative affect on women, especially those who are mothers, single or elderly.  Large urban centres such as Montréal, Québec have a large proportion of women living on low incomes or on social assistance.  Through participant observation at Food Central, a community organization, I interacted with these women and the women activists who work with them to assist in easing the difficulties women experience in providing for their families and themselves when household income is insufficient to cover monthly bills.  My fieldwork was conducted from August 2008-March 2009, some of the most expensive months of the year for many women.

Québec’s history of social upheavals since the 1960s and its economic instability has created a situation that closely parallels Latin American countries.  Both Québec and Latin American countries have increasingly large and popular activist organizations seeking social justice.  Many of the grassroots Latin American activist organizations are creating alternatives to the globalized capitalist economy such as “economía solidaria” which is based on an ethics of care, reciprocity, and non-monetary forms of exchanges.  This thesis presents the narratives and life stories of the women activists, volunteers and women who came to Food Central as clients to learn what alternatives to the formal economy if any, the women use as strategies of survival in a large city.


identifier: Graham, Peter  (2010) On the Illusory Nature of Sustainable Development: A case study of a Montreal Suburb.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
An apparent paradox attaches to the concept of sustainable development: as general levels of education, technology, and scientific knowledge have increased, so has the ecological impact of humanity and the likelihood of large-scale anthropogenic catastrophe for human populations. This paradox can be at least partially explained as the result of perceptual and cognitive illusion. Human perception, cognition and meaning systems are always to some extent “inherited” as a path-dependent “traditionality”. This difference between the world “as it is” and “as we know it” creates an illusion and a false sense of impunity to act in the world.
Instrumental measures to implement sustainable development thus ignore important contextual information. Making this information perceptible, comprehensible and meaningful thus requires recognition and understanding of the functioning and consequent illusion inherent to the workings of the social mind. Such a learning exercise would seem inherently transformative and enabling of a more deliberative and democratic way of being in the world.
A specific suburban community, Pointe Claire, is examined as a case study to illustrate the illusion and suggest various potentially remedial pathways. A reflexive balance model is also proposed as a partial remediation for the illusion.


identifier: Bah, Slimane  (2010) SIP servlets-based service provisioning in MANETs.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Mobile Ad-hoc NETworks (MANETs) are a part of the fourth generation networks vision. They are new wireless networks having transient mobile nodes with no need for a pre-installed infrastructure. They are of utmost interest for the future networks owing to their flexibility, effortlessness of deployment and related low cost. They come in two flavours: standalone MANETs and integrated with the conventional 3G network.
Providing value-added services is the core concept of several paradigms and has been extensively studied in legacy network. However, providing such services in MANETs is a challenging process. Indeed, MANETs are known for their heterogeneous devices, limited resources, dynamic topology and frequent disconnections/connections. New SIP based solutions for signalling and media handling in these networks are emerging. Furthermore, SIP is the primary protocol for 3G networks. Therefore, SIP servlets become a promising paradigm for service provisioning in MANETs.
This thesis addresses the service provisioning aspects in both standalone MANETs and integrated 3G/MANETs. The SIP servlets framework is considered as the starting point while Multihop Cellular Networks (MCNs), the widely studied networks, are used as an example of integrated 3G/MANETs.
Background information is provided, architectures requirements are derived and related work is reviewed. A novel business model is proposed for service provision in standalone MANETs. The business model defines the business roles and the relationship and interfaces between them. We also propose a service invocation and execution architecture implementing the business model. The solution is based on overlay network and a distribution scheme of the SIP servlets engine. The overlay network enables self-organization and self-recovery to take into account MANETs characteristics. As for the integrated 3G/MANETs we propose high level architectural alternatives for service provisioning in MCNs. We identify the most interesting alternatives from the network operator point of view and proposed a detailed and concrete architecture for the promising alternative. Overall architecture, functional entities and procedures are presented. During this work, we built prototypes as proof-of-concept and made preliminary performance measurements, used SPIN as protocol validation tool and adopted OPNET for simulation. The results show that we can provide services in MANETs as we do in conventional networks with reasonable performance.


identifier: Bodington, Malene R.  (2010) On Intolerance and Immigration: Understanding Perceptions of Intra- and Extradiversity in Denmark and Canada.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
The increasing pace of immigration to the Western world and the subsequent xenophobic backlashes to immigrants has created an urgent need for empirical research that examines the dynamics of immigration and xenophobia. This project addresses that dynamic through a comparative analysis of Denmark and Canada, whose histories since World War II have shaped both official responses and dominant discourses in ways that position the two countries at near opposite ends of the spectrum of immigration responses in the Western world.
Moving away from linear, macro-level models employed in most immigration research, this project employs methods triangulation. It uses both qualitative and quantitative data to explore the hypothesis that the perceived level of diversity – of the 'self' and the 'other' – is instrumental in shaping the dynamics within which discourses and attitudes about immigration are negotiated.
The research findings support the diversity hypothesis while also causing us to expand on it: not only is the receiving population's negotiation of the national identity vis a vis diversity central in shaping responses to immigration, but the nature of the distinction between the 'self' and the 'other' is instrumental in this negotiation process. Furthermore, the level of society from which the identity negotiation process stems - whether group-based or focused on the individual - plays a large role in shaping the responses to immigration.


identifier: Rouhieh, Behzad  (2010) Multi-Modal Traffic Signal Design under Safety and Operations Constraints.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Currently, most transportation agencies design signal timing plans for intersection with the main objective of minimizing vehicular traffic delay while ensuring compliance with basic safety guidelines. Often times along urban roadways where automobiles share the space with large volumes of non-motorized users (i.e. pedestrians and cyclists), reaching a balance between delays and safety of all road users is a challenging task.  In this thesis, different approaches are presented to address potential improvements on traffic operations and safety of intersections serving more than one mode of transportation.
The impact of tunnels on the pedestrian operations and the effect of applying different signal timing plans on the performance of an isolated intersection are being studied. A methodology is proposed to reach a desired compromise between the safety and efficiency of either an isolated intersection or a corridor of independent/coordinated intersections. An integrated delay-safety (DS) indicator is used in combination with a neural network based tool. The proposed methodology was applied to a real-world urban arterial in downtown Montreal, along which a bicycle path was recently built.  The study area was evaluated using VISSIM, a microscopic traffic simulator, by coding traffic signal timing plans along the arterial to perform independently, or coordinated. The objective is to advance with minimum delay a specified transportation mode (i.e. automobiles or bicycles). A Multi-Layer Perceptron (MLP) neural-network was built to identify what type of signal timing plan yields the best tradeoff between automobile delay and safety of non-motorized users. Based on traffic data collected from real-world and from simulations, a large date set of input/output pairs was used to train and test the MLP neural network. It was found that for 99.8% of the tested cases the neural network identifies correctly the configuration of signal timing plan that yields the optimal DS value.


identifier: Artoun, Ojenie  (2010) Parabolic Yao-type Geometric Spanners in Wireless Ad Hoc Networks.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Geometric graphs are frequently used to model a wireless ad hoc network in order to build efficient routing algorithms. The network topology in mobile wireless networks may often change therefore position-based routing that uses the idea
of localized routing has an advantage over other types of routing protocols. Since a wireless network has limited memory and energy resources, topology control has an important role in enhancing certain desirable properties of
these networks. To achieve the goal of topology control, spanning subgraphs of the UDG graph such as Relative Neighborhood Graph, Gabriel Graph and Yao Graph are constructed, which are then routed upon rather than the original UDG.

In this thesis we introduce a spanning subgraph of the UDG graph that is a variation of the Displaced Apex Adaptive Yao (DAAY) graph. In this subgraph an exclusion zone based on a parabola is defined with respect to each non-excluded
nearest neighbor and positioned on each node, instead of a cone as with the DAAY subgraph, such that each nearest neighbor is inside the parabola. It also lets the apex of the parabola to move along the line segment between the node and its neighbor. The subgraph has two adjustable parameters, one each for the position of the apex with respect to the nearest neighbor, and the width of the parabola. Thus a directed or undirected spanning subgraph
of a UDG is constructed. We show that this spanning subgraph is connected, has a conditional bounded out-degree, is a t-spanner with bounded stretch factor, and contains the Euclidean minimum spanning tree as a subgraph.
Experimental comparisons with related spanning subgraphs are also presented.


identifier: Ivanova, Elena  (2010) Electronic Structure and Hydrolytic Reactivity of N-Sulfinyl Species.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
The mechanism of the uncatalyzed hydrolysis of various classes of N-sulfinyl compounds (N=S=O) has been studied with the B3LYP/6-31+G(2d,2p) model chemistry, which was validated to provide reliable results in terms of the reproduction of experimental geometries and determination of energies of the reaction. N-sulfinylamines (R–N=S=O), -hydrazines (R–NH–N=S=O), -hydrazides (R–CO–NH–N=S=O) and  amides (R–CO–N=S=O), known to possess a widely varying hydrolytic behaviour, were studied in comparison, and the electronic structures of many were determined for the first time. The effect of the substituent was investigated through R = H, CH3 and Ph for each class of N-sulfinyl species; the series was expanded by eight more substituents for N-sulfinylamines. The hydrolysis of selected N-sulfinylamines was compared to that of the related isocyanates (R–N=C=O).
Hydrolysis of all N-sulfinyl species involves the electrostatic interaction of water towards sulfur, with either close-to-perpendicular or in-plane alignment of a water molecule, with respect to the NSO plane, in a pre-reaction complex. A two-water-molecule model in gas phase calculations was determined to be sufficient for an adequate description of the hydrolysis. The rate-determining step of the reaction consists of the concerted hydroxylation of sulfur with protonation of either nitrogen (attack across the N=S bond) or oxygen (attack across the S=O bond) atoms of the NSO group. Electron-withdrawing substituents were found to decrease, electron-donating substituents to increase the reaction barrier. A fundamental difference in the resonance description of the various classes of N-sulfinyl species was found to be responsible for their distinctively varying sensitivity towards moisture.
Activation barriers for hydrolysis correlate well with the strength of the S…O interaction, governed by the charge on the electrophilic sulfur atom, which can be accurately determined by both the Quantum Theory of Atoms in Molecules and the Natural Bond Orbital Analysis. The computationally determined order of reactivity of the various classes of NSO compounds, quantitatively defined through the charge on sulfur, agrees well with the available qualitative experimental data. Thus, N-sulfinylamides and aliphatic N-sulfinylamines are most reactive, N-sulfinylhydrazides are much less reactive, and N-sulfinylhydrazines are completely inert to water.
The clear dependence of the hydrolytic reactivity of N-sulfinyl species on the charge of the reactive center suggests the possibility of using such dependences in the prediction of the general reactivity of N-sulfinyl compounds, as most of their reactions involve the sulfur atom or the N=S bond.


identifier: Goldstein, Cathy A.  (2010) Understanding the Role of Personal Transformation in Adults who have Survived Childhood Cancer.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Understanding the Role of Transformation in Adults who have Survived Childhood Cancer
Cathy Ann Goldstein
The narrative stories of transformation of childhood cancer survivors were examined in comparison to the established research in the same area.  The established research that is available is based on statistical criteria, which examines the quality of life of adult survivors.  Based on such criteria, the quality of life of childhood cancer survivors has indicated mixed results indicating that more research is needed to better serve the growing population of survivors.  In contrast, this study sought to compare the outcome of a quality of life survey versus the individual stories of survivors.  The findings suggest that the survey does not accurately reflect the quality of life of the adult survivors.  Also by including narrative stories this study offers a forum for survivors by giving them a voice.
	Keywords: adult, cancer, childhood, quality, life, narratives, stories, survivors


identifier: Jobin, Joelle  (2010) Health Congruence in Recent Retirees: Effects on Subjective Well-Being, Developmental Activity Levels and Health-Care Usage.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: This study (N=346) aimed to examine the predictive value of health congruence on developmental activity levels, subjective well-being and health-care usage in recent retirees. The Motivational Theory of Lifespan Development was used to postulate differences in primary and secondary control striving according to various health congruence groups (Heckhausen, Wrosch, & Schulz, 2010). Multiple mixed factorial ANCOVAs and logistic regression analyses were used to determine the impact of health congruence on the five facets of developmental activities (number, frequency, importance, difficulty, ability and future intentions) using the Everyday Activities Questionnaire (Pushkar, Arbuckle, Conway, Chaikelson, & Maag, 1997), positive affect, negative affect, quantity of medications used and likelihood of hospitalization. The results indicated that good health realists experienced the most optimal outcomes over four years in terms of activity engagement, subjective well-being and health care usage. In contrast, good health pessimists showed less adaptive outcomes in terms of their subjective well-being, engaged in a lower number of activities and used a higher number of medications. Poor health optimists engaged in a higher number of activities and used fewer medications. Poor health realists were found to engage in compensatory secondary control strategies evidenced by the decline in importance of developmental activities over time (Heckhausen, Wrosch, & Schulz, 2010). These individuals also tended to exhibit the lowest level of subjective well-being and consumed more medications. The findings suggest that health congruence affects primary and secondary control striving leading to differences in activity engagement which in turn are proposed to affect subjective well-being. Implications for future research in health congruence are discussed.


identifier: Welch, David  (2010) Exploring the Transfer System. Validating a Process Model with a Business Training Intervention.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: In today’s economic landscape, business trainers have a responsibility to deliver training that translates into individual performance improvement and a positive return on investment. The inherent purpose of this study is to explore the variables that impact individual performance in the “transfer system”. Interviews with customer service representatives and the support staff that work alongside them at a Montreal-based call center depict both anticipated and unanticipated reactions towards factors in the transfer system that impact individual and team performance. Results focus on learner perceptions, instructional quality, and peripheral influences, all of which provide the framework for an updated transfer process model.


identifier: Regules García, Ricardo  (2010) Fertility-Migration Interactions: Exploring the Association between Migration of Children and Parental Fertility in Mexican Rural Communities.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.


identifier: Lyons, Steve  (2010) Stan Douglas and the "New-Old" Film.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

title: Stan Douglas and the "New-Old" Film

abstract: After the fall of the Berlin wall and the reunification of Germany, the former UFA film studios in Potsdam-Babelsberg were sold by the government to a French conglomerate, and a number of its oldest studios were either demolished or repurposed. In 1994, Canadian artist Stan Douglas produced the two-channel black and white film installation Der Sandmann in one of these old studios. Douglas’s film utilizes an early cinematic special-effect called the “doppelgänger trick”: a simple double-exposure which allows one actor to play opposite himself or herself on the film screen. This technique was first used in the German Expressionist silent film The Student of Prague (1913), and again in the second film version (1926), which was, not coincidentally, shot on the same UFA film lot as Der Sandmann. By imitating not only the aesthetic, but some of the technical limitations of The Student of Prague, Douglas engages in what film critic Marc Le Sueur might have recognized as “deliberate archaism”: a specific way of making nostalgia films that productively exploits both formal and technical features of films from the past. At the same time, Der Sandmann resists what Marxist cultural theorist Fredric Jameson reproaches as the ahistorical aesthetic of “pastness” that is produced and perpetuated by the nostalgia film. While Douglas directs us to the past, he does so for contemporary ends; he recodes the history of Expressionist cinema in order to explore the aftereffects of reunification on the former East Germany.


identifier: Morden, C-Jae C.  (2010) Faecal sampling as a non-invasive population monitoring and management method for reindeer and caribou.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Methods to monitor and manage populations of reindeer (Rangifer tarandus) and caribou are often impractical, costly, and can be harmful to the animals. Non-invasive techniques that produce high quality and accurate results are better alternatives. We collected blood and faecal samples during 2008 - 2010 from two herds of Fenno-Scandian reindeer to explore the potential of using faecal samples to determine the age class (calf, yearling and adult), the sex, as well as the reproductive status of individuals. This was done using two main techniques: faecal progesterone metabolite concentrations (specifically faecal pregnane) and faecal pellet morphometrics. Faecal pregnane was highly correlated with plasma progesterone and therefore, in theory could be a substitute for traditional hormone procedures. We were not successful in using faecal pregnane for sexing or aging individual reindeer. Using plasma progesterone and faecal pregnane, we were able to determine a pregnancy cut-off value for all of the study reindeer, and were therefore able to clearly differentiate pregnant from non-pregnant females. Using a combination of pellet dimensions including maximum length, width, and depth, we were able to differentiate with high accuracy, three age classes of reindeer (calf, yearling, and adult). A combination of faecal sampling using pregnane and pellet size, with the addition of current faecal DNA techniques, may allow the collection of important population data essential for monitoring and management of wild and elusive species such as wild reindeer and woodland caribou.


identifier: Martin-Storey, Alexa  (2011) Self and peer perceptions of childhood behaviour in the prediction of adult outcomes.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Previous investigations of the longitudinal outcomes of childhood aggression, social withdrawal and likeability have relied on the reports of a single observer, or combined the results of several observers in the prediction of adult outcomes.  By comparing self and peer perceptions of childhood behaviour, the present studies proposed to clarify the nature of the relation between childhood behaviours and adult outcomes.  Four questions were examined being (1) how were childhood behaviour patterns related to adult outcomes; (2) how did self and peer perceptions compare in the prediction of adult outcomes; (3) was the relation between self and peer perspectives additive in the prediction of these outcomes; and (4) did concordance between self and peer perspectives predict adult outcomes? Data from the Concordia Risk Project were employed to determine the socioeconomic, personality, and substance abuse outcomes. Both self and peer perceptions of childhood behaviour were associated with adult outcomes, although generally, self perceptions as opposed to peer perceptions of childhood behaviours were more strongly associated with adult outcomes in women.   Including both self and peer perceptions did not have an additive effect in the prediction of adult outcomes, although there was some support for the importance of concordance in education and income outcomes. The findings suggest that self and peer perceptions of childhood behaviour each provide some unique information. Future research examining the adult outcomes of childhood behaviours may wish to consider both the gender and the behaviour being examined in designing prospective, longitudinal studies.


identifier: Ahmed, Ali  (2010) A Proposal of Design Spectrum Based on Uniform Hazard Spectral Format Using 4th Generation Seismic Hazard Maps of Canada for CHBDC.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Two recent developments have come into the forefront with reference to updating the seismic design provisions for codes: (i) publication of new seismic hazard maps for Canada by the Geological Survey of Canada, and (ii) emergence of the concept of new spectral format outdating the conventional standardized spectral format. The 4th generation seismic hazard maps are based on enriched seismic data, enhanced knowledge of regional seismicity and improved seismic hazard modeling techniques. Therefore, the new maps are more accurate and need to incorporate into the Canadian Highway Bridge Design Code (CHBDC) for its next edition similar to its building counterpart (NBCC 2005). In fact the code writers expressed such intentions with comments in the commentary of CHBCD 2006 as “New methods for defining ground motion (e.g., uniform hazard spectra) are being investigated for possible inclusion in future codes.” During the process of updating codes, NBCC 2005 and AASHTO 2009 lowered the probability level from 10% to 2% and 10% to 5%, respectively. This study has brought three sets of hazard maps (corresponding to 2%, 5% and 10% probability of exceedance in 50 years) developed by the GSC under investigation. To have a sound statistical inference, 389 Canadian cities are selected. The statistical analyses reveal that the design spectra under consideration need modification.  A scheme of modification is developed to make the modified spectra work. Finally, validity of modified AASHTO spectrum is established and its adoption in the future CHBDC is recommended.


identifier: Tom, Kevin  (2010) Investigation of Near Wake Flow Structure of a Horizontal Axis Wind Turbine Using Particle Image Velocimetry.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
An experimental study was conducted to investigate the mean and turbulent flow characteristics in the near wake region of a model horizontal axis wind turbine (HAWT), with the rotor diameter D = 0.15 m. State-of-the-art particle image velocimetry (PIV) technique was utilized to measure two dimensional velocity fields in horizontal planes, which extended between 0.15 D upstream to 0.7 D downstream. Measurements were taken at three vertical positions (z = 0.185 m, 0.135 m, and 0.05 m) to account for wake perturbations from the blades, support tower and blades, and the tower itself. The wind speed was varied to give a tip speed ratio (λ) range of 3.5 - 4.25 and chord Reynolds number between 1900 - 2500.
A phase averaging algorithm was developed according to the rotor’s angular configuration to compute various phase-averaged flow quantities. Results are presented in ensemble-averaged and phase-averaged forms. Results of phase averaged velocity deficit determined regions of accelerated flow adjacent to individual blades, and a localized region of lower momentum due to flow separation. The correlation between blade-trailing vorticity strength, and the increase in turbulence was confirmed through profiles of turbulence intensity. The profiles of Reynolds stress showed significant enhancement immediately downstream of blades and tower indicating the enhanced production of turbulent kinetic energy (TKE). The wavenumber spectra of both streamwise and crosswind velocity components were examined. The result provided the first quantitative estimate of the scales at which energy is injected into the turbulence by the blades and tower. An inertial subrange was observed at all heights, and it was determined that the tower redistributed TKE to a wider range of scales.


identifier: Lauder, Adam  (2010) Executive Fictions: Revisiting Information.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
There is growing recognition of the significance of the 1970 MoMA exhibition organized by Kynaston McShine (1935- ), Information, to broader narratives of Conceptual art and the so-called Information Society.  Previous studies have focussed on Information as a symptom of processes of informatization (Meltzer, 2006) as well as the aspirational politics of 1960s counterculture (Allan, 2004) and the heightened visibility of corporate sponsorship (Staniszewski, 1998) within the sanctified space of the museum.
	The present study amplifies and revises these findings by singling out for exploration the executive roles performed by three exhibition participants, McShine, IAIN BAXTER& (1936- ) and Lucy Lippard (1937- ).  Within the context of the corporate exhibition environment of Information, the supernumerary operations enacted by these figures generated an abrasive inter-play of redundant information by calling attention to and multiplying managerial functions traditionally vested in the curator.  I argue that this McLuhanesque logic of decentralized management was adopted in response to the effects of information speed-up and youth culture.  As the museum is transformed into the technological newseum or synaesthetic playground envisioned by McLuhan’s associate Harley Parker (1915-1992), the curator drops out and the artist drops in.  The non-oppositional, but nonetheless disruptive, logic of these roles charts a parallel, but distinct, course to the more familiar strategy of institutional critique deployed by Hans Haacke (1936- ) within the context of the same show.


identifier: Mills, Alexandra  (2010) A Fluid Play of Interchangeable Signs: Anna Jameson's Canadian Sketches, 1836-1837.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: It was not unusual for travelers to Britain’s colonies to record their experiences and impressions in journals as well as in watercolor drawings in the nineteenth century. In fact, at this time there was an increasing demand for visual information about the new world, and visitors, settlers and explorers alike were encouraged to document their surroundings. This was a practice that was enthusiastically adopted by many amateur women artists visiting North America, including Anna Jameson (1794-1860), but artists such as Jameson were not always able to translate the firmly established European pictorial traditions to which they were accustomed to Canada’s landscapes. The disjuncture between Jameson’s knowledge, which was rooted in romantic ideology, and her stay in Canada is apparent in her drawings. This thesis investigates Anna Jameson’s visual representations in Canada and considers how she negotiated the often-contradictory frameworks of femininity and colonialism in her pencil and watercolor sketches of the landscape. The issue of freedom and its associations with travel is of particular importance as it had an undeniable effect on Jameson’s ability to define herself as she traveled through Canada’s wilderness, ostensibly – although not always – away from limitations related to her gender. Imagination, emotion, and knowledge also played important roles in the evolution of her selfhood, and consequently, in her representations of Canada’s landscape. Jameson’s attempts at self-definition and the emotional transformations that occurred over the course of her travels are reflected in her depictions of Canada’s wilderness – particularly in her water themed images.


identifier: Loghmany, Alireza / AL  (2010) Treatment of the Impacts of Transport Inflexion Points and Charge Trapping at the Surface States on Drain Current of AlGaN/GaN HFETs.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
During the past two decades AlGaN/GaN Heterostructure Field Effect Transistors (HFETs) have been the target of much attention in high power microwave applications. Crystal imperfections in AlGaN/GaN HFETs have been pointed out as the cause of many reliability concerns such as drain-current collapse, gate lag, and excessive gate leakage-current. Current collapse and reliability degradation due to electron trapping at the surface layer of AlGaN/GaN HFETs are major impediments for commercialization of these devices. Even though there have been remarkable improvements in crystal growth and device fabrication technology, trapping effects in AlGaN/GaN HFETs, specially under high drain-voltage conditions, have not been completely removed. Therefore, an assured simulation of HFET with incorporation of trapping effects is needed. In this thesis, in order to substantiate the hypothesis of electron trapping at deep surface states as the cause of semi-permanent current collapse this phenomenon is studied with the use of CADtool Medici.
Monte Carlo simulation of electronic transport at AlGaN/GaN channels reveals that in addition to the steady-state velocity overshoot there exists a pronounced kink in the low electric-field region of the drift-velocity versus electric-field characteristics of these channels. Existence of the inflexion points attributed to this kink and the large width of the overshoot pattern in conjunction with the large electric-fields conventionally applied to these wide band-gap semiconductors, make the modeling of electronic devices fabricated in this technology different than those of other III-V semiconductors. An analytical model for drain current/voltage characteristic of AlGaN/GaN HFETs with incorporation of steady-state drift-velocity overshoot and the inflexion points in the electronic drift transport characteristics is also presented in this thesis. The wide peak and pronounced inflexion points in the transport characteristics of AlGaN/GaN heterojunctions are modeled through considering a drift-diffusion channel rather than a drift-only transport channel. Simulation results have been compared to a non-diffusion type channel implemented with the assumption of Ridley’s saturating transport model. The model is based on applying an iterative approach between Poisson’s equation and current-continuity equation, which relieves the results from the burden of the choice of fitting parameters. With the advancement of this technology, development of a versatile analytical model with incorporation of these considerations is vital for understanding the full range of capabilities of III-Nitride material system.


identifier: Fereydouni-Forouzandeh, Fariborz  (2010) Ultra Low Energy Communication Protocol for Implantable Wireless Body Sensor Networks.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Abstract

Title: Ultra Low Energy Communication Protocol for Implantable Wireless Body Sensor Networks.

Fariborz Fereydouni_Forouzandeh, Ph.D.
Concordia University, 2010

Medical science will soon start to benefit from wireless communication and implantable sensor technologies being developed for use in the human body. Such technologies have a potential to revolutionize the health-care industry by providing real-time patient monitoring capabilities to the health-care professionals. In this regard, implantable wireless body sensor networks (IWBSNs) have recently emerged as an important and growing area of research. The implantable sensors are required to be reliable and very small so that the body does not reject them. They must stay functional in the human body for years, and most importantly, they must not be a source of discomfort to the potential patients. The life time of their embedded batteries could vary from a few days to a few weeks using current hardware and software technologies. In order to make such devices suitable for implantation an order of magnitude reduction in energy use is required. Our research is motivated by this goal.
In this thesis, we identify and analyze the sources of energy use in typical devices meant for Implantation in a human body. Our detailed mathematical analysis and computer simulations clearly demonstrate that improving the efficiency of communication protocols is the only realistic way of achieving this goal. Unfortunately, none of the existing low range low energy wireless communication protocols can be used in IWBSNs because of the small energy resources available in the implanted sensor nodes. We propose a new energy aware communication protocol which efficiently encodes data in time domain. It ensures accurate transmission of information. The encoding scheme does this by sending only a single signal from the sensor node to the base station. The protocol is called the Time Based Coded Data protocol or TBCD in short. For proper operation of this protocol reliable synchronization is required. Our proposed synchronization algorithm is energy efficient and stable under worst case conditions as compared to existing algorithms. A sensor node using existing state of the art technology that can only last for a few weeks can be made to last for few years using our proposed communication protocol and the synchronization algorithm.


identifier: Emond, Gilbert  (2005) Processus de Séduction et Protection Contre le VIH dans l'Expérience Sexuelle des Hommes Gais de Montréal.  PhD thesis, Université du Québec à Montréal.

abstract:
La prévention est le seul outil capable de contrecarrer la diffusion du VIH, le virus du sida. Ni vaccins, ni traitements n’éliminent ce virus, fléau mondial des XXe et XXIe siècles. Cette prévention implique le maintien et le renouvellement d’une communication sociale motivant le port du condom et l’usage des pratiques de réduction du risque dans les relations sexuelles à risque d’infection au VIH. Cette thèse élabore les bases préparant l’élaboration d’un nouvel outil d’intervention en prévention du sida interpellant la communauté gaie d’aujourd’hui dans une perspective relationnelle de la protection contre le VIH.
La communauté gaie est à Montréal la plus affectée par le VIH. Les campagnes de prévention ont atteint un point de saturation manifeste : le taux d’infection annuel au VIH s’y est relativement stabilisé dans les dernières années tandis que les marqueurs de relâchement des comportements de prévention comme les infections à la syphilis et à la gonorrhée augmentent. Le VIH menace de revenir en force et demande donc de renouveler les moyens de prévention : les hommes gais sont conscients du sida, ils portent « toujours » un condom sauf… qu’ils le négligent encore trop souvent. Par rapport aux recherches dans le domaine dont celles sur la réduction du risque et la négociation du condom, qui s’intéressent d’abord au risque, la thèse propose d’introduire une perspective complémentaire à leurs méthodes et de s’intéresser aux événements : les expériences et les rencontres sexuelles.

Cette recherche qualitative synthétise 12 entretiens en profondeur à propos d’expériences sexuelles gaies, elle est innovatrice pour sa grille alliant récits libres et entretiens mitigés et pour son analyse unissant la théorie ancrée – grounded theory – guidée par des analyses statistiques hiérarchiques – clusterings. Cette dernière technique permet de repérer les thèmes les plus interreliés simultanément dans les récits complexes.

Les résultats ancrés laissent émerger l’idée que le processus de séduction constitue la référence centrale des récits d’expériences sexuelles. Les analyses de textes aidées d’une reconstruction systémique utilisant les notions de complexité révèlent que dans le processus de séduction, les partenaires composent simultanément leur érotique et la protection appliquée contre le VIH au cours de la rencontre sexuelle.

Le processus de séduction, ignoré dans les recherches actuelles sur le VIH et le sida autant que dans les sciences sociales, se compose en cinq phases et quatre composantes transversales. Les cinq phases sont : l’amorce, la séduction, le passage à l’intimité, l’application érotique et le retrait. Les composantes développées dans la relation entre les partenaires au cours du processus sont : la confiance, l’intensité, l’information et l’écoute. Ces composantes sont définies et expliquées pour ce contexte. Le modèle complexe et assumant les variations de toutes les composantes à la fois permet d’entrevoir ce processus comme un moyen de compréhension de la séduction et de ses implications sur la diffusion du VIH.

Les résultats montrent qu’en présentant le condom et l’érotique comme une responsabilité commune des partenaires découlant d’une perspective relationnelle de la rencontre sexuelle, les raisonnements de prévention du VIH pourraient se montrer plus réalistes pour les hommes gais : les partenaires contribuent ensemble à utiliser le condom et agissent selon le contexte où ils sont, ils négocient un accès à la sexualité, la pénétration peut se réaliser seulement si le contexte s’y prête et leur « relation » prend un sens seulement après leur rencontre. Ainsi, dans une rencontre à risques, lorsqu’un partenaire abandonne à l’autre la direction des activités sexuelles sans exiger le condom, il se montre déjà négligeant à propos du VIH.
En utilisant en prévention le processus de séduction, il est possible de relancer l’attention portée au VIH dans la communauté gaie et d’améliorer le contrôle de la diffusion du virus.

Enfin, les modes de communication dans la relation montrent que les partenaires utilisent dans leur communication avec l’autre homme une sémiologie pratique incluse dans une « communication non langagière ». La communication est « non langagière » quand en utilisant la communication verbale et non verbale, elle permet de conclure des perceptions sur le partenaire qui n’ont pas de formes immédiatement explicites dans les langages reconnaissables.

À partir du processus de séduction, des scénarios illustrant le développement du risque dans la relation sexuelle pourront être développés et permettront l’analyse de situations de séduction selon les forces et les difficultés présentes dans la relation.


identifier: Jafari, Saeid  (2010) Structural Controllability of Multi-Agent Systems Subject to Partial Failure.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Formation control of multi-agent systems has emerged as a topic of major interest during the last decade, and has been studied from various perspectives using different approaches. This work considers the structural controllability of multi-agent systems with leader-follower architecture. To this end, graphical conditions are first obtained based on the information flow graph of the system. Then, the notions of p-link, q-agent, and joint-(p,q) controllability are introduced as quantitative measures for the controllability of the system subject to failure in communication links or/and agents. Necessary and sufficient conditions for the system to remain structurally controllable in the case of the failure of some of the communication links
or/and loss of some agents are derived in terms of the topology of the information flow graph. Moreover, a polynomial-time algorithm for determining the maximum number of failed communication links under which the system remains structurally controllable is presented. The proposed algorithm is analogously extended to the case of loss of agents, using the node-duplication technique. The above results are subsequently extended to the multiple-leader case, i.e., when more than one agent can act as the leader. Then, leader localization problem is investigated, where it is desired to achieve p-link or q-agent controllability in a multi-agent system. This problem is concerned with finding a minimal set of agents whose selection as leaders results in a p-link or q-agent controllable system. Polynomial-time algorithms to find such minimal sets for both undirected and directed information flow graphs are presented.


identifier: Rousseau, Yannick Y.  (2010) Assessment of Management Strategies for a Lowland Straightened Agricultural Stream.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Channel straightening and dredging were extensively used in the 20th century to enhance agricultural drainage and facilitate crop maintenance and harvest. Although the adverse geomorphological and ecological effects of channelization are widely acknowledged, the use of alternative management strategies remains marginal in Southwestern Québec. Bank stabilisation projects are often carried out to mitigate local erosion problems with little assessment of their effects at the reach and watershed scales and with insufficient guidance on suitable designs. The objective of this research is to assess the impacts of various management strategies by studying a case of straightened agricultural stream. Field measurements in the Richer stream, which drains a small agricultural watershed in the St. Lawrence Lowlands, were used to parameterise a hydro-morphological model at the watershed scale and a 3D computational fluid dynamics model at the reach scale. The increase in stream power associated with the loss in sinuosity since the 1930s has resulted in noteworthy erosion problems in the studied watershed, in particular near residential development where there is limited space available to establish riparian strips. The tested management strategies at the watershed scale are the recreation of meanders and the installation of backwater ponds whereas, at the reach scale, stream barbs and bed weirs are tested. These management strategies are also assessed through a cost-benefit analysis which also takes into account environmental and practical implementation aspects. Results indicate that both the addition of ponds and re-meandering can markedly reduce unit stream power, thus the potential for erosion. Hydraulic structures such as stream barbs and V-shaped bed weirs re-align the flow towards channel centre, thus reducing near-bank velocities. The re-meandering approach involving natural vegetation regeneration has the highest overall effectiveness at the watershed scale whilst V-shaped weirs are found to be moderately effective at the reach scale. The diversification of flow conditions and channel morphologies associated with these approaches were important factors contributing to their higher suitability compared to other potential solutions. The modelling methodology used in this study can help limit the uncertainty surrounding restoration activities by better predicting the efficiency of proposed stabilisation techniques prior to their implementation while considering specific stream and watershed characteristics as well as ecological factors.


identifier: Boivin, Catherine  (2010) The Stage, the screen and the space between: Re-thinking projected imagery in live performance.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
This thesis explores the use of moving image projection technologies in stage performance as it relates to dramaturgical and scenographic aspects. Projection techniques have been used in theatre since the seventeenth century, but it is not until the advent of cinema that the moving image begins to considerably influence stage practices including narrative, mise en scène, acting and spectatorial relations as well as the construction of stage space. This thesis traces the history of interconnectivity between screen media (film, video and digital imagery) and theatre in order to better understand critical issues that continue to challenge both stage practitioners and theorists today, in particular regarding the relation of actors and stage design to the screen image. This analysis also brings to light the long-lasting struggle of the stage between two-dimensional image reproduction and creation techniques and three-dimensional stage architecture and performing bodies.
	This thesis uses a combination of critical and historical writings with personal experience and interviews to draw insights into how the stage and screen, two mediums with distinct ontologies, may be reconciled.


identifier: Anderson, Kristin  (2010) Interpretation of Ambiguous Information: Can Generalized Anxiety Disorder Be Distinguished From Other Anxiety Disorders?  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Anxious individuals interpret ambiguity negatively. There is evidence that this interpretation bias is disorder specific. For example, those with panic disorder rate ambiguous physiological sensations more negatively than do individuals with social phobia. As generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is characterized by an intolerance of various uncertainty-inducing situations, negative interpretations of ambiguity might be pronounced in individuals with GAD. The goal of the current study was to compare the tendency to interpret ambiguous situations and pictures negatively in individuals with GAD, individuals with other anxiety disorders (ANX), and in non-anxious individuals. An additional goal was to explore the extent to which intolerance of uncertainty (IU), state anxiety, and their interaction contribute to this tendency. Results showed that compared to the non-anxious group, the clinical groups reported more concern for all situation types (e.g., positive, negative, and ambiguous), and rated ambiguous and neutral (but not positive or negative) pictures as less pleasant. The clinical groups reported similar levels of concern for ambiguous situations; however, the ANX group rated ambiguous pictures as less pleasant than did the GAD group. Finally, IU predicted more negative interpretations of ambiguous situations and pictures. The interaction between IU and state anxiety revealed that IU predicted ratings of ambiguous situations only at low levels of state anxiety. Results suggest that GAD may not be distinguishable from other anxiety disorders with regard to interpretations of ambiguous stimuli, and that IU may be a better predictor of appraisals of ambiguous situations at lower levels of state anxiety.


identifier: Wang, Ya Fang  (2010) The Distribution of the Discounted Compound PH-Renewal Process.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
The family of phase–type (PH) distributions has many useful properties such as closure under convolution and mixtures, as well as rational Laplace transforms. PH distributions are
widely used in applications of stochastic models such as in queueing systems, biostatistics and engineering. They are also applied to insurance risk, such as in ruin theory.

In this thesis, we extend the work of Wang (2007), that discussed the moment generating function (mgf) of discounted compound sums with PH inter–arrival times under a net interest δ ̸= 0. Here we focus on the distribution of the discounted compound sums. This represents a generalization of the classical risk model for which δ = 0.

A differential equation system is derived for the mgf of a discounted compound sum with PH inter–arrival times and any claim severity if its mgf exists. For some PH inter–arrival times, we can further simplify this differential equation system. If inter–arrival times have a PH distribution of order 2, then second–order homogeneous differential equations are developed. By inverting the corresponding Laplace transforms, the extended density functions and cumulative distribution functions are also obtained. In addition, the series and transformation methods for solving differential equations is proposed, when the mean of inter–arrival times is small.

Applications such as stop–loss premiums, and risk measures such as VaR and CTE are investigated. These are compared for different inter–arrival times. Some numerical examples
are given to illustrate the results.

Finally, asymptotical results are discussed, when the mean inter–arrival time goes to zero. For a fixed time, the asymptotic normal distribution is derived for discounted compound renewal sums.


identifier: Li, Jun  (2010) Some Contributions to Nonparametric Estimation of Density and Related Functionals for Biased Data.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Length biased sampling, as a special case of general biased sampling, occurs naturally in many statistical applications. In problems related with such applications, two different density functions are involved. One of them is the density of interest, which is referred to as the unweighted density, information about which is not observable directly in practice; the other one is referred to as the weighted density, the sample from which could be observed directly. These two densities are connected through a weight function. One aspect regarding data from weighted density is to estimate the unweighted density from the sample obtained using the weighted density. In this thesis we concentrate on the weight function representing length of the sampling unit that results in a sample called length-biased sample. Since most of such data are nonnegative, unweighted density has a non-negative support where common kernel density estimators with symmetric kernel may not  be appropriate. Such density estimators usually generate the edge effect, which makes these to have large bias at the lower boundary. One possible reason for this is that symmetric kernels may assign some weights in region of zero probability.

In this thesis, we propose some new smooth density estimators based on Poisson distribution and  nonnegative asymmetric kernels for length biased data to take care of the edge effect. We investigate asymptotic behavior of these proposed density estimators as  well as their finite sample performance through extensive  simulation studies, that is more meaningful in practice. Also, we compare our new density estimators with other estimators in literature. Further, in addition to density estimators, we also consider smooth estimators of distribution function  and some other functionals of the density such as hazard function and mean residual life function.


identifier: Moradi, Maziar  (2010) Analytical Modeling of Drain-Current Characteristics of AlGaN/GaN HFETs with Incorporation of the Impacts of Virtual-Gate and Transferred-Electron Effect.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
GaN-based heterostructure field effect transistors (HFETs) have gained considerable attention in high-power microwave applications. So far, unsurpassed current levels and high output power at microwave frequencies have been achieved. However, the dominant factors limiting the reliability of these devices under high-power operation are still unsettled. Drain current collapse is one of the major encumbrances in the development of reliable high-power devices in this technology. In this thesis, an accurate and versatile analytical model based on the concept of virtual gate formation due to the existence of acceptor type surface states is developed to model the current-collapse phenomenon. The implementation of this simple and at the same time precise analytical model demonstrates superb agreement with the experimental observations of permanent/semi-permanent current collapse in AlGaN/GaN HFETs.
An analytical model, with incorporation of transferred-electron effect, for drain-current characteristics of AlGaN/GaN HFETs is also presented. Oftentimes, the transferred electron effect is neglected in modeling the drain-current characteristics of III-V HFETs. The broader steady-state electron drift-velocity overshoot of GaN in comparison to other direct semiconductors such as GaAs and InP, in addition to the larger difference between the peak and saturation drift-velocity, and the wider bandgap of this semiconductor predict the importance of the incorporation of transferred-electron effect (i.e. steady-state drift-velocity overshoot) in modeling the drain-current of these devices. Simulation results are compared with the results of the adoption of Ridley’s mobility model which does not take into account the transferred-electron effect. Solving the Poisson’s equation through a simple iterative method and considering the diffusion component of current are at the core of this model. The iterative nature of this approach has considerably relieved the outcome of the implementation from the choice of fitting parameters.


identifier: Di Nardo, Julia C.  (2010) Building Event Meanings from Linguistic and Visual Representations: Evidence from Eye Movements.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: This paper reports three studies that were conducted to explore how the meaning of events is constructed through the use of spoken language comprehension and dynamic scene information.  These studies served as an extension of prior work conducted by the present author with the overarching aim of modifying aspects of the methodology to modulate the salience of the linguistic context.  Participants eye movements were recorded as they watched short movie clips of everyday events and listened to sentences related to those events.  Specifically, we were interested in measuring how quickly the target object in each scene (the grammatical referent of the main verb in each sentence) would be fixated after the verb was uttered, and in some version of the movies, after the agent initiated movement toward the target object (synchronized with the verb onset, known as the disambiguating point).  The first experiment replicated a previous study (Experiment 2 in Di Nardo, 2005) with the aim of increasing the visual angle of the scenes, thus reducing attentional shifts without corresponding eye movements.  Experiment 2 investigated whether the absence of the linguistic context would alter the pattern of eye movements across the scene.  Experiment 3 tested the hypothesis that introducing a more semantically salient initial clause to the sentences would lead to faster eye movements to the target object.  Results showed that increasing the visual angle did not serve to reduce saccade onset times (SOTs), although the presence of spoken language did shorten SOTs even in the context of agent motion toward the target object.  Finally, introducing semantically restrictive initial clauses produced a mixed pattern of results; SOTs were reduced in the absence of agent motion when the verb was not semantically restrictive, although SOTs were longer when the agent moved toward the target object and the verb was not semantically restrictive.  Results are discussed within the framework of the Coordinated Interplay Account (Crocker, Knoeferle, & Mayberry, 2009).


identifier: Barua, Amitabh  (2010) A Hierarchical Model-Based Reasoning Approach for Fault Diagnosis in Multi-Platform Space Systems.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Health monitoring and fault diagnosis in traditional single spacecraft missions are mostly accomplished by human operators on ground through around-the-clock monitoring and trend analysis on huge amount of telemetry data. Future multiplatform space missions, commonly known as the formation flight missions, will utilize multiple inexpensive spacecraft in formation by distributing the functionalities of a single platform among the miniature inexpensive platforms. Current spacecraft diagnosis practices do not scale up well for multiple space platforms due to an increasing need to make the long-duration missions cost-effective by limiting the size of the operations team which will be large if traditional diagnosis is employed. An ideal solution to this problem is to incorporate an autonomous fault detection, isolation, and recovery (FDIR) mechanism. However, the effectiveness of spacecraft autonomy is yet to be demonstrated and due to the existence of perceived risks, it is often desired that the expert human operators be involved in the spacecraft operations and diagnosis processes i.e., the autonomous spacecraft actions be understandable by the human operators on ground so that intervention may be made, if necessary.

To address the above problems and requirements, in this research a systematic and transparent fault diagnosis methodology for ground-based operations of multi-platform space systems is developed. First, novel hierarchical fault diagnosis concepts and framework are developed. Within this framework, a multi-platform space system is decomposed hierarchically into multiple levels. The decomposition is driven by the need for supporting the development of the components/subsystems of the overall system by a number of design teams and performing integration at the end. A multi-platform system is considered to be a set of interacting components where components at different levels correspond to formation, system, sub-system, etc. depending on the location of the node in the hierarchy. Two directed graph based fault diagnosis models are developed namely, fuzzy rule based hierarchical fault diagnosis model (HFDM), and Bayesian networks (BN)-based component dependency model (CDM).

In HFDM, fault diagnosis of different components in the formation flight is investigated. Fuzzy rules are developed for fault diagnosis at different levels in the hierarchy by taking into account the uncertainties in the fault manifestations in a given component. In this model, the component interactions are quantified without taking the uncertainties in the component health state dependencies into account. Next, a component dependency model (CDM) based on Bayesian networks (BN) models is developed in order to take the uncertainties in component dependencies into account. A novel methodology for identifying CDM parameters is proposed. Fault evidences are introduced to the CDM when the fault modes of a component are observed via fuzzy rule activations. Advantages and limitations associated with the proposed HFDM and the CDM are also discussed. Finally, the verification and validation (V&V) of the hierarchical diagnosis models are investigated via a sensitivity analysis approach.

It should be noted that the proposed methodology and the fault diagnosis strategies and algorithms that are developed in this research are generic in a sense that they can be applied to any hierarchically decomposable complex systems. However, the system and domain specific knowledge they require, especially for modeling component dependencies, are mostly available in the aerospace industry where extensive system design and integration-related analysis are common due to high system building cost and failure risks involved.


identifier: Buali, Imad  (2010) The Perception and Production of /p/ in Saudi Gulf Arabic English: A Variationist Perspective.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Using sociolinguistic methodology for data collection and analysis, this paper investigates the variation in the perception and production of the phoneme /p/ by Saudi learners of English as a foreign or second language (EFL/ESL). Since /p/ is not in the Arabic phonological inventory, it is expected that native Arabic speakers learning a language containing /p/ will have difficulty with it, consequently exhibiting variation in their perception and production. The study set out to explore the interaction between perception and production and to determine which phonological (i.e., following vowels) and stylistic environments (i.e., levels of formality) favour target-like /p/ perception and production.
This study took place in Montreal, Quebec. A group of male participants (ranging in age from 15 to 20 years) were recruited from a private language school, where they were taking ESL classes. They were given one perception task and three production tasks representing three different levels of formality. The results were analyzed statistically using the statistical analytical program Goldvarb X.
The results reveal that there is no correlation between perception and production for the group of learners included in this study. As for following vowels, none of the categories considered were found to favour target-like perception or production to a statistically significant degree. Finally, contrary to what was hypothesized, the least formal of stylistic environments was found to favour more target-like production of /p/. These results suggest that, for Arabic learners, a focus on /p/ is needed both in the classroom and in the development of teaching materials.


identifier: Di Girolamo, Michele  (2010) Liberation Theology: Authentic Theology and Authentic Spirituality.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.


identifier: Christian, Adam  (2010) The Language of Pain in the Bilingual Lexicon.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.


identifier: Gearey, David  (2011) Institutional Trust as a Multilevel Construct.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
ABSTRACT
Institutional Trust as a Multilevel Construct
David Gearey
	This thesis assesses individual perceptions of factors at three organizational levels of analysis (individual, interpersonal, and collective) in terms of their effects on institutional trust among organizational members (i.e. the degree to which organizational members perceive that the organization is predictable and benevolent). Past research is drawn upon to develop testable hypotheses concerning several organizational factors which are likely to be predictors of institutional trust in organizations. These include personal proclivity to trust and organizational identification at the individual level, perceptions of appropriate supervisory role enactment and perceptions of interference with performance or rewards at the interpersonal level, and perceptions of procedural and interactional justice as well as organizational legitimacy at the collective level. Faculty members and graduate students at a large university were studied using a survey methodology in order to test the hypotheses. Ultimately, organizational identification, perceptions of procedural justice and perceptions of organizational legitimacy were found to be significant predictors or institutional trust among faculty members, while only perceived organizational legitimacy is significant as a predictor among students. Implications for practitioners as well as for future research are discussed.


identifier: Renwick, Claire  (2010) City Building and Architectural Renewal: A Historical Study of Five Buildings in Halifax, Nova Scotia.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: The five buildings examined in this thesis were part of a district of heritage buildings known as Historic Properties in the city of Halifax, Nova Scotia. Now known as the Peter Martin Liquors Building, the Harrington MacDonald Briggs Building, the Fishwick & Company Building, the Shaw Building, and the Imperial Oil Building, they constituted almost an entire block in the downtown business district, next to the waterfront area. Their different construction dates, methods, and architectural styles have made them representative of different stages in the urbanization of Halifax, from an early British settlement to a modern Canadian city. Preserved from urban renewal in the 1960s and 70s by the protests of citizens and interest groups, the buildings were converted into a campus for the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, and these five buildings served as the Art Education complex. By 2009, after lengthy battles in City Hall with citizens and a heritage interest group, a developer was successful in removing their heritage status so that they could be developed into an office tower with the exterior walls of the old buildings preserved as a decorative façade. This thesis follows the historical development of the buildings, from their initial construction through their preservation and their final deconstruction, while also following the development of the city itself in terms of the municipal governance and planning initiatives that have directed their remodellings.


identifier: Violette, Richard  (2010) Contemporary Suicide in Canada: Emergence of Youth Suicide.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Any sociological understanding of suicide is firmly rooted in the social objectivity of the phenomenon itself. Standing in sharp contrast with the dominant medical
paradigm, what sociology seeks is the historical personality of suicide as it mirrors our lived reality. The first task is to accurately describe the parameters of
the phenomenon in order to highlight what form it actually takes in society. Having made explicit and justified this approach, this thesis reviews, in a second step, the academic discussion on age, gender and suicide, since these practical features are central in qualifying contemporary suicide. Finally, through a careful examination of gender and age specific suicide rates and age specific suicide
sex ratios, the defining characteristics of our shared contemporary suicide regime are underscored. First, the data presented clearly supports the increasing sex differential in completed suicides in Canada. Second, the data presented underscores the changes which characterize the age distribution of suicide in Canada since the 1950’s which simultaneously involves an increase of suicide
rates in the younger age categories and a decrease of suicide rates in the later age categories. Thirdly, the data presented highlights the synchronicity of the
spread of the phenomenon of youth suicide across the Canadian provinces. Finally, the data presented illuminates a recognizable cohort effect within the wider phenomenon of the coming into being of youth suicide. This thesis does not set out to interpret the transformations which characterize our contemporary suicide regime, but instead seeks to underscore the precise modalities of these
changes.