identifier: Woofter, Kristopher Karl  (2016) Shoot the Dead: Horror Cinema, Documentary, and Gothic Realism.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
This dissertation traces a “gothic-realist” genealogy in cinema that will help scholars to reconsider a whole series of horror and documentary films in the modern and postmodern periods and offers new possibilities to theorize the horror film. I explore “Gothic realism” in three paradigmatic forms. I first discuss its entry into 1940s fiction films that blend Gothic-horror’s focus on individual and collective psychic trauma as a way of interrogating a troubled wartime and postwar reality (Chapter I). Second, I discuss avant-garde and pseudo-documentaries that adopt strategies of Gothic-horror to evoke unreadable subjects and/or undetected realities—products of a productive skepticism around American environmental, social and national stability from the 1970s, through the millennial period, and into the 21st century (Chapter II). And, third, I examine mockumentary and fake found-footage horror cinema that turns to strategies of documentary and factual discourse to express a generalized millennial and 21st-century archival anxiety around human interaction with recording technologies (Chapter III). These three manifestations of Gothic realism, I argue, adopt the mood, themes, and rhetorical strategies of horror and documentary to form a critical discourse that troubles the real—focusing spectatorial attention on the limits of representation, and the inability of representations to tell us what we want to know, and feel, about our reality.
This thesis explores Gothic realism as a critical disruption of the generic categories of documentary, avant-garde, and horror cinema, opening up possibilities to investigate the relationship between what might be called the “sensorial epistemologies” shared by all three forms. Gothic realism holds these sensorial epistemologies in liminal sway, an interaction that may best be investigated through the lens of Michel Foucault’s notion of the “apparatus” (dispositif)—here, a conceptual site of critical intersections that work to defamiliarize the everyday, challenging our normal avenues for understanding the world through appeals to ambiguity of meaning, multiplicity of perspective, overdetermination of possibility, elusiveness of subject or event, and emphasis on spectacle and sensation. I focus on films that are exemplary of both a popular, highly visible cinema (e.g., Citizen Kane [1940], Capturing the Friedmans [2003], Unfriended [2015]), and of a more subversive, independent, B-movie tradition (Bluebeard [1944], The Hellstrom Chronicle [1971], Lake Mungo [2008]). Regardless of their production contexts, or status as “highbrow” or “lowbrow” cultural products, the films that I discuss deploy Gothic horror as a mode of inquiry into a reality that resists conceptual tracing and positivistic strategies. In doing so, they disrupt the comfortable categories of documentary, horror and avant-garde, opening up possibilities to investigate the relationship between the sensorial epistemologies shared by the three forms. This study concludes that Gothic horror in fiction and nonfiction cinema becomes a mode of engagement with reality that operates as a critical discourse on mediation and sensation—on the real as always-already unreadable, overwhelming, uncapturable.


identifier: Schwartzman, Zahava  (2016) The Uses of Fantasy Fiction for Transformational Learning and Personal Growth.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

type: Thesis NonPeerReviewed

abstract: In this thesis I explore the concept of transformational learning through the reading of and immersion into the world of fantasy fiction with an application to my own biography. I explore the way fantasy literature has played a part in my own self-discovery and aim to explain how fantasy fiction can be used for educational and not merely entertainment purposes.  By exploring the works of theorists such as Mezirow, Greene, Freire and Dashiell, amongst others, I try to make the case for fantasy fiction to become another tool with which classroom teachers can teach intangible concepts to their students such as integrity, passion, valour, and compassion.  I also explore the value of fantasy fiction and imagination as integral parts of learning.  I then discuss the way fantasy fiction compares to and integrates with our ordinary world in order to bring about an extraordinary learning experience.  Finally, I posit that with the integration of fantasy literature into the classroom, we may open up, for some students and teachers, yet another way of acquiring or imparting knowledge in a safe, neutral environment, where ideas can be shared and discussed openly, leading to transformational experiences in learning and self-discovery.


identifier: Zhu, Fu ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6431-4987 <https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6431-4987>  (2016) Detection Techniques for Data-Level Spoofing in GPS-Based Phasor Measurement Units.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
The increasing complexity of today’s power system aggravated the stability and real-time issues. Wide-area monitoring system (WAMS) provides a dynamic coverage which allows real-time monitoring of critical knows of power systems. Phasor measurement units (PMUs) are being used in WAMS to provide a wide area system view and increase the system stability. A PMU is a sensor that measures the three-phase analog voltage, current and frequency and uploads the phasor information to the Phasor Data Concentrator (PDC) at a rate of 30 to 60 observations per second.  Typically, PMUs utilize a Global Positioning System (GPS) reference source to provide the required synchronization across wide geographical areas. On the other hand, civil GPS receivers are vulnerable to a number of different attacks such as jamming and spoofing, which can lead to inaccurate PMU measurements and consequently compromise the state estimation in the electric power grid.

In this thesis, we propose three countermeasures against GPS spoofing attacks  on PMUs from three layers in the WAMS. In particular, we utilize the fact that in GPS-based PMUs, unlike most of the GPS applications, the position of the PMU receivers are already fixed and known. Our first technique employs an algorithm that accurately predicts the number of theoretically visible GPS satellites from a given position on earth. If the GPS receiver detects satellites which should not be visible at that time, this signifies a spoofing attempt. The second technique is an anomaly-based detection method which assumes that the statistics of malicious errors in GPS time solutions are unlikely to be consistent with the expected statistics of the typical receiver clock. We also propose a model which can be used to analyze the phasor data uploaded from two PMUs to the Phasor Data Concentrator. The relative phase angle difference (RPAD) is used in our algorithm to detect the spoofing attack. The algorithm uses Fast Fourier Transform to analyze the RPAD between two PMUs. We study the behavior of the low-frequency component in the FFT result of the RPAD between that two PMUs to detect the spoofing attacks. The effectiveness of the proposed techniques is confirmed by simulations.


identifier: Döderlein, Sebastian  (2016) Un pivot de l’histoire ? – La société alsacienne-lorraine et les sorties ambiguës de la Première Guerre mondiale (1918-1919).  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Cette thèse traite des différentes manières dont la population d’Alsace-Lorraine vécut la sortie de la Première Guerre mondiale. Les historiographies française et allemande approchent ce sujet de manière purement nationale : alors que les historiens allemands ne s’intéressent qu’à la période entre 1871 et 1918 (période du Reichsland), la France ne se concentre que sur la période suivant l’armistice du 11 novembre 1918. L’histoire de la sortie de guerre dans cette région frontalière est ainsi une histoire française, racontée d’un point de vue victorieux et basé sur un avenir français. Nous remettons en question cette vision biaisée de la sortie de guerre en étudiant l’expérience de la population alsacienne-lorraine entière dans une période incluant les mois avant l’armistice (lorsque la victoire française devenait de plus en plus certaine) et après l’armistice alors que le nouveau régime français s’installait.
L’historiographie prend pour acquise une séparation stricte de la population entre Alsaciens-Lorrains indigènes francophiles et immigrés allemands germanophiles. Cependant, notre analyse de statistiques démographiques, actes de mariage et innombrables témoignages contemporains a montré que la société alsacienne-lorraine était en réalité très hétérogène, et que l’intégration de l’élément allemand était beaucoup plus avancée que normalement admis. Une haine générale contre « les Allemands » n’a pas existé, et il serait trompeur de parler d’une ambiance euphorique et unanime de la part des Alsaciens-Lorrains face au retour des provinces perdues à la mère patrie.
L’étude comparative a dévoilé que de nombreux habitants, indépendamment de leur affiliation nationale, ne vécurent le 11 novembre 1918 pas comme un pivot de l’histoire, mais étaient plutôt préoccupés par les problèmes, soucis et espérances de tous les jours (le ravitaillement, la mort d’un proche ou la situation économique personnelle) – tant avant qu’après l’armistice. Ainsi, cet événement n’a pas simplement séparé la population dite « indigène » et « allemande », mais plutôt la population francophone et germanophone, catholique et protestante, urbaine et rurale, bourgeois et ouvrière, jeune et vieille. Si beaucoup d’Alsaciens-Lorrains se réjouirent de la libération, d’autres anticipaient de nombreux inconvénients dans le cas d’un retour à la France et critiquaient les « nouveaux maîtres » une fois la guerre finie. Dans ce sens, l’Alsace-Lorraine ne connut pas une seule sortie de guerre, mais plusieurs.


identifier: Charbonneau, Frédéric  (2016) Improving the sparks assisted chemical engraving (SACE) for industrial application.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Parameters influencing the discharge phenomenon and the etch capability of Sparks-Assisted Chemical Engraving (SACE) have been investigated in last decade for a potential industrial application of this technology. Recently, Posalux SA, a company who evolves in the high-tech machine tool field, began the development of a commercial machine which uses the SACE process to etch glass. Since, the first commercialization of SACE, future customers’ needs have to be taken in account: the initial cost of the machine, the process cost, the machining speed, the reproducibility, the quality of the machining. The cost of the machine is determined by the company who work with customers to find a good compromise between the cost and the performances. This thesis focus on the three other characteristics (the process cost, the machining speed and the quality of the machining). Those characteristics can be improved by tuning the parameters used during the machining such as: propriety of the electrical signal, tool geometry, electrolyte type, electrolyte flow, machining strategy, etc. The optimization of those parameters has the benefit of not changing the mechanical structure of the commercial machine (not invasive). A special attention has been devoted to the use of a square electrical signal with an offset. Those variables have been empirically optimized to increase the machining quality and the machining speed. Based on those results, an explanation model was developed to describe the process. This explanation is based on direct observation, optical emission spectroscopy and thermodynamic consideration.


identifier: Thike, Rajendra  (2016) A Vector Controlled Drive for Parameter Evaluation of Variable Flux Machines.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Variable flux machine is a new class of permanent magnet machines that combine the flux controllability in wound field synchronous machines, and the high efficiency due to permanent magnets. An AlNiCo based variable flux machine whose air-gap flux is varied by applying a direct axis current pulse is considered in this work.

This thesis reviews the dq model of permanent magnet machines, which is then modified to account for flux controllability in variable flux machines. The existing inductance measurement methods are analyzed, and a vector control technique that is fast in the measurement of current dependent inductances at various magnetization level is proposed. The accuracy of the method is assessed by comparing it with the flux linkage calculation method.

The variable flux machines are designed with small air-gap lengths to reduce the magnet thickness and the magnetization current. Due to this reason, saturation and cross-magnetization effects causes changes in the flux produced by one coil, when current in other coil is changed and vice versa. If the cross-magnetization effects are neglected, accurate control of the magnet flux would require a slower current controller. This would need a longer duration pulse to change the magnetization level. The longer the pulse duration, the more severe is the torque ripple. For high-performance drives, consideration of cross-magnetization effects is required. Therefore, this thesis proposes a vector controlled technique to evaluate the cross-magnetization effects in variable flux machines. The proposed technique is able to measure the self and cross-coupled inductances at any magnetization level using an existing drive. The dq model of variable flux machine is then modified to account for the cross-magnetization effects.

The cross-coupled inductances are used to evaluate the static torque-angle characteristics of the machine. Two methods using the vector control technique are presented to experimentally measure the static torque-angle characteristics. The benefit of using a vector control drive is that the effects of heating and unequal phase resistances are taken care automatically. The measured torque-angle characteristics are compared with the calculated and finite element method simulation ones. Finally, the same vector control technique is used to evaluate the torque ripple performance of the VFM. This technique is not only useful in evaluating the designed machine, but it is also useful to evaluate design software.


identifier: Nath, Mrinmoy  (2016) Seismic design and performance of Yielding Shear Panel Device.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Yielding shear panel device (YSPD) is a metal yielding passive energy dissipation device that utilizes the inelastic shear deformation capability of a steel plate. The device is made of a steel plate welded inside a square hollow section (SHS) to absorb seismic energy. It showed stable hysteresis response in the previous experiments. It is inexpensive and also simple to manufacture and install in a seismic force resisting system. Research on yielding shear panel device is still in the initial stage and a significant amount of research is needed before it can be adopted by the engineering society. The objective of this research is twofold: first, to study the behavior of yielding shear panel as a device and then, to evaluate the performance of lateral load resisting system equipped with YSPD. A nonlinear finite element model which includes both material and geometric nonlinearities is used for this study. The finite element model of the YSPD device is validated by comparing the results from an experimental program. Excellent correlation between the test results and the finite element analysis results is observed. With the validated finite element model, detailed parametric study has been done to study the behavior of the YSPD devices of different configurations. The model is further validated for a frame equipped with YSPD using the results from a mathematical model published in the literature. This study also evaluates the performance of a 4-story building frame equipped with YSPD when the device is used for retrofitting. Seismic design of a 2-story lateral load resisting frame with YSPD has been done by direct displacement based design method. The seismic performance of the designed building has been verified under spectrum compatible seismic records for Vancouver. Nonlinear seismic analysis shows that YSPDs, in a high seismic region, behave in a stable and ductile manner. It has also been observed that the device absorbs the seismic energy and deforms in shear and effectively reduces the deformation of the structure, which confirms the intended design philosophy of YSPD device. An analytical approach has been developed to estimate fundamental period of the frames with YSPD. A series of frames with YSPD devices of different geometry are designed and analysed to estimate the fundamental period. It has been observed that the fundamental period obtained from finite element analysis can be well predicted by the proposed analytical model.


identifier: Karmaker, Shamal Chandra  (2016) On Some Circular Distributions Induced by Inverse Stereographic Projection.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: In earlier studies of circular data, mostly circular distributions were considered and many biological data sets were assumed to be symmetric. However, presently interest has increased for skewed circular distributions as the assumption of symmetry may not be meaningful for some data. This thesis introduces three skewed circular models based on inverse stereographic projection, introduced by Minh and Farnum (2003), by considering three different versions of skewed-t considered in the literature, namely Azzalini skewed-t, two-piece skewed-t and Jones and Faddy skewed-t. Shape properties of the resulting distributions along with estimation of parameters using maximum likelihood are discussed in this thesis. Further, three real data sets (Bruderer and Jenni, 1990; Holzmann et al., 2006; Fisher, 1993) are used to illustrate the application of the new model and its extension to finite mixture modelling. Goodness of fit of the new distributions is studied using maximum log-likelihood and Akaike information criterion and chi-square values. It is found that Azzalini and Jones-Faddy skewed-t versions are good competitors; however the Jones-Faddy version is computationally more tractable.


identifier: Pang, Mingmei  (2016) The Effect of Reference Price and Loss Aversion on Consumer Brand Choice, Category Purchase and Quantity Decisions.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
In this study I investigate the effects of reference price on three consumer purchase decisions: consumer brand choice, purchase incidence, and purchase quantity. First, I compare the impact of internal reference price (IRP) and external reference price (ERP) on the three consumer purchase decisions. I hypothesize that (a) consumers rely more on ERP (vs. IRP) in brand choice and purchase quantity decisions, and more on IRP (vs. ERP) in purchase incidence decision; and (b) consumers use both IRP and ERP simultaneously to evaluate shelf price in all three consumer purchase decisions. Second, I examine the impact of consumers’ loss aversion tendencies on the three consumer purchase decisions. I hypothesize that loss aversion affects all three consumer purchase decisions; that is, consumers respond more sensitively to a loss than to a corresponding gain. I estimate models of brand choice, purchase incidence and purchase quantity using multinomial logistic regression, binary logistic regression, and Poisson regression, respectively.
Hypotheses are generally supported based on empirical analyses of scanner data for a battery product category. This study contributes to the literature in two ways. First, it is the first study to test the direct impact of reference price on purchase incidence decisions. Second, it is the first study to incorporate both IRP and ERP variables into purchase incidence and purchase quantity decisions. Overall, this study contributes an understanding of the influence of reference price on three consumer purchase decisions, which provides both manufactures and retailers with valuable knowledge to formulate optimal pricing and promotion strategies.


identifier: Chan-Thim, Emilie  (2016) Clinical Implications of Diurnal Variations in Physiological, Psychological and Behavioral Measures in Patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
The aim of this thesis was to investigate the clinical implications of diurnal variations in physiological, behavioral and psychological measures in a Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) population. In a sample of 14 moderate-to-severe COPD participants we first evaluated the effect of time of day on the acute response to incremental exercise in COPD. We found that a majority of individuals exceeded clinically significant changes in their pulmonary function and peak exercise capacity measures. A peak in exercise capacity was observed in the afternoon in the subgroup of individuals who demonstrated increased variability, similar to the timing of peak exercise performance previously documented in healthy individuals. We then investigated if high or low relative amplitude (RA), a marker of internal synchronization, was associated with disease severity or prognosis in COPD. Lower RA was associated with higher ratings of dyspnea and worse scores on prognostic indexes. The amplitude difference between the two sub-groups appears to be due to increased physical activity at midday in the high-RA sub-group. Lastly, we investigated whether diurnal variation in depression symptoms would be associated with depression symptoms severity. We found larger diurnal variation in depression symptoms to be associated with worse depression symptom severity in COPD patients. This association seemed independent of pulmonary function and exercise capacity.
The results presented in this thesis were the first to report on diurnal variations in various common clinical measures in COPD and to explore the link between amplitude of the rest-activity cycle and indexes of disease prognosis. Based on our findings, accounting for the timing of repeated exercise testing is suggested. RA of the rest-activity cycle may be a useful marker in COPD prognosis. Lastly, identifying diurnal variation in depressive symptoms may help detect depression in COPD.


identifier: Zhao, Qingchuan  (2016) BioID indicates the involvement of the TRAPP protein TrappC11 in autophagy.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: The Transport protein particle (TRAPP) complexes are molecular machines that function in various membrane transport processes including the secretory pathway. Recently, one form of the TRAPP complex, TRAPPIII, has been shown to be involved in autophagy, a cellular recycling process that delivers cytoplasmic components to lysosomes for degradation. Mutations in TrappC11, one subunit in TRAPPIII, have been reported to be associated with muscular dystrophy and intellectual disability. To understand mutated TrappC11 could lead to the phenotypes, I employed BioID to identify TrappC11 interacting proteins. To perform BioID, I constructed TrappC11 fused to BirA*, a biotin ligase that catalyzes the biotinylation of proteins within proximity to the fusion protein. The biotinylated proteins were then isolated and identified by mass spectrometry. The BioID approach revealed the autophagy-related proteins Atg2A, Atg2B, WDR45, p62/SQSTM1, and NBR1 as potential TrappC11 interacting partners, suggesting the involvement of TrappC11 in autophagy. Consistently, transient and stable knockdown of TrappC11 in HeLa cells both resulted in an accumulation of autophagosomes in non-starved cells as well as an increase of cellular lipid droplets. The distribution of lysosomes was also effected by the TrappC11 knockdown. Moreover, expression of eGFP-TrappC11 resulted in the formation of cytoplasmic puncta that partially overlapped with p62/SQSTM1, consistent with the BioID data that suggested an interaction between TrappC11 and this selective autophagy receptor. Taken together, my data indicate that TrappC11 might have an important role in non-starvation induced autophagy.


identifier: Yee, Jennifer  (2016) Science Fiction: An Analysis of Science and Technology Secondary Cycle 1 Curriculum in Quebec.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Quebec's Ministry of Education champions critical thinking as a goal across the secondary school curriculum. However, teachers are not trained in what critical thinking looks like, nor how to teach it. Furthermore, the current curriculum does not encourage it. This thesis  seeks to address this problem in 3 parts. First, using theorists such as Freire, Hall, hooks, Gramsci, and Lewontin, I summarize a critical approach to science. I discuss how science can be used as a tool of social legitimization that upholds ideological hegemony through harmful discourse. I then demonstrate how this is happening in Quebec by performing a content analysis on two secondary school Science and Technology textbooks, using a modified Chiappetta,
Fillman, and Sethna scheme. Finally, I offer alternative frameworks to science education by looking at a variety of approaches throughout the history of science education and feminist theory.


identifier: Tardy, Andrée-Anne  (2016) La perception de l’enfance dans les adaptations en albums illustrés de La Belle et la Bête.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Les artisans de la littérature jeunesse ne s’adressent jamais tout à fait à un enfant réel, mais plutôt à un enfant conceptualisé, imaginé. C’est principalement cette perception de l’enfant, évoluant à travers les époques, qui est évoquée comme motif pour la réécriture d’œuvres classiques telles que La Belle et la Bête. Si les éditeurs choisissent d’adapter le célèbre conte de Leprince de Beaumont plutôt que de simplement le rééditer, c’est pour qu’il corresponde mieux à ce qu’ils estiment être les goûts, les aptitudes et les besoins des enfants d’aujourd’hui. Afin de mieux comprendre cette perception contemporaine de l’enfance, trois récentes adaptations en albums illustrés de La Belle et la Bête seront examinées, soit les versions de Max Eilenberg (illustrations de Angela Barrett), d'Ursula Jones (illustrations de Sarah Gibb) et de Stéphanie Paquet (illustrations de Giovanni Manna). On se penchera plus précisément sur les stratégies d’adaptation mises en œuvre (tant au niveau du texte que de l’image) et sur le nouveau Lecteur Modèle qu’elles paraissent générer. Les observations relevées traceront le portrait d’une enfance sensible, incompétente, stéréotypée et tournée vers le jeu.


identifier: Caralapatti, Vinodh Krishna  (2016) Analyzing the Effects of High Repetition Laser Shock Peening on Corrosion Resistance of Magnesium.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Magnesium based alloys have been considered as a promising replacement to conventional implants owing to their compliant material properties, biocompatibility and most importantly, their biodegradability. Magnesium has properties similar to human bone, which avoids stress shielding effect, a major problem experienced with conventional implants. In addition, magnesium implants eliminate the need for successive surgery due to their biodegradable nature, which is inevitable in the case of conventional implants. Despite having numerous advantages, the major challenge in implementation is its high corrosion rate. The rapid in-vivo corrosion of magnesium implants result in instability and affect bone growth. In addition, corrosion results in hydrogen gas evolution, which is considered undesirable inside human body. It is evident from the literature that there are many methods developed with an aim to control their high corrosion rate and implement them as implants. Of these, Laser Shock Peening (LSP) is considered the most suitable method owing to its ability to provide precise control over the parameters that affect corrosion performance. However due to its prohibitive cost, its implementation is limited.
Recently a new method called High Repetition Laser Shock Peening (HRLSP) was developed to make peening more affordable and encourage widespread implementation. While some previous work on the effect of HRLSP on hardness, wettability and wear resistance have been studied, in this work, the effect of HRLSP on corrosion resistance and biocompatibility of magnesium is analyzed. In addition, the effect of peening process parameters such as % overlap and number of scans on corrosion rate are studied. The experiments are initiated with unpolarized techniques and the corrosion rate & pH variation results formed the basis to validate the effectiveness of HRLSP and determine the feasibility of peened samples as implants. In the subsequent phase, the corrosion rate is tested using a specially designed test bench maintaining physiological conditions. Using this study, the importance of circulation, for understanding dynamic corrosion was stressed and the difference between static and dynamic corrosion of both peened and unpeened magnesium are highlighted. Finally, the change in hardness, surface profile and wettability resulted due to peening are determined to summarize the overall effects.
Throughout the experiments, peening is confined to an area of 10 x 10 mm with laser density set at 1.4 GW/cm2. Hanks solution is used as the test medium and the results of peened samples are compared against unpeened sample to understand the effects of peening and its process parameters.
Under static conditions, the corrosion rate of peened samples reduced by at least 2 times compared to unpeened sample while under dynamic conditions it reduced by 6 times. The differences in results from both studies are compared to stress the influence of surrounding conditions on corrosion process. In addition, peening reduced the size of hydrogen bubbles due to refined grain layer, which is advantageous from biological aspect. The enhanced surface hardness and precise corrosion controlling ability improve the suitability of magnesium as implants.


identifier: Daroogheh, Najmeh  (2016) Health Monitoring of Nonlinear Systems with Application to Gas Turbine Engines.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Health monitoring and prognosis of nonlinear systems is mainly concerned with system health tracking and its evolution prediction to future time horizons. Estimation and prediction schemes constitute as principal components of any health monitoring framework. In this thesis, the main focus is on development of novel health monitoring techniques for nonlinear dynamical
systems by utilizing model-based and hybrid prognosis and health monitoring approaches.
First, given the fact that particle filters (PF) are known as a powerful tool for performing state and parameter estimation of nonlinear dynamical systems, a novel dual estimation methodology is developed for both time-varying parameters and states of a nonlinear stochastic system based on the prediction error (PE) concept and the particle filtering scheme. Estimation of system parameters along with the states generate an updated model that can be used for a long-term prediction problem.
Next, an improved particle filtering-based methodology is developed to address the prediction step within the developed health monitoring framework. In this method, an observation forecasting scheme is developed to extend the system observation profiles (as time-series) to future time horizons. Particles are then propagated to future time instants according to a resampling algorithm in the prediction step. The uncertainty in the long-term prediction of the system states and parameters are managed by utilizing dynamic linear models (DLM) for development of an observation forecasting scheme. A novel hybrid architecture is then proposed to develop prognosis and health monitoring methodologies for nonlinear systems by integration of model-based and computationally intelligent-based techniques. Our proposed hybrid health monitoring methodology is constructed based on a framework that is not dependent on the structure of the neural network model utilized in the implementation of the observation forecasting scheme. Moreover, changing the neural network model structure in this framework does not significantly affect the prediction accuracy of the entire health prediction algorithm.
Finally, a method for formulation of health monitoring problems of dynamical systems through a two-time scale decomposition is introduced. For this methodology the system dynamical
equations as well as the affected damage model, are investigated in the two-time scale system health estimation and prediction steps. A two-time scale filtering approach is developed
based on the ensemble Kalman filtering (EnKF) methodology by taking advantage of the model reduction concept. The performance of the proposed two-time scale ensemble Kalman filters is shown to be more accurate and less computationally intensive as compared to the well-known particle filtering approach for this class of nonlinear systems.
All of our developed methods have been applied for health monitoring and prognosis of a gas turbine engine when it is affected by various degradation damages. Extensive comparative
studies are also conducted to validate and demonstrate the advantages and capabilities of our proposed frameworks and methodologies.


identifier: Jadidi, Mehdi  (2017) Numerical Modeling of Suspension and Particle Transport in Thermal Spray Processes.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Fine microstructured coatings have attracted many attentions in recent years due to various unique properties such as remarkable wear resistance, enhanced catalytic behavior, and superior thermal insulation. Suspension thermal sprays have been shown to be viable techniques in generating this kind of coatings. In these techniques, suspension which is a combination of a base liquid and fine solid particles is injected into a high-temperature high-velocity jets. After suspension breakup, the evaporation/combustion of base liquid becomes dominant. Then, the remained particles are accelerated and heated up by the gas flow and are deposited on a substrate which results in the generation of dense and well-adhered coatings.
Suspension thermal spraying is very complex and many fields such as turbulent flow, multiphase flow, compressible flow, combustion, atomization, suspension properties, and plasma physics are involved in the mentioned technique. In addition, many parameters and mechanisms in this technique are still unknowns. Therefore, both numerical and experimental studies should be performed to obtain a comprehensive understanding of various phenomena in suspension thermal spraying and to improve the coating quality. The main goal of this study is the numerical modeling of suspension thermal sprays.
An Eulerian-Lagrangian approach with two-way coupling assumption is presented and suspension droplet evolution in the atmospheric plasma spraying and high velocity oxygen fuel spraying techniques is investigated. In this model, suspension is considered as a multi-component mixture and a predefined droplet distribution is injected into the jet. In this approach, the breakup process is simulated using Taylor Analogy Breakup (TAB), and Kelvin-Helmholtz Rayleigh-Taylor (KHRT) breakup models. After breakup process is complete, the liquid component of suspension droplet evaporates/burns, and the particles/agglomerates are tracked in the domain. In general, the effects of suspension injection velocity, suspension properties, suspension injector location, standoff distance, substrate shape, and gas properties on the coating characteristics can be investigated by this approach. For example, in the case of radial injection of suspension into a plasma plume, it is illustrated that if particles move close to the jet centerline, particle velocity and temperature as well as probability of particle impact on the substrate will increase.
The mentioned Eulerian-Lagrangian approach revealed that the breakup phenomenon mainly controls the droplets/particles trajectories, temperatures and velocities. However, the typical TAB and KHRT models ignore liquid/suspension column deformation, and need experimental calibration. To study the breakup process in more details, the effect of nonuniform gaseous crossflow and liquid column perturbations on the primary breakup of liquid jets are investigated. A coupled level set and volume-of-fluid method together with the large eddy simulation turbulence model are used to study the behavior of nonturbulent liquid jets in nonuniform crossflows. It is shown that liquid penetration height is significantly affected by the crossflow nonuniformity. In addition, to investigate the effects of liquid column perturbations on the breakup process, experimental studies are performed using shadowgraphy technique. General correlations for the penetration height, the column breakup point, and the onset of surface breakup are presented. It is found that the liquid column perturbations result in formation of large ligaments very close to the liquid and gas flows interaction point. These ligaments control the droplet size distribution and have significant effects on particle in-flight behavior, and coatings quality. The results of these studies can be used to estimate the spray trajectory in suspension plasma spray process, and to improve the accuracy of TAB and KHRT breakup models.


identifier: Witwit, Ma-ab  (2016) Parents’ Understanding of Siblings’ Conflict Goals in Early and Middle Childhood.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: This study examined parents’ understanding of their children’s conflict goals by interviewing 62 sibling dyads with their primary caregiver. Parents (M age = 40.54), older siblings (M age = 8.39), and younger siblings (M age = 6.06), from each family were individually interviewed and asked to describe the goals of each of the siblings during a recent episode of two recurring conflicts. Overall, findings revealed that when parents described their children’s conflict goals, they most frequently referenced instrumental goals (the concrete goals that appear at the surface level of the conflict), in addition to autonomy/ respect, control/ competitiveness, and conciliation/ connectedness types of goals (more abstract goals that at the root of the conflict). Within-family comparisons revealed that parents ascribed more autonomy/ respect and avoiding punishment goals to older siblings and more relative competence and conciliation/ connectedness goals to younger siblings; additional between-family comparisons were used to disambiguate the effects of chronological age and birth order position in accounting for these findings. Furthermore, results revealed that parents’ descriptions aligned with those of their children’s approximately half of the time, although both parents and children also described additional elements over 80% of the time. Results of this study provide insight into parents’ perspectives on their children’s conflict goals. Such understandings may be crucial in helping them to intervene effectively into children’s conflicts. Findings also illuminate areas where parents might need support in improving their understanding of their children’s conflict perspectives.


identifier: An, Soyoung  (2016) Development of dual crosslinked polymeric materials for self-healing.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Daily damage as scratches or fractures on the most polymeric material are inevitable, which shorten the lifespan, change/weaken the original integrity, and sometimes lead to the catastrophic failure of the materials. Self-healing or self-repairing is a desired property in the design and development of high-performance materials with their built-in ability to repair physical damage for various applications such as surface coatings, tissue engineering, and sensors.
Intrinsic self-healing utilizing dynamic chemistry is a promising method that allows for the development of effective self-repairing polymeric materials. This method involves the incorporation of non-covalent bonds through physical interactions such as π-π stacking, ionic interaction, metal binding, and hydrogen bonding. However, the use of physical bonding has a major drawback—small mechanical properties of prepared compounds due to the nature of the weak physical interaction. Another method utilizes reversible covalent bonds such as the Diels-Alder/retro-Diels-Alder reaction, alkoxyamine recombination, urea chemistry, and disulfides. Although these dynamic covalent bonds can provide higher mechanical properties compared to the physical interactions, the self-healing behavior often can be limited and require severe external stimuli to achieve a complete self-repairing procedure.
My Masters’ research aims to explore the advantages and disadvantages of covalent and supramolecular (physical) networks. Two novel self-healable networks were developed; one network designed with dynamic disulfide linkages and the other with both disulfide and supramolecular metal-ligand associations. Dynamic disulfide linkages are excellent candidates to explore in developing self-healable polymeric materials since they can be readily cleaved/disturbed to thiols or thiyl radicals in response to external stimuli, and then subsequently rebounded to induce self-repair of the damaged parts. In a similar way, the metallo-complex/ionic links are widely incorporated in forming self-healable polymeric networks because of the dynamic linkages between the ionic crosslinkers and their counter-ions.
For the first network, we explored having poly(methacrylate)-based crosslinked materials for which self-healing is based only on dynamic disulfide-thiol chemistry. Such materials were prepared by the extent oxidation of excess thiols in the lightly crosslinked networks through sulfide linkages. The second system consists of a multiblock copolymer with self-healable blocks and a middle block. The self-healable blocks are poly(methacrylate)-based units with pendant disulfides linkages and/or another pendant carboxylic acids groups. The presence of two different pendant dynamic linkages enables the formation of polymeric crosslinked materials—with dual self-repairing units—through disulfide-thiol exchange and metallo-complex with metal ions. It is believed that these unique designs along with their tunable self-healing kinetics demonstrate well the versatility of our methods to prepare self-healable polymeric crosslinked networks that have a promising potential for the development of multifunctional industrial applications.


identifier: Li, Chao  (2016) Vehicular Safety and Operations Assessment of Reserved Lanes using Microscopic Simulation.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Evaluation of roadway safety via the analysis of vehicular conflicts using microscopic simulation shows increasing preference among transportation professionals, mostly due to significant advances in computational technology that allows for better efficiency when compared with other traffic safety modeling approaches. In addition, since modeling vehicular interactions via simulation is intrinsic to the methodology, one may assess various impacts of safety treatments without disrupting vehicle movements and before proceeding with real-world implementations. VISSIM, a microscopic traffic simulation model, is used in this thesis to reproduce vehicular interactions of an urban High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) arterial in Québec. The model is calibrated to reflect the observed real-world driving behavior. Vehicle conflicts are assessed using the Surrogate Safety Assessment Model (SSAM) developed by Federal Highway Administration (FHWA). The experimental results indicate that the existing study area has a significant safety problem, mostly due to high interactions between buses and passenger cars. Alternative geometric and control designs are evaluated to ameliorate traffic safety. It is shown that the proposed alternative solutions can be used to either efficiently eliminate many vehicular traffic conflicts, or to significantly reduce public transit delay while ameliorating traffic safety. It is expected that this methodology can be successfully applied to other similar reserved lanes facilities.


identifier: Gallehdari, Zahra  (2016) Cooperative Control Reconfiguration in Networked Multi-Agent Systems.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Development of a network of autonomous cooperating vehicles has attracted significant
attention during the past few years due to its broad range of applications in areas
such as autonomous underwater vehicles for exploring deep sea oceans, satellite formations
for space missions, and mobile robots in industrial sites where human involvement
is impossible or restricted, to name a few. Motivated by the stringent specifications
and requirements for depth, speed, position or attitude of the team and the possibility
of having unexpected actuators and sensors faults in missions for these vehicles have
led to the proposed research in this thesis on cooperative fault-tolerant control design of
autonomous networked vehicles.
First, a multi-agent system under a fixed and undirected network topology and subject
to actuator faults is studied. A reconfigurable control law is proposed and the so-called
distributed Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman equations for the faulty agents are derived. Then,
the reconfigured controller gains are designed by solving these equations subject to the
faulty agent dynamics as well as the network structural constraints to ensure that the
agents can reach a consensus even in presence of a fault while simultaneously the team
performance index is minimized.
Next, a multi-agent network subject to simultaneous as well as subsequent actuator
faults and under directed fixed topology and subject to bounded energy disturbances is considered. An H∞ performance fault recovery control strategy is proposed that guarantees:
the state consensus errors remain bounded, the output of the faulty system behaves
exactly the same as that of the healthy system, and the specified H∞ performance bound
is guaranteed to be minimized. Towards this end, the reconfigured control law gains
are selected first by employing a geometric control approach where a set of controllers
guarantees that the output of the faulty agent imitates that of the healthy agent and the
consensus achievement objectives are satisfied. Then, the remaining degrees of freedom
in the selection of the control law gains are used to minimize the bound on a specified
H∞ performance index.
Then, control reconfiguration problem in a team subject to directed switching topology
networks as well as actuator faults and their severity estimation uncertainties is considered.
The consensus achievement of the faulty network is transformed into two stability
problems, in which one can be solved offline while the other should be solved online
and by utilizing information that each agent has received from the fault detection and
identification module. Using quadratic and convex hull Lyapunov functions the control
gains are designed and selected such that the team consensus achievement is guaranteed
while the upper bound of the team cost performance index is minimized.
Finally, a team of non-identical agents subject to actuator faults is considered. A
distributed output feedback control strategy is proposed which guarantees that agents
outputs’ follow the outputs of the exo-system and the agents states remains stable even
when agents are subject to different actuator faults.


identifier: Karimi, Sara  (2016) prediction Modeling for Design Space Exploration in Optical Network on Chip.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
In at least a decade chip multiprocessors (CMP) have been dominating new commercial
releases due to computational advantages of parallel computing cores on a single chip. Network
on Chip (NoC) has emerged as an interconnection network of CMPs. But significant bandwidth
that is required for multicore chips is becoming a bottleneck in the traditional (electrical)
network on chip, due to delays caused by long wires in the electric NoC. Integration of photonic
links with traditional electronic interconnects proposes a promising solution for this challenge.
Since there are numerous design parameters for opto-electrical network architectures, an accurate
evaluation is needed to study the impact of each design parameter on network performance, and
to provide the most suitable network for a given set of applications, a power or a performance
goal. In this thesis, we present a prediction modeling technique for design space exploration of
an opto-electrical network on chip. Our proposed model accurately predicts delay (includes
network packet latency and network contention delay) and energy (includes static and dynamic
energy consumption) of the network. Specifically, this work addresses the fundamental challenge
of accurate estimation of desired metrics without having to incur high simulation cost of
numerous configurations of the optical network on chip architecture. We reduce the number of
required simulations by accurately selecting the parameters that have the most impact on the
network. Furthermore, we sparsely and randomly sample the designs build using these
parameters from an Optical Network on Chip (ONoC) design space, and simulate only the
sampled designs. We validate our model with three different applications executing on a large set
of network configurations in a large optical network on chip design space. We achieve average
error rates (root relative squared error) as low as 5.5% for the delay and 3.05% for the energy
consumption.


identifier: AliZadeh, Esmaeil  (2016) Fault Detection and Isolation of Wind Turbines using Immune System Inspired Algorithms.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Recently, the research focus on renewable sources of energy has been growing intensively. This is mainly due to potential depletion of fossil fuels and its associated environmental concerns, such as pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. Wind energy is one of the fastest growing sources of renewable energy, and policy makers in both developing and developed countries have built their vision on future energy supply based on and by emphasizing the wind power. The increase in the number of wind turbines, as well as their size, have led to undeniable care and attention to health and condition monitoring as well as fault diagnosis of wind turbine systems and their components.

In this thesis, two main immune inspired algorithms are used to perform Fault Detection and Isolation (FDI) of a Wind Turbine (WT), namely the Negative Selection Algorithm (NSA) as well as the Dendritic Cell Algorithm (DCA).

First, an NSA-based fault diagnosis methodology is proposed in which a hierarchical bank of NSAs is used to detect and isolate both individual as well as simultaneously occurring faults common to the wind turbines. A smoothing moving window filter is then utilized to further improve the reliability and performance of the proposed FDI scheme. Moreover, the performance of the proposed scheme is compared with the state-of-the-art data-driven technique, namely Support Vector Machine (SVM) to demonstrate and illustrate the superiority and advantages of the proposed NSA-based FDI scheme. Finally, a nonparametric statistical comparison test is implemented to evaluate the proposed methodology with that of the SVM under various fault severities.

In the second part, another immune inspired methodology, namely the Dendritic Cell Algorithm (DCA) is used to perform online sensor fault FDI. A noise filter is also designed to attenuate the measurement noise, resulting in better FDI results. The proposed DCA-based FDI scheme is then compared with the previously developed NSA-based FDI scheme, and a nonparametric statistical comparison test is also performed.

Both of the proposed immune inspired frameworks are applied to a well-known wind turbine benchmark model in order to validate the effectiveness of the proposed methodologies.


identifier: hajipour, farnaz  (2016) ROBUST RADIOTHERAPY APPOINTMENT SCHEDULING.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Optimal scheduling of patients waiting for radiation treatments is a quite challenging operational problem in radiotherapy clinics. Long waiting times for radiotherapy treatments is mainly due to imbalanced supply and demand of radiotherapy services, which negatively affects the effectiveness and efficiency of the healthcare delivered. On the other hand, variations in the time required to set-up machines for each individual patient as well as patient treatment times make this problem even more involved. Efficient scheduling of patients on the waiting list is essential to reduce the waiting time and its possible adverse direct and indirect impacts on the patient. This research is focused on the problem of scheduling patients on a prioritized radiotherapy waiting list while the rescheduling of already booked patients is also possible. The aforementioned problem is formulated as a mixed-integer program that aims for maximizing the number of newly scheduled patients such that treatment time restrictions, scheduling of patients on consecutive days on the same machine, covering all required treatment sessions, as well as the capacity restriction of machines are satisfied. Afterwards, with the goal of protecting the schedule against treatment time perturbations, the problem is reformulated as a cardinality-constrained robust optimization model. This approach provides some insights into the adjustment of the level of robustness of the patients schedule over the planning horizon and protection against uncertainty. Further, three metaheuristics, namely Whale Optimization Algorithm, Particle Swarm Optimization, and Firefly Algorithm are proposed as alternative solution methods. Our numerical experiments are designed based on a case study inspired from a real radiotherapy clinic. The first goal of experiments is to analyze the performance of proposed robust radiotherapy appointment scheduling (ASP) model in terms of feasibility of schedule and the number of scheduled patients by the aid of Monte-Carlo simulation. Our second goal is to compare the solution quality and CPU time of the proposed metaheuristics with a commercial solver. Our experimental results indicate that by only considering half of patients treatment times as worst-case scenario, the schedule proposed by the robust RAS model is feasible in the presence of all randomly generated scenarios for this uncertain parameter. On the other hand, protecting the schedule against uncertainty at the aforementioned level would not significantly reduce the number of scheduled patients. Finally, our numerical results on the three metaheuristics indicate the high quality of their converged solution as well as the reduced CPU time comparing to a commercial solver.


identifier: Zhou, Hang  (2016) Registration of 3D Ultrasound Volumes with Applications in Neurosurgery and Prostate Radiotherapy.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Brain tissue deforms significantly after opening the dura and during tumor resection, invalidating pre-operative imaging data. Ultrasound is a popular imaging modality for providing the neurosurgeon with real-time updated images of brain tissue. Interpretation of post-resection ultrasound images is difficult due to large brain shift and tissue resection. Furthermore, several factors degrade the quality of post-resection ultrasound images such as strong reflection of waves at the interface of saline water and brain tissue in resection cavities, air bubbles and the application of blood-clotting agents around the edges of resection. Image registration allows comparison of post-resection ultrasound images with higher quality pre-resection images, assists in interpretation of post-resection images and may help identify residual tumor, and as such, is of significant clinical importance. Prostate motion is known to reduce the precision of prostate radiotherapy. This motion can be categorized into intrafraction and interfraction. Interfraction motion introduces large systematic errors into the treatment and is the largest contributor to prostate planning treatment volume (PTV) margins. Conventional solutions to interfraction motion all have respective drawbacks. Clarity Autoscan system provides continuous ultrasound imaging of the prostate for interfraction motion correction, however it is time-consuming and can have large interobserver errors. The intension of accurately targeting the prostate and reducing the side effects in treatment requests a faster and more accurate registration framework for interfraction motion correction.

In this thesis, we first propose a registration framework called Nonrigid Symmetric Registration (NSR)  for accurate alignment of pre- and post-resection volumetric ultrasound images in near real-time.  An outlier detection algorithm is proposed and utilized in this framework to identify non-corresponding regions (outliers) and therefore improve the robustness and accuracy of registration. We use an Efficient Second-order Minimization (ESM) method for fast and robust optimization. A symmetric and inverse-consistent method is exploited to generate realistic deformation fields. The results show that NSR significantly improves the quality of alignment between pre- and post-resection ultrasound images. Then based on this framework, we develop a rigid registration framework called Prostate Registration Framework (PRF) for alignment of the prosate region in simulation and treatment volumes. PRF is trained using 2 3D transperineal ultrasound (TPUS) images of an ultrasound prostate phantom and 20 3D TPUS images from 11 patients receiving Clarity Autoscan. Algorithm performance is evaluated using further 21 TPUS images from a total of 8 patients by comparison of the PRF with manual matching of landmarks and Clarity-based estimation of interfraction motion performed by three observers. The results show that PRF outputs more accurate alignment of the prosate region in simulation and treatment volumes than Clarity, and further, provides the reposition of the prostate in treatment images efficiently and accurately.


identifier: Naderi, Esmaeil  (2016) Fault Diagnosis and Estimation of Dynamical Systems with Application to Gas Turbines.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
This thesis contributes and provides solutions to the problem of fault diagnosis and estimation from three different perspectives which are i) fault diagnosis of nonlinear systems using nonlinear multiple model approach, ii) inversion-based fault estimation in linear systems, and iii) data-driven fault diagnosis and estimation in linear systems. The above contributions have been demonstrated to the gas turbines as one of the most important engineering systems in the power and aerospace industries.

The proposed multiple model approach is essentially a hierarchy of nonlinear Kalman filters utilized as detection filters. A nonlinear mathematical model for a gas turbines is developed and verified. The fault vector is defined using the Gas Path Analysis approach. The nonlinear Kalman filters that correspond to the defined single or concurrent fault modes provide the conditional probabilities associated with each fault mode using the Bayes' law.  The current fault mode is then determined based on the maximum probability criteria. The performance of both Extended Kalman Filters (EKF) and Unscented Kalman Filters (UKF) are investigated and compared which demonstrates that the UKF outperforms the EKF for this particular application.

The problem of fault estimation is increasingly receiving more attention due to its practical importance. Fault estimation is closely related to the problem of linear systems inversion. This thesis includes two contributions for the stable inversion of non-minimum phase systems. First, a novel methodology is proposed for direct estimation of unknown inputs by using only measurements of either minimum or non-minimum phase systems as well as systems with transmission zeros on the unit circle. A dynamic filter is then identified whose poles coincide with the transmission zeros of the system. A feedback is then introduced to stabilize the above filter dynamics as well as provide an unbiased estimation of the unknown input. The methodology is then applied to the problem of fault estimation and has been shown that the proposed inversion filter is unbiased for certain categories of faults. Second, a solution for unbiased reconstruction of general inputs is proposed. It is based on designing an unknown input observer (UIO) that  provides unbiased estimation of the minimum phase states of the system. The reconstructed minimum phase states serve then as inputs for reconstruction of the non-minimum phase states. The reconstruction error for non-minimum phase states exponentially decrease as the estimation delay is increased. Therefore, an almost perfect reconstruction can be achieved by selecting the delay to be sufficiently large. The proposed inversion scheme is then applied to the output-tracking control problem.

An important practical challenge is the fact that engineers rarely have a detailed and accurate mathematical model of complex engineering systems such as gas turbines. Consequently, one can find a trend towards data-driven approaches in many disciplines, including fault diagnosis. In this thesis, explicit state-space based fault detection, isolation and estimation filters are proposed that are directly identified from only the system input-output (I/O) measurements and through the system Markov parameters. The proposed procedures do not involve a reduction step and do not require identification of the system extended observability matrix or its left null space. Therefore, the performance of the proposed filters is directly connected to and linearly dependent on the errors in the Markov parameters estimation process.  The estimation error dynamics is then derived in terms of the Markov parameters identification errors and directly synthesized from the healthy system I/O data. Consequently, the estimation errors have been effectively compensated for. The proposed data-driven scheme requires the persistently exciting condition for healthy input data which is not practical for certain real life applications and in particular to gas turbine engines. To address this issue,  a robust methodology for Markov parameters estimation using frequency response data is developed. Finally, the performance of the proposed data-driven approach is comprehensively evaluated for the fault diagnosis and estimation problems in the gas turbine engines.


identifier: St-Arnaud, Catherine  (2016) (Re)Garder la route.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

title: (Re)Garder la route

abstract:
(Re)Garder la route is a research-creation thesis examining contemporary Quebecois road novels and their feminine declination through a hypermedia-driven literary creation.
	By studying three novels, Chercher le vent by Guillaume Vigneault (2001), La foi du braconnier by Marc Séguin (2009) and Le fil des kilomètres by Christian Guay-Poliquin (2013), the student seeks to demonstrate that the road quest allows for a form of personal redemption leading the protagonist to find himself, after being lost. This literary subgenre features stylistic devices and narrative strategies that stem film’s take on the original road novel. Consequently, the three novels have been analyzed formally, mytho-poetically and with a particular interest in the visual tropes and the relationships between the protagonist, his immediate environment, and the proverbial “other”.
	The resulting creative work is in fact a resonant rewriting of the Québec road novel, as reimagined through a feminine experience, both interactive and literary, of the road. The hypertextual work draws on visual cues and actual lines from the original texts. The resulting creation seeks to subvert the expectations associated with the stereotypically masculine environment of the road by allowing for a strong, creative feminine point of view. The creative work, available online on a platform created specifically for the project, includes visual, textual and auditory material enticing the reader to lose himself, as the protagonist does, on the road.


identifier: Oboh, Eromonsele Samuel  (2016) Cluster Analysis of Multivariate Data Using Scaled Dirichlet Finite Mixture Model.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
We have designed and implemented a finite mixture model, using the scaled Dirichlet distribution for the cluster analysis of multivariate proportional data. In this thesis, the task of cluster analysis first involves model selection which helps to discover the number of natural groupings underlying a dataset. This activity is then followed by that of estimating the model parameters for those natural groupings using the expectation maximization framework.

This work, aims to address the flexibility challenge of the Dirichlet distribution by introduction of a distribution with an extra model parameter. This is important because scientists and researchers are constantly searching for the best models that can fully describe the intrinsic characteristics of the observed data and flexible models are increasingly used to achieve such purposes.

In addition, we have applied our estimation and model selection algorithm to both synthetic and real datasets. Most importantly, we considered two areas of application in software modules defect prediction and in customer segmentation. Today, there is a growing challenge of detecting defected modules early in complex software development projects. Therefore, making these sort of machine learning algorithms crucial in driving key quality improvements that impacts bottom-line and customer satisfaction.


identifier: Prematilake, Keshika ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6950-8679 <https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6950-8679>  (2016) Characterization of TRAPPC11 and GOSR2 mutations in human fibroblasts.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Eukaryotic cells consist of membrane-bounded organelles which communicate with each other through vesicles for the movement of proteins and lipids between them in a process called membrane traffic. It requires different types of proteins to facilitate docking and fusion of the cargo-containing vesicles to the correct compartment. Among them are a diverse group of membrane proteins called tethering factors including multi-subunit tethering complexes (MTCs). The transport protein particle (TRAPP) complexes are a family of related MTCs that are conserved from yeast to humans. Subunits of the mammalian TRAPP complexes are known to be involved in ER-to-Golgi and intra-Golgi trafficking while playing a fundamental role in Golgi morphology. The TRAPPC11 subunit of the mammalian TRAPP III complex has been implicated in ER-to-ERGIC trafficking as well as autophagy. The mammalian TRAPP subunits are linked to a broad range of diseases of which the mechanism and the cause are not fully understood.

In this study, homozygous and compound heterozygous mutations in the TRAPPC11 gene in human fibroblasts from five individuals were characterized using several biochemical, immunofluorescence and live cell microscopy techniques to identify the defective pathways and the effect of the mutations at the cellular level. Included in this study were two individuals with GOSR2 mutations displaying similar clinical features to patients with TRAPPC11 mutations. We hypothesized that the TRAPPC11 mutations would result in a number of different defects at the cellular level given the number of pathways TRAPPC11 has been suggested to function within. The current study suggests that some of the TRAPPC11 mutations are linked to a variety of cellular phenotypes including hypoglycosylation of proteins, ER-to-Golgi trafficking defects, delay in the exit of proteins from the Golgi, Golgi fragmentation, defects in the autophagy pathway as well as partial disassembly of the complex. Golgi soluble N-ethylmaleimide-sensitive factor attachment protein receptor complex 2 (GOSR2) is a protein located in the cis-Golgi to facilitate docking and fusion of COPII vesicles from the ER. The current study also suggests that some of the GOSR2 mutations are linked to hypoglycosylation of proteins, ER-to-Golgi trafficking defects as well as a delay in the exit of proteins from the Golgi.

The affected individuals showed novel mutations in TRAPPC11 and GOSR2 as well as mutations seen in previous studies. Some of the earlier TRAPPC11 mutations were in or near the foie gras domain, and these new TRAPPC11 mutations cluster near that region. This suggests that the foie gras domain plays a critical role in the function of the TRAPPC11 protein. Since, TRAPPC11 mutations affect the brain, eyes, liver, muscle, and bone, this suggests that the TRAPPC11 protein has a function in multiple tissue types and organs as well as homeostasis of the organism. This study and previous studies of TRAPPC11 lead to the conclusion that TRAPPC11 mutations, in general, result in neuromuscular phenotypes. In conclusion, these mutations can be added to the growing group of mutations in TRAPPC11 and GOSR2 causing neuromuscular and myopathy phenotypes. A better understanding of these mutations which result in neuromuscular phenotypes will allow for the screening of individuals who carry these mutations and further investigate the mechanism and treatment for these diseases.


identifier: Rozé Bianchi, Marilou  (2016) Top Management Team Pay Dispersion: The Role of Environment and Corporate Governance.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: This paper explores TMT pay dispersion in lone founder firms. The scarcity of the literature on this topic provides an opportunity to study the influence of extra- and intra-organizational factors on TMT pay dispersion. Knowing that high pay dispersion hurts firm performance, it is important to understand its antecedents. Based on panel data analyses of all S&P500 firms from 2008-2013, my results demonstrate that lone founder firms exhibit less pay dispersion than other firms. It seems that when founders are present on their firms’ board of directors, the effective monitoring of firm managers makes it redundant to offer the latter high incentive pay that would fuel pay dispersion. Regarding extra-organizational factors, recession appears to increase TMT pay dispersion, particularly in lone founder firms – possibly because lone founder firms regularly use attractive pay packages to hire talent from competitors during economic downturns and thereby foster pay dispersion. Finally, high-tech industries are negatively related to pay dispersion. The complexity of managerial tasks in such industries makes it necessary to pay all (rather than some) managers relatively high compensation, limiting pay dispersion.


identifier: Song, Runyun  (2016) The Effect of ESG Information on Market Returns in Mergers.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Using environment, social and governance (ESG) data from the MSCI Intangible Value Assessment (IVA) database, we examine how the aggregate ESG information and the ESG pillar information of targets and acquirers influence their market returns and total market returns around the announcement date. We find that acquirers with higher ESG-related risks and incommensurate managerial ability have lower acquirer and synergistic market returns. We find that an acquirer’s aggregate ESG strength has a significant positive impact on its market returns, yet the impact of a target’s aggregate ESG performance is not very certain or significant. The target’s governance strength and the acquirer’s social strength are valued by the market. We also find that targets in the IVA database tend to be large firms with good performance. This phenomenon may explain the insignificant influences of the target’s ESG performance on announcement date abnormal returns.


identifier: Dhulkhed, Shyam  (2016) Exploring the Feasibility of High Repetition Laser Ultrasound Non-Destructive Examination of Carbon Fibre Reinforced Polymer Composites.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: This thesis reports a reliable approach for Non-Destructive Examination (NDE) of the composite structure to inspect delamination with lasers, inspired by the conventional ultrasonic testing technique. This novel technique consists of a setup wherein a target is subjected to a calibrated mechanical stress, generating compressional and shear waves that propagate within the laminate by a laser source. These waves reflect off the back surface or if they encounter a discontinuity. Such a mechanism can be obtained by shock/stress waves induced by a laser that generates a high strain rate. The laminates are subjected to a wide range of duration and amplitudes of impact using lasers, according to the properties, particularly geometrical and mechanical. Coupled with the measurement of velocity/displacement of the free surface and the surface of impact, the study provides the understanding of the real-time diagnosis of a possible delamination consequent to the mechanical effects of the impact. The simulation validates the characteristics of the loading and material, in correlation with the experimental results, and postulates the complete cognisance of interpretation of results. The numerical study reveals constraints and propagation of stress waves within the target, and allows for quantification of the existence of a delamination and its depth. The relation between the displacement/velocity results and the material properties, to characterize the depth of delamination is established. The experiments are conducted on carbon/epoxy composite laminates with and without delamination at different depths. The delamination in the laminates is introduced using an aluminium foil. The experiments are conducted in the testing arrangements similar to conventional technique(s). An optical phase modulation system is used to capture the ultrasonic signals arriving as shock/stress waves. It is also reported how the numerical model can be used as a predictive tool for the rapid estimation of the shock/stress propagation, to carry out a feasibility of NDE by varying the laser parameters. One such variation is achieved for a laser that has high repetition rate and low energy. All the investigations reveal certain possibilities and some associated challenges, which are explained by the theoretical and numerical means. These observations are useful for a user to come to a resolution on adapting this technology.


identifier: Pourbabaee, Bahareh  (2016) Robust sensor fault detection and isolation of gas turbine engines.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
An effective fault detection and isolation (FDI) technology can play a crucial role in improving the system availability, safety and reliability as well as reducing the risks of catastrophic failures. In this thesis, the robust sensor FDI problem of gas turbine engines is investigated and different novel techniques are developed to address the effects of parameter uncertainties, disturbances as well as process and measurement noise on the performance of FDI strategies. The efficiencies of proposed techniques are investigated through extensive simulation studies for the single spool gas turbine engine that is previously developed and validated using the GSP software. The gas turbine engine health degradation is considered in various forms in this thesis. First, it is considered as a part of the engine dynamics that is estimated off-line and updated periodically for the on-board engine model. Second, it is modeled as the time-varying norm-bounded parameter uncertainty that affects all the system state-space matrices and third as an unknown nonlinear dynamic that is approximated by the use of a dynamic recurrent neural network.

In the first part of the thesis, we propose a hybrid Kalman filter (HKF) scheme that consists of a single nonlinear on-board engine model (OBEM) augmented with piecewise linear (PWL) models constituting as the multiple model (MM) based estimators to cover the entire engine operating regime. We have integrated the generalized likelihood ratio (GLR)-based method with our MM-based scheme to estimate the sensor fault severity under various single and concurrent fault scenarios. In order to ensure the reliability of our proposed HKF-based FDI scheme during the engine life cycle, it is assumed that the reference baselines are periodically updated for the OBEM health parameters.

In the second part of the thesis, a novel robust sensor FDI strategy using the MM-based approach is proposed that remains robust with respect to both time-varying parameter uncertainties and process and measurement noise. The scheme is composed of robust Kalman filters (RKF) that are constructed for multiple PWL models. The parameter uncertainty is modeled by using a time-varying norm bounded admissible structure that affects all the PWL state space matrices. The robust Kalman filter gain matrices are designed by solving two algebraic Riccati equations (ARE) that are expressed as two linear matrix inequality (LMI) feasibility conditions. The main objective is to propose a robust filter that satisfies the overall performance requirements and is not affected by system perturbations. The requirements include a quadratically stable filter that ensures bounded estimation error variances having  predefined values.

In the third part of the thesis, a novel hybrid approach is proposed to improve the robustness of FDI scheme with respect to different sources of uncertainties. For this purpose, a dynamic recurrent neural network (DRNN) is designed to approximate the gas turbine engine uncertainty due to the health degradations. The proposed DRNN is trained offline by using the extended Kalman filter (EKF) algorithm for an engine with different levels of uncertainty, but with healthy sensors. The convergence of EKF-based DRNN training algorithm is also investigated. Then, the trained DRNN with the fixed parameters and topology is integrated with our online model-based FDI algorithm to approximate the uncertainty terms of the real engine. In this part, the previously proposed HKF and RKF are integrated with the trained DRNN to construct the hybrid FDI structure.


identifier: Butters, Jason  (2016) For Empire or Dominion? Prestige or Adventure? The Men of the Canadian Legation in Tokyo, 1929-1933.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
In May 1929, the Canadian Department of External Affairs (DEA) formalized diplomatic ties with Japan by opening its Tokyo legation. Although the third of its kind, Canada's Tokyo legation initiated and managed bi-lateral relations with a degree of autonomy unparalleled by those in Washington and Paris. Within this newfound autonomous space was room for each of Canada's diplomats to negotiate, internalize, and perform their roles differently. This thesis investigates how and why First Secretary Hugh Keenleyside, Minister Herbert Marler, and Second Secretary Kenneth Kirkwood – the vanguards of Canadian national self-representation in the Pacific – engaged and employed that personal and national autonomy, studying their reactions to and participation in transnational political and cultural exchanges at the imperial Japanese capital. Their dissimilar experiences meanwhile act to demonstrate the complexities of those exchanges and highlight the various motives and opinions prevalent amongst Canada's late-interwar social political, and intellectual elite.
	By adopting the perspectives of the individual as its primary subject of analysis, this study contributes to an extant literature that has regularly portrayed the DEA and its foreign offices as unitary practitioners of a singular ideology or policy. Furthermore, the individual voices of Canada's first ranking official in the Japanese capital are recovered from the silencing effect of top-down, national-political analyses that have so dominated the field. Finally, it eschews teleological readings of the period preoccupied with Europe, a North Atlantic Triangle, and the 'road to war' narrative, thus providing a new view of an understudied aspect of Canadian international history.


identifier: Berry, Lucas  (2016) Hybrid Hidden Markov Model and Generalized Linear Model for Auto Insurance Premiums.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: We describe a new approach to estimate the pure premium for automobile insurance. Using the theory of hidden Markov models (HMM) we derive a Poisson-gamma HMM and a hybrid between HMMs and generalized linear models (HMM-GLM). The hidden state is meant to represent a driver's skill thus capturing an unseen variable. The Poisson-gamma HMM and HMM-GLM have two emissions, severity and claim count, making it easier to compare to current actuarial models. The proposed models help deal with the overdispersion problem in claim counts and introduces dependence between the severity and claim count. We derive maximum likelihood estimates for the parameters of the proposed models and then using simulations with the Expectation Maximization algorithm we compare the three methods: GLMs, HMMs and HMM-GLMs. We show that in some instances the HMM-GLM outperforms the standard GLM, while the Poisson-gamma HMM under-performs the other models. Thus in certain situations it may be worth the added complexity of a HMM-GLM.


identifier: Troshin, Valeriy ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4197-3680 <https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4197-3680>  (2016) Development of Electro-Anaerobic Membrane Bioreactor (EAnMBR) for treatment of high-strength industrial wastewater.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: The main objective of this research was to develop an advanced system for industrial wastewater treatment which could produce an excellent quality effluent. The subsequent objectives were: i) to reduce the initial concentration of carbon, nutrients, and color-forming substances compared to conventional treatment systems, ii) to investigate removal mechanisms in the new system under electric field, iii) to optimize the system by studying the relationship between various operating parameters. To achieve these objectives an innovative compact electro-anaerobic membrane bioreactor (EAnMBR) was designed and its high performance was researched in two operational configurations. In the EAnMBR, physicochemical, biological and electrokinetic processes interacted simultaneously permitting to control the effluent quality and sludge properties. The dark-color molasses-based wastewater containing the high concentrations of chemical oxygen demand (53,000 mg/L), total nitrogen (2,300 mg/L), total phosphorus (150 mg/L), was selected for this research and submitted to multi-phase studies. The research allowed to define optimal operational conditions leading to removal of carbon, nutrients by 99% and to complete discoloration in the EAnMBR system. The novel system was compared with anaerobic membrane bioreactor showing performance superiority of EAnMBR in respect to COD, sludge volume reduction and filterability by 10%, 54% and 7%, respectively. A separate experimental phase was dedicated to optimize the energy balance in the novel system by the surface response method.  The EAnMBR demonstrated outstanding results which make it a promising advanced wastewater treatment technology for various applications, e.g. in food, agriculture and defense industries.


identifier: MacLeod, Elyse  (2016) Accommodation via Understanding: Philosophical Hermeneutics and Intercultural Dialogue.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Hans-Georg Gadamer is widely recognized as one of the most influential figures in twentieth century hermeneutics. Following Heidegger, Gadamer articulates the hermeneutical problem ontologically as the problem of human understanding, and argues that understanding is an inherently dialogical process that cannot be grasped by a facile appeal to method. While Truth and Method—his magnum opus—primarily focuses on the understanding of texts, his assertions regarding the historical and dialogical nature of understanding opens his work up to different types of application. This thesis will assert that his work provides an excellent framework for making sense of some of the challenges inherent in inter-cultural/religious dialogue and understanding, and accomplish this by exploring the Quebec accommodation crisis through a Gadamerian lens.


identifier: Ghamry, Khaled Ali Shaaban  (2016) Cooperative Control of Multiple Unmanned Aerial Vehicles with Application to Forest Fire Detection and Fighting.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Since several decades ago, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have attracted a great deal of attention in academic, industrial and military communities. Recently, multiple cooperative UAVs have been applied in various applications such as forest fire detection and fighting, search and exploration, environmental monitoring and surveillance.
The main objectives of this dissertation are to design novel algorithms for single quadrotor UAV trajectory tracking control and multiple UAVs for cooperative/formation control. Then, applying these algorithms in forest monitoring and fire detection application, where a group of detection UAVs is required to surround and track the fire perimeter for monitoring and observation mission. Furthermore, a new algorithm for fault-tolerant cooperative control (FTCC) is proposed, in order to mitigate potential UAV fault effect for reliable and safe mission completion. Finally, a fire fighting algorithm is developed for achieving minimum distances for forest fire UAVs to arrive at their assigned fire spots destinations.
A combination of sliding mode control (SMC) and linear quadratic regulator (LQR) is used to design a single quadrotor UAV controller, which is then used to design a formation controller of multiple UAVs. Moreover, another formation controller is designed based on SMC to achieve robust formation control against modeling uncertainties and disturbances.
Cooperative UAVs are applied in forest monitoring and fire detection application through three stages: search, confirmation and observation. UAVs are assigned to search for potential forest fires in a certain area, once a fire is detected and a fire alarm will be generated by one or more of the UAVs. The UAVs team then reconfigures its formation by following an elliptic fire perimeter, calculated by the ground station (GS) using a fire spread model. Afterward, the fire alarm confirmation stage begins and all UAVs start evenly distributed for surrounding the fire spot according to the UAVs number in the team. When the fire alarm is confirmed, the observation stage starts and UAVs continue tracking the fire along the fire perimeter. SMC is used to design a formation reconfigurable controller to switch between a predefined formation shape during the search stage, to a dynamic surrounding formation. This controller guarantees even distribution of UAVs surrounding the fire spots and the robustness against disturbances. In addition, task assignment is used with multiple fire spots and multiple UAVs teams in order to reduce the mission execution time. Moreover, the proposed control algorithms are implemented to a team of UAVs paired with a team of unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs), by using these UGVs as a take-off and landing platform in forest monitoring and fire detection application.
Meanwhile, UAVs may need to leave formation for refueling/recharging during the mission of search, confirmation and observation, or if a fault occurred during the mission due to fire flames, heat or UAV's internal fault sources. Therefore, an FTCC algorithm is designed based on the graph theory to mitigate the fault effect on mission completion, and ensure complete surrounding and data gathering of the fire spots using different fire sensors such as infrared cameras, charge-coupled devices (CCD) cameras and thermal cameras etc.
Afterward, data gathered during observation stage are processed in the GS, then dangerous fire spots coordinates are sent to the fire fighting UAVs. The leader UAV, the GS or both can perform the task assignment process using an auction-based or Hungarian algorithms to assign each UAV to a fire spot for deploying fire suppressant. Furthermore, a hybrid approach of control parametrization and time discretization (CPTD) and particle swarm optimization (PSO) is proposed to achieve minimum flight distance for each UAV to arrive at its destination, minimizing fuel/battery consumption. Since PSO cannot solve the continuous control inputs, CPTD is used to provide an approximate piecewise linearization of the control inputs. Thus, PSO can be adopted to achieve the global optimum solution.
Finally, the proposed algorithms are being implemented on single and multiple quadrotor UAVs in simulations. While, the leader-follower approach is used in cooperative control in a decentralized manner to avoid the disadvantages of centralization. Thereafter, the proposed algorithms are verified on a set of Qball-X4 quadrotor UAVs and QGV unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) platforms in real-time experiments through different scenarios.


identifier: Khorrami, Hamid  (2016) Vibration Analysis of a Shaft-Disc System for On-line Crack Detection.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
This dissertation research concerns detection of cracks in rotating shaft-disc systems using the vibration-based methods. Turbines, pumps and jet engines are some examples of the shaft-disc systems, where crack failures may cause catastrophic effects. Detection of cracks at the early stages of growth is thus vital for prevention of failures, and has been the subject of many studies. Various crack detection methods such as ultrasonic, x-ray and vibration-based methods have been widely developed. Among these, the vibration-based methods are better suited for on-line crack detection. The reliability of such methods, however, relies upon the acquisition of an adequate vibration signature and its correlation with the crack, particularly for small size cracks. The reported studies have employed varying signal processing and crack modeling methods, although the models generally lack of consideration of effects of crack location and other possible faults.
An analytical model of a flexible shaft with two transverse fatigue cracks and two discs mounted on rigid/ resilient supports is formulated, and the corresponding boundary and continuity conditions are developed. A modified harmonic balance method is subsequently proposed for solutions of the governing equations of the analytical model to investigate changes in the selected vibrational properties such as shaft critical speeds, shaft center orbits and super-harmonic components of the steady-state lateral response to an unbalance excitation. The effects of single crack properties such as depth and location on the responses are investigated considering short/long and rigid/flexible bearing supports. The crack is considered as a breathing crack, and is characterized by an exponential function, which facilitated its integration in the modified harmonic balance method. Furthermore, the effects of two cracks’ characteristics such as depth, location and relative angular position on selected vibrational properties are studied. Each crack is initially described by a breathing function proposed by Mayes and Davies, which is subsequently modified as a softly-clipped cosine function to accurately describe saturation in breathing phenomenon. The response characteristics of the cracked shaft are also compared
with those of the system with an intact shaft in order to identify potential measures for detecting cracks. The validity of the proposed analytical model and the solution strategy is illustrated through comparisons of the model results with those obtained
from a finite element model and limited experiments. The crack-induced changes in transient lateral responses of the shaft-disc system are also considered for transverse crack detection. The shaft-disc system is simply modeled as a Jeffcott rotor to compute its start-up responses in the lateral direction. The breathing behavior of the crack is characterized with respect to stress intensity factor at different points on the crack edge at each shaft angle. A positive stress intensity factor corresponds to the open part of the crack, while the closed part shows a negative stress intensity factor. The breathing crack excites super-harmonic components of the transient as well as the steady-state lateral responses. Time-frequency representation of the transient lateral response obtained from Hilbert-Huang transform based on an improved empirical mode decomposition is used for crack detection. The results show that observed changes in the transient and steady-state lateral vibration responses could lead to effective detection of relatively small size cracks.


identifier: Vakilimoghaddam, Farbid  (2016) NUMERICAL INVESTIGATION OF HYDROGEN UNDER-EXPANDED JET FLOW CONSIDERING VISCOUS EFFECTS.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Hydrogen is the simplest and the most plentiful element in the universe. It is the cleanest burning fuel with water as the only by-product of the combustion process. Nevertheless, the low energy density per volume of hydrogen requires highly pressurized tanks to store a reasonable amount of energy. Highly pressurized storage tanks increase the risk of tank valve failure and hydrogen release into atmosphere.

In this study, two approaches are developed to investigate sudden hydrogen release. In the first approach, an analytical method is used to analyze the time histories of stagnation properties inside the chamber and sonic properties at the throat. In the second approach, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis is conducted using Ansys CFX solver. Unsteady 3D Navier-Stokes equations along with an additional transport equation are the governing equations of the flow. This CFD analysis is second order accurate in time and space. The SST k-ω turbulence model is employed to study the turbulent properties of the flow. Peng-Robinson real gas EOS is used for the accurate prediction of the hydrogen properties. A fully structured high quality mesh is constructed with


identifier: Searle, Kevin  (2016) Microcontroller Based Supervisory Control of a Solar Tracker.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
The Supervisory Control theory (SCT) of Discrete-Event Systems is concerned with the design of supervisors that can generate appropriate control command sequences that meet the plant design specifications. Examples of these sequences include the startup and shut-down command sequences of a spacecraft engine.
This thesis addresses the implementation of Supervisory Controller (SC) executing on microcontroller hardware. The plant studied is a 2 degree-of-freedom solar tracker.
Existing implementations of Supervisory Control Theory focus on Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) based systems. PLCs are mainly used in process control and manufacturing applications. These implementations have proven advantages but suffer from numerous drawbacks. The hardware is large, expensive and over engineered for many embedded system applications. Additionally, a number of disconnects between Supervisory Control Theory and their practical application exist. These include but are not limited to: the Avalanche Effect, Inexact Synchronization and Simultaneous Events.
This thesis extends the application of SCT to the field of microcontroller-based embedded systems. Methods to minimize or remove the effects of Avalanche Effect, Inexact Synchronization, and Simultaneous Events are analyzed in a microcontroller-based environment.
Additionally, design procedures for the modelling and implementation of a supervisory controller executing within a microcontroller are explored. To this end, a physical implementation of a real system was created and documented. An offline computation of the system supervisor is derived in MATLAB and stored in the system’s onboard memory as a State Transition Table (STT). An optimized storage method is developed that allows for fast execution of state transitions and a low memory footprint.


identifier: Alatresh, Walid  (2016) Multi-Channel Sequential Sensing In Cognitive Radio Networks.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Abstract

Multi-Channel Sequential Sensing In Cognitive Radio Networks

Finding white spaces and using them are major goals of cognitive radio networks.  In this research work, we investigate multi-channel spectrum sensing for secondary users (SUs), and make improvements by forming sequential sensing as long as the secondary  user does not get a channel to transmit on, and also as long as the user still has time left for transmission since waiting for the next cycle might not be the best scenario for the use of
spectrum radio. We first formulate an optimization problem that maximizes the throughput of the system. Then, we introduce a power consumption model for our system since SUs are battery powered devices and the effectiveness of the system is jointly coupled with the energy consumption. Finally, we introduce an energy utility function, and we optimize it by considering both the throughput of the system and the amount of power consumed to
achieve the optimal throughput. Numerical and simulation results are introduced at the end of this research, and they show better performance by the use of our suggested model compared to the work i the literature. The results also showed how to find the optimal number of channels to be sensed considering an efficient use of the SU’s battery.