identifier: Torabi, Ghazaleh  (2022) Productivity Monitoring of Construction Workers Based on Spatiotemporal Activity Recognition.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Workers’ productivity monitoring is an essential but time-consuming part of large construction projects. Therefore, automating this process using surveillance cameras has gained a lot of interest among researchers. A human observer can extract both detailed and abstract information from surveillance videos to estimate productivity. Humans first gain a high-level understanding of the scene and then pay attention to low-level details. Automating this process requires computers to understand videos at different levels as well. However, previous studies only focused on low-level activities. In addition, the three-stage activity recognition method adopted by previous studies consists of separately optimized worker detection, tracking, and activity classification modules. The three-stage method propagates errors through its modules, does not leverage the scene context, and was trained and tested on trimmed datasets in the previous studies. To address these limitations and research gaps, this thesis aims to: (1) propose a fully optimized method for activity recognition of construction workers in untrimmed surveillance videos, (2) use a combination of workers’ low-level activities to understand their higher level micro-tasks, (3) calculate the percentage of workers’ time spent on different activities and micro-tasks, (4) identify low productivity and its underlying reasons by calculating the percentage of activities for each micro-task, (5) identify idling and its underlying reasons, and (6) combine resource monitoring with progress monitoring by recognizing built construction elements, calculating their completion time, the average number of utilized workers, and the percentage of their time spent on each related micro-task. The proposed fully optimized activity recognition method improved the activity classification accuracy of the three-stage method by 15%, proving that a fully optimized method is superior to the previous separately optimized methods. The proposed productivity monitoring framework was applied to a two-hour video of workers assembling footing formwork, and a six-hour video of footing formwork assembly and installation of footing reinforcement bars, showing that the framework is promising. A detailed analysis is conducted on underlying reasons for low productivity and idling, which proved that activities alone are not informative enough for decision making.


identifier: Baghernia, Elham ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8596-0195 <https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8596-0195>  (2021) Millimeter Wave Circularly Polarized Antennas Based on Printed Ridge Gap Waveguide Technology.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

type: Thesis NonPeerReviewed

abstract:
The growing demand for higher data rates in wireless communication systems has built a significant momentum toward the fifth-generation (5G) of mobile communications as there are more uncongested frequency bands compared to the sub 6 GHz band. Circularly polarized (CP) antennas are highly required for the 5G millimeter-wave (mm-wave) systems due to their attractive features like reducing the polarization mismatch between transmitting and receiving antenna and suppressing multipath interference. The printed ridge gap waveguide (PRGW) technology exhibits desirable features at high frequencies due to its air-filled guiding medium. Therefore, the implementation of antenna arrays with these state-of-the-art guiding structures can enhance the efficiency of communication systems, which is highly required at mm-wave frequencies.
This research can be divided into two main parts: First, development of wideband mm-wave CP antenna array based on PRGW. Two designs for CP antenna arrays with distinct features of wideband bandwidth of more than 22.5%, simple structure, compact size, and high radiation efficiency better than 85% are presented. Cavity-backed slot spiral and spiral antenna are chosen as radiating elements to achieve RHCP beam. The mentioned antennas benefit from their inherently broadband features. However, their traditional feeding procedures are quite challenging and require complicated balun circuits and external matching networks. To alleviate this issue, simple feeding techniques for both spiral and slot spiral antennas have been proposed in this research.
In the second main part of the research, a PRGW wideband dual CP antenna array is developed to increase the system capacity further. The dual sense of circular operation is achieved by using a shared radiating aperture of a 2×2 45◦ ME dipole array and a two-port feeding network. The proposed dual port feeding network provides equal power division and the phase difference of -90° and +90° between adjacent output ports to generate RHCP and LHCP beams, respectively. The feeding network components (rat-race couplers, directional couplers, and crossover) are designed based on PRGW technology with broadband performance. The proposed design solves the problem of limited operating bandwidth and low radiation efficiency of low profile dual CP arrays in the mm-wave band.
All proposed antenna arrays are fabricated and measured to verify the simulated results. Good agreement between simulation and measured results is obtained. In all designs, the wideband performance, compactness, high radiation efficiency, and integration capability are considered significant to make them suitable for mm-wave applications.


identifier: Garneau-Lévesque, Jeanne  (2022) Ce que nous avons perdu/What We Have Lost: Conceptualisation d’une installation immersive sur la notion de la perte de mémoire individuelle à travers la matérialité du livre.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

format: text video

abstract:
RÉSUMÉ
Ce que nous avons perdu/What we have lost: Conceptualisation d’une installation immersive sur la notion de la perte de mémoire individuelle à travers la matérialité du livre.

Jeanne Garneau-Lévesque

Dans le contexte du vieillissement de la population et de l’augmentation de l’espérance de vie des aînées, les maladies neurodégénératives, telles que la maladie d’Alzheimer, sont de plus en plus diagnostiquées. La maladie d’Alzheimer s’attaque particulièrement à la mémoire et aux fonctions vitales de la personne. Une maladie redoutable et irréversible que les scientifiques connaissent encore très peu. Ces derniers en sont encore à étudier la progression de cette maladie et ignorent encore comment la guérir. Cela étant dit, la maladie d’Alzheimer souvent incomprise fait subir de graves préjudices aux personnes atteintes. À la lumière de cette problématique, cette
recherche-création pose la question suivante : comment conscientiser le public en général à cette maladie afin de susciter chez ceux-ci de l’empathie ? Les objectifs de la recherche sont de réaliser une expérience immersive sur les stades de la maladie d’Alzheimer. Concrètement, pour y parvenir,
la recherche a privilégié la métaphore du livre « détruit » évoquant la perte de la mémoire. De plus, c’est à l’aide d’un genre particulier, « l’installation vidéographique et sonore », qu’il a été permis de mettre en oeuvre et de concrétiser ce projet.


identifier: HABIBI, DAVID  (2022) Earnings per share forecasts: linear and neural networks models.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: In this study, we compare different input datasets and forecast methodologies to predict earnings right before they get announced. We start with a time-series approach using only 5 past earnings per firm to avoid survivorship bias. Then we add in turn, analysts’ forecasts, market and macro-economic data, and firm specific data to the predictors list. We finally test all these datasets together in a kitchen sink approach. We compare our forecast errors with the simple time-series approach for both linear method and neural network to pick up any potential non-linearities. We find that the best prediction is provided by linear methods and that the analysts' forecasts dataset adds the most predicting power as analysts incorporate in their estimates all information available at the market, economic and firm level. Because models tend to overfit, we observe that neural networks and large predictors datasets are outperformed by simpler models with fewer predictors.


identifier: Sardari, Morteza  (2022) Essays on entrepreneurial actions in uncertain and resource-constrained situations.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
This dissertation consists of three essays that study entrepreneurial actions in uncertain and resource-constrained situations by focusing on effectuation, bricolage, and bootstrapping literature. The first essay fills some important gaps in the literature on antecedents of effectuation. It does so by introducing three non-economic antecedents of effectuation and scrutinizes the impact of perceived disruptiveness of the business idea, entrepreneurs’ motivation, and their ambiguity tolerance (indicators of innovators) with regard to taking effectual processes. 75 hand-collected responses from nascent ventures that are active in Montreal, Canada, and 200 responses via Qualtrics from new ventures operating across Canada form the sample of the first essay. The results are consistent in both samples and show the significant impact of perceived disruptiveness of the product/service and autonomous type of motivation on using effectuation.
The second essay starts a new dialogue in the literature of effectuation/causation and focuses on the performance of entrepreneurs rather than firms. It addresses the questions about whether entrepreneurs can cognitively recognize when effectual/causal approaches are likely to yield better performance and execute them. Based on a sample of 200 entrepreneurs in Canada, the second essay studies the effect of openness to change, optimism, ambition, and team size on the entrepreneurs’ capability of choosing and fulfilling the best approach (effectuation vs causation) at different levels of product/service disruptiveness.
The third essay is meant to obviate some limitations regarding entrepreneurial approaches to overcome resource scarcity (bricolage, effectuation, and bootstrapping), namely, the considerable amount of overlap among approaches, unclear boundaries between what entrepreneurs do and how they do it, different antecedents of the approaches, and the multidimensional nature of them. To obviate the mentioned limitations, the third essay makes two major contributions to the literature. First, it introduces four distinct, single-dimensional, and easily measurable innovative courses of action that entrepreneurs undertake to overcome resource scarcity. Second, to stress the differences among the courses of action and to stimulate empirical studies in the future, it elaborates on process-related, organizational, environmental, and individual factors that affect the decision of entrepreneurs on prioritizing some innovative courses of action over others to overcome resource scarcity.


identifier: Shahfar, Shima  (2022) Unsupervised Structure-Consistent Image-to-Image Translation.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: There have been significant advances in designing deep networks for complex computer vision tasks. One that is of considerable importance is image understanding through pixel-wise classification, i.e. semantic segmentation. Despite the advances, self-supervised algorithms have many limitations and challenges, with perhaps the most significant being generalization. This thesis introduces a method based on generative models as a practical approach for addressing these shortcomings. First, we analyze several semantic segmentation methods to gain insight into their limitations. We investigate the effectiveness of one of the state-of-the-art methods on two different problem settings. The latter part of the thesis introduces an alternative approach using generative adversarial networks and autoencoders for image-to-image translation. The main idea is encoding an image into two latent codes to represent structure and style. We propose a new approach to enforce structure-consistency without requiring semantic labels to disentangle the two latent codes. We further show how this would result in a more detailed style transfer and image manipulation. Finally, we present results on multiple datasets and discuss how our approach can be practical in real-world applications. Our experiments demonstrate that our approach performs better than the baselines -or, in the worst-case, gives comparable results- while solving some of the shortcomings in tasks requiring a semantic mask.


identifier: Tétrault, Gabrielle-Léa  (2022) Protopian mises-en-scène: The collaborative design of a queer femme augmented reality face filter.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Augmented reality face filters, found on social media platforms such as Instagram and Snapchat, have gained in popularity in recent years. While some are amusing and playful, like butterflies flying around you, the filter landscape is primarily populated by “beauty filters”, a digital beautification of face features that reinforce heteronormative standards. While this research-creation project aims to challenge the current filter norms, it does so with a reparative approach: it focuses on the generative potential of face filters and offers a gender nonconformant alternative by creating a face filter through a participatory methodology. I led two workshops that I held with three queer femme friends of mine who were also invested in challenging the norms of face filters. The result, seen more as an experimental prototype than a final design, was shared with participants to get their feedback. A key aim was to create visions for a non-heteronormative augmented reality future. As such, protopian futurism, the prototyping of hopeful and radically inclusive futures, as developed by Monika Bielskyte, is a guiding concept along Eve Sedgwick’s reparative reading. The workshops resulted in a collaborative experience of self-discovery and the development of new face filter themes.


identifier: Henkel, Camille  (2022) Slow Burn and Other Stories.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

title: Slow Burn and Other Stories

abstract:
Abstract: Slow Burn by Camille Henkel
Slow Burn is a collection of stories in the genre of psychological horror and fantasy in which the world we inhabit is transformed through the characters’ distorted perspectives. The line between reality and the supernatural becomes blurred, unearthing anxieties around family, identity and the sense of self. All stories gather protagonists thrown between two worlds, two realities and examine the clash between them. They stand on the edge of breakthroughs, which promise either positive outcomes or dire consequences.


identifier: McRae, Curtis John  (2022) Quietly, Loving Everyone: Early Stories.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

title: Quietly, Loving Everyone: Early Stories

abstract:
The stories in my thesis collection, Quietly, Loving Everyone: Early Stories, explore characters at the beginning, middle, and end of relationships; with lovers, friends, family, and themselves. My collection explores a balance between the narrative arc of minimalist fiction with the content of existential-humanist stories, while also blending earnestness with humour. These stories raise questions about the growing concern with the Anthropocene, the shroud of mystery surrounding chronic illness, the rising rate of suicide, and modes of infidelity among polyamory and hook-up culture. In a mode that occasionally borders on the metafictional, this collection explores the potential of narrative, of how it can both shield us from reality, and shape it too.
In “Ulcers and Auras,” the protagonist, Purdy O’Connor, reimagines the grieving process and reconciles how little is known about autoimmune diseases with his recent diagnoses, all while daydreaming of a platoon of ulcers taking over the city of Montreal. In “Hotel Viviane,” the titular protagonist takes a road trip with her older sister to visit Race Point Lighthouse, then years later tries to make sense of her sister’s sudden suicide. Underlying all these stories is a sense that something imminent and foreboding is around the corner; yet I hope to create a respite for my readers with moments of levity and keen observation. Despite their flaws, shortcomings, and grievances, you may still come to quietly love these characters.


identifier: Sihra, Jasmine  (2022) Melting Glaciers and Rising Seas: Indigenous Digital Art in the Arctic and Pacific Islands.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: This thesis analyzes two works: Rise: From One Island to Another (2018), a video-poem by Marshallese artist Kathy Jetñil-Kijiner and Kalaaleq artist Aka Niviâna, and Arkhticós Doloros (2019), a poem and performance by Kalaaleq artist Jessie Kleemann. The 350.org production of Rise: From One Island to Another (Rise) demonstrates how climate change is affecting Indigenous communities in Kalaallit Nunaat (“Greenland”) and Aelon Kein Ad (“Marshall Islands”), focusing on glacial melt and severity of floods due to rising sea levels. Arkhticós Doloros presents Kleemann’s personal engagement with melting glaciers in Kalaallit Nunaat. These works are part of a growing movement of Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour (BIPOC) artists who highlight how discourses around the anthropocene— the era in which human activity has significantly altered the environment and climate—do not fully account for the relationship between colonialism and climate change. Indigenous scholars, such as Kyle Whyte (Potawatomi) and Zoe Todd (Métis), argue for a decolonization of the anthropocene that is rooted in Indigenous ways of knowing about the land, waters, and relationships with human and non-human life. Aligned with these scholars, this thesis argues that Rise and Arkhticós Doloros call attention to the need for a decolonization of the anthropocene by advocating for Indigenous communities’ knowledges and experiences. Drawing on Hupa/Yurok/Karuk scholar Cutcha Risling Baldy and Diné scholar Melanie K. Yazzie’s notion of radical relationality—an Indigenous feminist framework that considers decolonization by establishing relationships with and through the waterways—this thesis considers Kalaallit and Marshallese artists’ relationships with and through melting glaciers and rising seas.


identifier: Sung, Mingyou  (2022) Studies on diverse input representations and classifiers on relation extraction datasets.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: The relation extraction task which aims to identify the relationship between a specified pair of words is considered a significant task that can be expanded to be utilized in various ways. Therefore, the automatic relation extraction system is often considered a key to extracting systematic reusable information from sentences, paragraphs, or documents. Instead of achieving state-of-the-art performance, this thesis aims to explore the significance of various input & output representations, and the difference between a linear and a bilinear classifier on relation extraction tasks. For a thorough analysis, I experiment on a diverse group of relation extraction datasets and present a set of ablation studies. Moreover, experiments are compared not only based on their performance but also on the efficiency of resource usage. The analysis illustrates that the systems based on certain input & output representations yield the best performance in general even though introduced systems have less complexity compared to bilinear-classifier-based systems. Moreover, the straightforward systems studied in this thesis show results comparable to state-of-the-art systems (3% difference) in general.


identifier: Padros-Ross, Nathalie  (2022) Exploratory Research: An Intergenerational Program in a CHSLD/RPA.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
The present study sought to explore the impact of an intergenerational program occurring in a Quebecois CHSLD/RPA on the residents' end-of-life course. It focuses on later life experiences and the particularities of living and aging in an institution offering this kind of initiative while taking into consideration the current context. An immersion into their "milieu de vie" allowed to conceptualize four main experiences:
•	Their Admission and Transition Process
•	Their Integration and Daily Living
•	The Elaboration and Participation in an Intergenerational Program
•	The Pandemic
Semi-structured qualitative interviews were conducted with three coordinators and three residents.
What it is to live and age in this kind of institution is not linear; it is a negotiation with oneself and others and an ongoing process. There is no clear definition of aging properly either, but at the root of their testimonies, we can find that key elements can improve or impede the quality of end-of-life.


identifier: Navale, Reethu  (2022) An Online Self-Assessment Feature for An Enhanced CrsMgr System.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: The current pandemic has led to the use of online teaching and calls for the introduction of innovative self-learning techniques. Since contacts with educators are limited, students are required to become more self-reliant, and this includes the use of a self-assessment quiz to provide a measure of the learning progress and discover the area for further study. In this project, we focus on adding a feature for a course instructor to generate, using AI techniques, various types of questions for self-assessment: the system uses various types of course-related material, including text chapters in PDF format. The system is designed to be guided by the instructor and would help students to educate themselves in a typical remote teaching/learning environment.


identifier: Soliz, Aryana ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5172-4947 <https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5172-4947>  (2021) Cycling and social complexity: An ethnography of (bi)cycle travel and urban transformations.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: As policy makers grapple with rapid urbanization and motorization processes, human-scale transportation modes such as cycling are gaining new urgency, offering non-polluting alternatives to automobility. At the same time, urban planning paradigms tend to focus on purely technical solutions to transportation challenges, leaving questions of history, culture and social power aside. This dissertation contributes to a small but growing field of situated research investigating the role of socio-cultural life in fostering and inhibiting cycling practices as well as the wider potential of (bi)cycle histories in revealing the workings of power across urbanizing landscapes. Based on archival and ethnographic fieldwork from the Mexican bajío, it argues that while the bicycle may appear as a simple tool for promoting urban wellbeing and environmental sustainability, cycling practices nevertheless have layers of meaning, historical complexity, invisible work and affective significance and that are not always self-evident. These complexities are not only significant on a historiographical level, but they also have implications in terms of how cycling is mobilized in new urban-planning agendas, the possibilities and limitations of cycling infrastructure in different contexts as well as whose voices are included and excluded from these discussions. Emphasizing the heterogeneity of (bi)cycling, this dissertation aims to reframe cycling research with greater attention to social complexity, advancing critical theories in feminist science and technology studies, mobility justice as well as Latin American theorizing on ways of knowing otherwise. Rather than simply reflecting on cycling politics, this dissertation mobilizes bicycle and tricycle trajectories as an opening for considering a variety of complex challenges relating to the past, present and future of cities. Not only do cycling pathways lead us through diverse transportation histories, they can also reveal the need for attention to the ways that social inequities traverse broad regimes of (im)mobility and particular contours of resistance; an understanding of the processes through which social groups contest mobility injustices and formulate alternatives for building inclusive cities; as well as an appreciation of participatory, gender-transformative and insurgent approaches to urban design.


identifier: Li, Yin ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9344-9821 <https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9344-9821>  (2022) Decomposition Approaches for Building Design Optimization.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Building performance simulation can be integrated with optimization to achieve high-performance building design objectives such as low carbon emission and cost-effectiveness by holistically considering design variables across different disciplines. However, the complexity of the design problem increases greatly with increasing dimensionality. In some cases, solving high-dimension problems is not technically feasible nor time-efficient. Decomposition is one way to reduce the complexity and dimensionality of optimization problems. However, the decomposed optimization might achieve local optimum. Therefore, deploying appropriate decomposition strategies to achieve global optimum is paramount. This study investigates the deployment of hierarchical and parallel decomposition for building design optimization problems to ensure identification of global optimum. The feasibility of combining sensitivity analysis and decomposition is also explored. At the end of this study, some recommendations are given to help select an appropriate approach in practice.
First, this thesis proposes a hierarchical decomposition. Hierarchical decomposition divides an optimization problem into several interconnected subproblems solved sequentially. The proposed approach is applied to the multi-objective optimization problem that minimizes buildings' operating costs and carbon emissions. The results show that the hierarchical decomposition approach can reduce the number of simulations while achieving global optimums.
Second, this thesis proposes a parallel decomposition. Parallel decomposition divides the original problem into several smaller subproblems to be solved separately, and potentially, concurrently. The proposed parallel decomposition approach is applied to solve the single-objective optimization problems of a benchmark function and a low-rise office building. The results show that the proposed approach finds the global optimum and takes less computation time than optimization without decomposition.
Third, this thesis explores the feasibility of combining sensitivity analysis with decomposition for dimensionality reduction. The efficiency and accuracy of different methods are compared through three case studies.
The proposed hierarchical and parallel decomposition approaches can be applied individually or combined into a hybrid decomposition approach. This thesis concludes with some recommendations to help choose a decomposition approach to solve building design optimization problems.


identifier: Dang, Thi Linh Phuong  (2022) Am I Really Responsible for Compensating Underpaid Food Delivery Workers? A Study on Consumer Responsibilization and Emotions.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: While the COVID-19 pandemic has put thousands of food establishments out of business, the market of food delivery applications (FDAs) has spiked. FDAs have been criticized for their inadequate compensation of workers and fee structure for partner restaurants. It is expected that consumers compensate for the low driver pays with their tips, which is an act of responsibilization. This qualitative study of interviews and archival data will investigate the responsibilization journey of consumers in using FDAs service and how emotions arise from or shape their consumption. My findings show that consumers either refuse to take the responsibility or become responsibilized for the issues faced by food delivery drivers and restaurants. They experience a wide range of emotions arising from the burden of responsibilization, hence taking different actions to resolve these feelings. While the literature on responsibilization usually presumes that consumers will be responsibilized, my findings add another perspective where consumers refuse to be responsibilized, rejecting the perceived unfair shift of responsibility. My findings also demonstrate that consumers can feel responsibilized for more than one issue within the same context. The findings also affirm that emotions can contribute to the formation of responsible subjects as well as the shaping of anti-consumption, thus adding a complex understanding to the literature of emotions and consumer responsibilization. For practitioners, the study emphasizes the importance of being socially responsible and advises companies to adjust their structures to be beneficial for all stakeholders.


identifier: Kanaan, Yasmeen  (2022) Camel Imagery in Pre-Islamic Wadi-Rum Rock Art: Translating Social Identity Through Material Traces.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: My research employs ancient literary sources to help investigate carved she-camel imagery appearing on thirty-three rock faces located within the Jordanian desert of Wadi-Rum. Using excerpts from pre-Islamic poetry as an historical source, this thesis focuses on ancient north Arabian beliefs and practices that were shaped by the she-camel's symbolic and physical presence. The thesis draws on key lines drawn from the ancient rahil-journey, the Maysir, and the Baliyah. The first section introduces how the she-camel may have helped shape ancient Arabian perceptions of individuality. The second section draws on the desert journey of the prominent pre-Islamic poet, Labid, to investigate the spiritual nature and structure of his poem The Mu'allaqah of Labid. Exploring the she-camel as an ancient Arabian metaphor, the third section addresses the animal as a medium connecting the known and "unknown" realms within ancient north Arabian folkloric narratives. Referencing Mieke Bal's inter-disciplinary approach and guided by Erwin Panofsky's iconographic framework, this thesis suggests that she-camel carvings contributed in some way to the conceptualization and materialization of aspects of the north Arabian perception of the self as evidenced, in part, by the ubiquitous and extraordinary visual traces left behind in Wadi Rum.


identifier: Silvestri, Alessandro Silvano  (2022) “It is hasheesh that makes both the Syrian and the Saxon Oriental”: Foreign Drugs, Savage Youth, and the Imperial and Eugenic Imperatives of the Early War on Drugs, 1870-1937.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: This thesis argues that at the youth-at-risk rhetoric that has characterised anti-drug campaigns from the 1920s to the 2020s has its origins in the imperial and eugenic concerns of the early twentieth century. The first US federal drug policy was born in the colonial Philippines. Prior to annexing the archipelago in 1898, drug laws in the United States were scarce and limited to local governments. Nativist agitation against the Yellow Peril in the 1870s linked Chinese immigrants with opium dens and contagious degeneration, leading to the first municipal anti-narcotic ordinances in US history. These stereotypes were brought to the Philippines, where opium use was blamed on the ethnic Chinese population. The paternalistic imperialism adopted by the United States after 1898 framed Filipinos as children and wards of the state, and the decision to enact the first federal drug prohibition in US history was a direct result of this parent/child colonial relationship. To protect and civilise a less developed Other, it became imperative to guard them from the degenerative effects of foreign drugs. This, in essence, was the precursor to the youthfocused anti-drug campaigns that emerged in the 1920s. By the 1930s, the public campaign to eliminate the 'marihuana menace' relied on this 'protect the youth' paradigm as well as on Orientalist tropes about cannabis-induced violence and insanity, framing the drug as a eugenically degenerative agent. In these early twentieth century crusades, anti-drug crusaders warned that the United States' place in the global order and the supremacy of the White race depended on raising future generations of self-disciplined, hardworking, Christian, middle-class Americans. Eliminating drugs, the 'assassins of youth,' was critical in the fight to save America from national and racial degeneration. These rhetorical strategies have, in turn, shaped anti-drug propaganda and strategies to the present day. I conclude that the war on drugs was from the beginning conceived as a war against racial and national degeneration.


identifier: Aziz, Talha  (2022) Who Helps the Helpers? A thematic enquiry into the organizational correlates of burnout through the lens of clinical psychologists in Quebec’s mental health teams.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Background: It is generally accepted that mental health professionals experience high levels of burnout. Burnout is a multi-dimensional phenomenon that occurs because of a complex interplay between individual and contextual factors.
To understand the impact of contextual factors on burnout among mental health professionals, I looked at how recent healthcare reforms have altered the mental health service delivery and then examined the impact of resulting changes to the work environment on burnout. Specifically, I focused on the creation of primary mental health teams and the experiences of clinical psychologists working in them.

Objective: To identify the organizational correlates of burnout associated with interdisciplinary teamwork in primary care.

Method: Eight semi-structured interviews were conducted targeting full-time clinical psychologists in primary care. Participants reported the job demands associated with teamwork and the resources available to meet those demands. The interviews were conducted in person and over the telephone in both official languages. The audio recordings of the interviews were transcribed and analyzed using thematic analysis.

Results: The participants reported six job demands that clustered around three areas of work-life: control, workload, and community. Five resources were classified as functional, motivational, and professional development. The former contributed to their stress experience, whereas the latter were instrumental in achieving work goals, and satisfied basic human needs for relatedness and competence.

Recommendations: Improve participative decision-making and autonomy; adequate provisions for consultations; reduce administrative burden; develop a digital integration strategy and protocols for knowledge creation.


identifier: Hamed Nohbaradaran, Nima  (2021) Development of a Thermally Sprayed Electrothermal Antiicing System for Inflight Ice Mitigation.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Ice formation and accumulation cause many inconveniences in daily routine. Drawbacks in
infrastructures such as road structure, overhead telecommunication, wind turbines, and transportation are examples of icing consequences. Inflight
icing, for instance, can brings about
severe aerodynamic and mechanical problems. Formation, adhesion, and accumulation of ice disfigure the airflow on the aircraft’s critical aerodynamic surfaces, decreasing the lift and
increasing the drag force, and causing undesired circumstances. Hence, significant efforts have been devoted to developing methods to mitigate icing problems, including antiicing,
and deicing strategies. There are three types of ice protection systems, including passive, active, and hybrid
systems frequently used in antiicing
mode, deicing mode, or both. Several inadequacies in these methods encourage researchers to investigate the feasibility of developing more efficient and
reliable iceopposing systems. Accordingly, based on the literature, designing, and producing efficient ice protection systems are needed, especially regarding safety, energy consumption, costefficiency, and longlasting
performance. The present work aims to study a specific active ice protection system fabricated by a thermal spray technique (electrothermal heating) in harsh icing
conditions. Moreover, this work will study this ice protection system’s performance by integrating
it into a unique architecture (empowering efficiency). Also, this work aims to briefly study the performance of a passive ice protection system (nanotextured superhydrophobic coating) in antiicing
performance. Plasma spray technique as a versatile and cost-effective surface modification
alternative is used as the manufacturing method in this study. Several coatings are developed and
studied during this project to determine the most promising materials, processes, and parameters
for achieving the optimized active ice mitigation system. Furthermore, the functionality of the established system is assessed using an icing wind tunnel. Besides, challenges and solutions for improving the desired performance of tobeheated surfaces are discussed.


identifier: Luo, Lan  (2022) Effect of Ballast Pockets on the Stability of Railway Embankments.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: The formation of ballast pockets results from excessive plastic deformation of clay subgrade, a common subgrade failure resulting from the repeated loading of the subgrade by passing trains. Ballast pockets reduce the stability of clay slopes under railway embankments, further affecting the safe traversal of freight trains on the track. Therefore, quantifying the impact of ballast pockets on slope stability is important for railway operation safety. This thesis uses two-dimensional models using the finite element shear strength reduction method to conduct a coupled deformation and pore fluid flow analysis for slope stability evaluation under undrained conditions. The control variable method is used to perform a series of parameter studies, including geometric characteristics of the slope, railway embankment and ballast pockets, and freight train speeds. For slopes with different parameters, maximum safe train speed information is presented with a minimum factor of safety of 1.3. The research results show that freight trains can traverse on tracks built on a lower slope of 3H:1V inclination and a 3 m railway embankment at a relatively higher maximum safe speed. Finally, this research identifies the maximum safe speed a train can use, through given the geometric parameters of the slope, railway embankment, and ballast pockets.


identifier: Khorasani zadeh, Zeinab  (2022) A simulation-based framework to optimize occupant-centric controls given stochastic occupant behaviour.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Occupant-centric control (OCC) strategies represent a novel approach to indoor climate control in which occupancy patterns and occupant preferences are embedded within control sequences. They aim to improve occupant comfort and energy efficiency by learning and predicting occupant behaviour (OB), then optimizing building operations accordingly. Previous studies estimate OCC can increase energy savings by up to 60% while improving occupant comfort. However, their performance is subject to several factors, including uncertainty due to OB, OCC configurational settings, as well as building design parameters. To this end, testing OCCs and adjusting their configurational settings before implementation are critical to ensure optimal performance. Furthermore, identifying building design alternatives that can optimize such performance is an important step that faces logistical constraints during field implementations. This research presents a framework to optimize OCC performance in a simulation environment, which entails coupling synthetic OB models with OCCs that learn their preferences. The framework features a parallel processing structure to obviate the computational burden and enhance optimization efficiency. A sensitivity analysis is conducted to identify the most influential variables on OCC performance in terms of increasing energy efficiency and occupant comfort. A two-step multi-objective optimization is then developed to identify the configurational settings and design parameters that minimize energy consumption and maximize occupant comfort. Results revealed significant improvement in OCC performance when they were customized with the identified optimal settings for different occupants. The proposed framework aims to improve OCC performance in actual buildings and avoid discomfort issues that may arise during its initial implementation.


identifier: Abu Safieh, Bayan Fakhri  (2022) Experimental and Numerical Investigation of Fatigue behavior for Marine Clays and Offshore Monopile-Clay System.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: The design of foundations supporting offshore structures and subjected to excessive cyclic loading episodes become challenged when embedded in soft marine clays. A deterioration in the undrained shear strength of marine clays with the generation of excess pore water pressure under cyclic loading significantly affects the offshore infrastructure’s stability. It leads to large lateral deformations that might be failing both superstructure and infrastructural systems. Monopiles are extensively used in supporting offshore structures due to their high resistance to extensive lateral cyclic loading. The response of the Monopile-Clay system to lateral cyclic loading drew the attention of researchers over the years; they conducted experimental, field, and numerical studies to examine the suitability of the methods adopted in the design codes, which is still a controversial issue. This research aims to study the cyclic performance of marine clays and the monopile-clay system and measure the marine clay fatigue life and how it interferes with the system’s failure. A parametric sensitivity analysis using the Artificial Intelligence technique was proposed to highlight the complicated behavior of marine clays and to allocate the clay parameter(s) that primarily affect its behavior when subjected to cyclic loading. Datasets collected from the literature were used to measure the threshold cyclic stress ratio (CSR) for a wide range of marine clays worldwide. Moreover, a modified safe zone concept was proposed to predict the clay’s response, whether it fails or maintains equilibrium. The most significant clay parameters that impact its response were detected, and a predictive ANN model was proposed. The model successfully predicts the marine clay response to cyclic loading. The fatigue life estimation of marine clays was measured by performing a series of strain-controlled tests under different strain amplitudes. Three major turning points in the marine clay’s fatigue life were defined: (1) the crack initiation, (2) the crack propagation fatigue life, and (3) the transition point where the plastic strains become dominant and control the clay’s behavior. Furthermore, a new correlation of the degradation parameter (t) was proposed based on cycling the marine clays until failure. A 2D numerical investigation was performed under the same tested parameters of the strain-controlled tests to measure the monopile-clays system fatigue life. The system was analyzed under displacement-controlled loading amplitude to measure the actual clay’s response and deterioration over the embedded depth of the monopile and by increasing the number of cycling. The detected  P-N profiles can be an efficient tool to develop new design criteria that fulfill the fatigue limit state (FLS) requirements.


identifier: Ilie, P  (2022) Fatigue Crack Growth Life Assessment Using 3D Finite Element Analysis.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Damage tolerance and fatigue crack growth life assessments allow manufactures to predict the in-service behaviour of high-risk components. Fatigue crack growth solutions are mostly generated using reduced order models that are based on simple geometries (i.e., corner crack at a bolt hole or surface crack in a plate) with the assumption that cracks hold an elliptical shape during propagation. A new finite element-based modelling process that takes into account component geometry, service loading conditions and minimizes simplifications with respect to crack front shape or planarity of the crack growth path is demonstrated.

A 3D finite element-based approach to fatigue crack growth propagation was evaluated as an alternative to reduced order modeling. The modelling approach was verified and validated in three main stages: simple plate geometry, specimens with multiple out of plane cracks, and full-sized specimen panel. A MATLAB analytical solution-based model was developed to estimate crack front evolution and fatigue crack growth life for surface, corner and internal cracks. The analytical results are verified with 3D finite element (FE) based approach implemented in SimModeler Crack. A set of experimental fatigue crack growth measurements based on Al 2024-T3 specimens containing multiple cracks was used to validate the 3D FE modelling solutions. Lastly, fatigue crack growth measurements from a full-sized spar experiment were used to ascertain the accuracy of the proposed FE model.


identifier: Buonomano, Cindy  (2022) Toward Greener Syntheses of Pyrrole-Based Heteroaromatic Compounds using Palladium-Catalyzed Decarboxylative Cross-Coupling Reactions.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Our daily lives depend heavily on industrial chemicals; however, this process often results in a greater level of pollution and toxic contamination. It is of extreme importance to chemists to reduce these damaging substances and develop more environmentally friendly processes. In order to address these challenges, we applied concepts of green chemistry to our research on heteroaromatic synthesis using catalysis and flow chemistry. Multi-arylated and arylated pyrroles are important structural motifs for a number of industries, including medicinal chemistry and organic semiconductors. Asymmetric, multi-arylated pyrroles are typically prepared by either cyclization or cross-coupling reactions catalyzed by transition metals. This latter approach has the advantage of facilitating access to compound libraries by allowing for late-stage functionalization. It is, however, quite common for these traditional cross-couplings to involve a stoichiometric amount of organometallic reagent, resulting in heavy organometallic waste, while the reaction time and sensitivity to air or moisture can make these processes impractical. We have developed cross-coupling methodologies to enable regioselective arylation of pyrroles through the use of carboxylic acid and ester functional groups. Aside from being greener than most other existing methodologies, this approach is also remarkably easily accessible. First, to increase the appeal of our protocols for industrial applications, they need to be adapted to new synthetic and greener technologies. Continuous-flow is a powerful technique that is carried out using microtubes and small benchtop reactors. There are advantages to it over other methods commonly used for organic synthesis. In this research project, we employed flow chemistry technique to improve the decarboxylative cross-coupling methodology developed by our group. Second, an expanded route utilizing Buchwald coupling, saponification, decarboxylative cross-coupling and C-H arylation was developed in order to access 1,2,5-triarylated pyrroles. Lastly, a double decarboxylative cross-coupling was employed towards the synthesis of bispyrrole pyridine oligomers achieving high yields. Future work will include the functionalization of the pyrrole moiety to extend the oligomer to 5 units.


identifier: Salari, Mohammad Ali  (2021) The effect of Computational Environments on Big Data Processing Pipelines in Neuroimaging.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Variations in computational infrastructures, including operating systems, software versions, and hardware architectures, introduce variability in neuroimaging analyses that could affect the reproducibility of scientific conclusions. These variations are due to the creation, propagation, and amplification of numerical instabilities in analysis pipelines. It is critical to identify numerical instabilities to make experiments computationally reproducible. In this thesis, we characterize the numerical stability of commonly-used complex pipelines in the context of neuroimaging analysis across operating systems and provide accessible tools for developers and researchers to evaluate their pipelines and findings. First, we present the Spot tool that identifies the processes from which differences originate and the path along which they propagate in a pipeline. In the next step, to study the numerical instabilities more comprehensively, we introduce controlled numerical perturbations to the floating-point computations using the Monte-Carlo arithmetic method. For this purpose, we propose an interposition technique to model the effect of operating system updates on analysis pipelines using the Monte-Carlo arithmetic. Finally, leveraging the interposition technique, we compare numerical variability with tool variability in an fMRI analysis. We show that the results of analyses are sensitive to computational environment changes originating from numerical errors. All the methods implemented in this thesis are publicly available and can be used to facilitate further investigations toward stabilizing pipelines.


identifier: Fraser, Thomas  (2022) Pension Fund City: Retirement, Real Estate, and Public Sector Labour.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: In 1985, the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System and Ontario Teachers Pension Plan had asset values of around $10 billion apiece. Thirty-five years later, and both now hold portfolios of well over $100 billion. As major players in the global system of rentier capitalism, both have built up significant real estate portfolios, linking the retirements of their beneficiaries to a global housing crisis. At the same time as this has occurred, their beneficiaries – Ontario’s public sector workers – have come under increased pressure from the state as the targets of austerity and anti-welfare politics. Their pensions are invested in the same economic system that is targeting them for destruction. This thesis posits that this is not coincidental, but rather is the result of intertwined processes of welfare, labour, and economic restructuring under the umbrella of deindustrialization and neoliberalization. The marketization of pensions, the public-sectorization of the labour movement, and the hyper-commodification of housing are all linked together as part of capital’s conquest of social reproduction. I tell this story by linking Ontario’s pension reforms in the late-1980s to the attack on public sector labour and welfare waged by successive provincial and local governments into the present. I then try to consider what the options are for the labour movement to break this contradiction.


identifier: Bowles, Emilie  (2022) In Survival Mode: Adult Education Teachers’ Experience of COVID-19 and Their Use of Digital Technologies.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
The COVID-19 health crisis that began in March of 2020 led to a significant increase in the use of digital technologies for teaching and learning in Quebec’s adult education network. This research used a multiple case study design to explore the experience of eight adult education teachers in Quebec’s English-speaking community during the pandemic, focusing on their shifts in their use of digital technologies and the disruptions they have faced.

Through semi-structured interviews and Socratic Wheels, each teacher reflected on their use of digital technologies pre-COVID and during COVID. Within-case and cross-case analysis of interview transcripts revealed patterns for both time periods in terms of digital tools and activities, obstacles and barriers to technology use, and teacher professional development. Socratic Wheel results indicated noteworthy increases in the use of digital technologies for formative assessment and feedback as well as for collaboration with colleagues. Additionally, teachers expressed a strong interest in continuing to use learning management systems to share learning resources with their students.

This study includes clear implications for the English-speaking adult education community in terms of improved centre preparedness, personalized professional development for teachers, opportunities for teacher networking, and flexible learning options for students. Further research is needed to expand on the limited representation of this sample and on the data collected during this study.


identifier: Liczner, Christopher ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1741-0159 <https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1741-0159>  (2022) Development of Synthetic Methodologies to Prepare Oligonucleotide Conjugates and Exploration of their Properties for Applications in Biotechnology.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Oligonucleotides have found applications as intracellular therapeutics and diagnostic agents. This can be attributed, in part, to their ability to self-assemble into higher order structures, ease of synthesis, highly specific target binding and large number of sites available for modification. These modifications can be introduced in a site-selective and automated manner by solid-phase synthesis employing phosphoramidite chemistry, as well as through post-synthetic reactions. Since natural oligonucleotides suffer from intrinsic drawbacks, such as nuclease degradation, poor cellular uptake and unfavorable targeting, great efforts have gone towards modifying their sugar-phosphate backbone and/or generating oligonucleotide conjugates to improve their properties and expand their utility. Thus, adding to the toolbox of methodologies available to generate oligonucleotide conjugates, especially in a practical and sustainable fashion, is of the highest importance and the main focus of this thesis. To this end, we first developed a modular, robust and photo-activated upconverting nanoparticle delivery platform for therapeutic oligonucleotides. Photocleavable and alkyne containing phosphoramidites, synthesized in a greener way, were used to assemble these oligonucleotide conjugates. Secondly, we demonstrated that a 5'-diselenide oligonucleotide could be used to post-synthetically generate a large library of conjugates in a relatively rapid, chemoselective and high yielding manner, utilizing diselenide-selenoester ligation and alkylation chemistries. Finally, a new Pd-catalyzed cross-coupling reaction was developed for the synthesis of biphenyls that is both practical and green. Progress is currently being made to use this chemistry, dubbed the “deselenative cross-coupling”, to synthesize emissive nucleobase analogues and as such, fluorescent oligonucleotide conjugates.


identifier: Neapole, Carolyn  (2022) A Music Therapist’s Exploration of Vocal Psychotherapy and Somatic Experiencing: A Heuristic Self-Inquiry.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Music therapists often pursue specialized trainings to obtain additional skills that will enhance their work with specific client populations or help them to address particular health concerns. When trainings may contain techniques or theoretical orientations that seem contradictory rather than complementary, it can lead to confusion for therapists in their day-to-day practice, as was the case for the current author. The purpose of this heuristic self-inquiry was for the researcher to engage in self-reflective and experiential practices and to explore her feelings and perspectives on perceived disparities between vocal psychotherapy and somatic experiencing techniques used within her music therapy practice. Data collection and analysis procedures integrated components of vocal psychotherapy and somatic experiencing and were conceptualized within Moustakas’ six phases of heuristic inquiry. Content analysis of the material that emerged resulted in three overarching categories: personal insights, clinical insights, and insights about my professional identity––each one containing sub-categories supported by personal explications, journal quotes, and audio excerpts from self-reflective experiential improvisations. A creative synthesis of results and vision for moving forward was realized within the form of a sound collage, built from layered audio samples taken from the improvisations.  Multiple implications are discussed, and the researcher offers concluding remarks about the multi-faceted value of reflective practice.


identifier: Wiedemann, Carol  (2022) Music Therapy and the Advancement of Family-Centred Care in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit: A Philosophical Inquiry.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: The purpose of this philosophical inquiry was to understand and articulate the barriers to Family-Centred Care (FCC) implementation, to connect Neonatal Intensive Care Unit Music Therapy (NICU MT) to the principles of FCC, and to position music therapy as a unique and important contributor to the advancement of FCC principles within the Canadian NICU context. Since the inception of NICU MT as an area of specialization in the 1990’s, the shift towards FCC perspectives has been reflected in music therapy research, with significant outcomes for both improved physical parameters of fragile infants and the reduced anxiety and stress of parents. While NICU MT alignment with a FCC approach has become common, there has been limited explicit discourse on this alignment. This inquiry provides a comprehensive alignment of NICU MT’s research and approaches with the four FCC principles of Dignity and Respect, Information Sharing, Participation, and Collaboration, while articulating some of the systemic barriers that have impeded the full implementation of FCC.  Canada’s unique health care system, in combination with the burgeoning NICU MT field worldwide, sets the stage for new and innovative models of care that are truly family centred.


identifier: Summerby-Murray, Iain  (2022) Toward the development of an adipic acid-tolerant production host in Saccharomyces cerevisiae.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Adipic acid is used in the production of a range of important products, notably nylon, but its production using traditional means relies on petroleum precursors and is environmentally damaging. The production of adipic acid from renewable sources using microbial cell factories has generated significant interest yet fails to compete economically with its petro-based alternative, partly due to the large expense required for post-fermentation processing. Using a low pH fermentation strategy, downstream acidification costs can be decreased, which will help with raising the economic viability of bio-based adipic acid.
We screened a large collection of tentatively acid tolerant strains of Saccharomyces cerevisiae to assess adipic acid tolerance and later characterised top adipic acid tolerant strains for suitability as adipic acid production hosts. Top strains were mostly diploid and had growth yields in adipic acid roughly 5x higher than the non-tolerant strain CEN.PK113-7D. Furthermore, we show that adipic acid tolerance is an inducible phenotype -- pre-adaptation in adipic acid reduces latency upon subsequent exposure to adipic acid. Next, we investigated transcriptional changes by way of RNAseq. Gene content was largely the same across 4 different strains of S. cerevisiae. Exposure to adipic acid caused cell-wide transcriptional changes in both tolerant and non-tolerant strains. Differences in gene expression, especially in stress response, provided an explanation for the adipic acid tolerant phenotype but, for a more complete picture, more work is still required. Finally, as a proof of concept for the validity of acid tolerant production strains, we expressed aroZ, necessary for the first step in adipic acid production from the shikimate pathway, in an adipic acid tolerant strain and showed increased PCA, an adipic acid precursor, accumulation when grown at low pH and under adipic acid stress compared to a similarly engineered adipic acid-sensitive CEN.PK113-7D. Our results emphasize the utility of adipic acid tolerant strains for the production of adipic acid. Other carboxylic acid may also benefit from similarly acid tolerant production strains, which could help improve bio-based alternatives in the chemicals industry and reduce our reliance on petroleum-based products.


identifier: Dietz, Lorelei  (2022) The Integral Role of the Therapeutic Relationship within a Neuroscience-Informed Approach to Music Therapy Practice: A Philosophical Inquiry.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: The purpose of this philosophical inquiry was to argue for the integral importance of the therapeutic relationship within a neuroscience-informed approach to music therapy practice. A preliminary review of the music therapy literature revealed that the therapeutic relationship is important for the following reasons: the therapeutic relationship (a) provides a safe environment integral to the music therapy process; (b) enhances motivation and engagement through a collaboration between the client and music therapist; and (c) informs the active individualization of music therapy interventions. An initial review of the literature included an exploration of the neuroscience-informed music therapy literature and the importance of the therapeutic relationship in music therapy practice. The neuroscience-informed music therapy literature was analyzed using the aforementioned reasons to investigate why the therapeutic relationship is important within the approach. Findings of the analysis provided evidence of the importance of the therapeutic relationship within neuroscience-informed music therapy, as well as preliminary conceptualizations of the relationship using existing neuroscience-informed clinical protocols. Perspectives from social neuroscience, interpersonal neurobiology, music neuroscience, and music therapy were integrated throughout the research thesis to provide music therapists working from a neuroscience-informed approach with the language to articulate the importance of the relational elements of their work. Recommendations for future research are presented.


identifier: McInnes, Kelsi  (2022) Being Métis: A music therapist’s experience of ancestry, spirituality and reconceptualization.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: The Métis people are a distinct Indigenous group within Canada who identify with their own customs, traditions, and ways of knowing that include spiritual practices. This research aimed to explore spirituality in relation to the Métis culture, as I, a certified music therapist, explored my Métis ancestry including history, artistic culture, healing traditions, and ways of knowing. The data consisted of personal journal reflections, free writing and poetry. The analysis focused on how this impacted me personally, spiritually, and professionally. A heuristic self-inquiry research methodology was used and conducted in accordance with the guidelines established by Moustakas (1990). Data was analyzed using Neuman’s (2006) coding analysis methods. Findings elucidated three main categories of personal learning; learning from the outside-in, learning from the inside-out, and the extended journey. These findings have significant personal implications that will be discussed along with the clinical implications that the data analysis highlighted. Although there is a growing awareness of decolonizing methodologies and their place within educational institutions and government policies, literature on music therapy and the Métis culture is scant. Dr. Carolyn Kenny (1946-2017), a renowned music therapy pioneer and Indigenous scholar has provided a critical foundation that connects Indigenous ways of knowing to the music therapy research, theory, and practice. I aim to contribute to the literature through insights into my own spiritual well-being and by sharing the on-going intricacies and challenges of the Métis people of Canada, therefore implications for further research, education and training are discussed.


identifier: Yang, Luying  (2022) How does the COVID-19 pandemic reshape the lending behavior of financial institutions?  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: In this study, I explore the impact of COVID-19 on the lending behavior of traditional and FinTech banks. I use difference-in-difference and triple-diff-in-diff approach with 2019-2020 HMDA loan application data and the Covid Community Vulnerability Index (CVI) to study 1) borrower profiles and loan application demand, 2) lender scrutiny stringency i.e. application approval rates, 3) loan interest rates, and 4) securitization of loans in counties with different level of epidemic vulnerability before and after the epidemic. I find that borrowers in regions with high vulnerability are able to embrace FinTech more quickly. At the same time, FinTech has expanded its previous target demographic to older, non-white, and ethnic minority borrowers. However, the supply side has not softened its application review criteria in response to the surge in demand. Lenders have been more cautious, and while minorities are more willing to apply for FinTech loans, it is worth noting that traditional banks have taken on a social responsibility at this time to increase their lending approval rates for such community. FinTech banks, on the other hand, have expanded the sale of loans, shifting the uncertainty risk to the broad investors.


identifier: Sun, Jianlei  (2022) Role of MAPK phosphatase MKP2 and DsPTP1 in plant growth and development.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Abstract
Role of MAPK phosphatase MKP2 and DsPTP1 in plant growth and development
Jianlei Sun, M.Sc
Mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) cascades are a group of protein kinases composed of a
MAPK kinase kinase (MAPKKK), a MAPK kinase (MAPKK), and a MAPK that play an
important role in signal transduction in response to various stimuli in eukaryotes. As terminal
components of sequential phosphorylation events, the activity of MAPKs is upregulated through
phosphorylation by upstream MAPKKs and downregulated through dephosphorylation catalyzed
by protein phosphatases. In plants, MAPK cascades are relevant to a large number of biological
processes, including plant growth, development, and stress responses.
The Arabidopsis thaliana genome contains five MAPK phosphatases (MKPs), MKP1, MKP2,
DsPTP1, IBR5 and PHS1.Relatively little is known about their properties and biological roles,
especially in plant growth and development compared to their substrate, MAPKs. Thus, our
research group investigated the roles of these five MKPs in plant growth and development by
analyzing single and higher-order mkp mutants. In this thesis, based on our original data obtained
from these protein interaction researches, mutant studies as well as available data from the
literature, we decided to focus on two Arabidopsis MKPs, MKP2 and DsPTP1, and their potential
substrate MAPKs.
Neither mkp2 nor dsptp1 plants displayed obvious developmental phenotypes under standard
growth conditions, but interestingly we found that mkp2 dsptp1 double mutants resulted in a
dramatic albino phenotype, eventually leading to mkp2 dsptp1 seedling lethality. These results
suggest that MKP2 and DsPTP1 play an important role in early plant growth and development.
To determine whether the albino phenotype of mkp2 dsptp1 double mutants is caused by the loss
of MKP2 and DsPTP1, transgenic Arabidopsis plants were constructed that have the expression
of either MKP2 or DsPTP1 in the mkp2 dsptp1 mutant background under its own native promoter.
These complementation lines rescued the albino phenotype of mkp2 dsptp1 mutants, indicating
that the loss of MKP2 and DsPTP1 function is indeed responsible for the albino phenotype of mkp2
dsptp1 mutants. It was observed that chloroplast number in guard cells on the epidermis and the
IV
level of photosynthetic pigments were reduced significantly in mkp2 dsptp1 when compared with
either the wild-type or the complementation lines. These results suggest that MKP2 and DsPTP1
are functionally redundant novel regulators and are required for chloroplast development in
Arabidopsis. To further understand how MKP2 and DsPTP1 integrate MAPK cascades in
chloroplast biogenesis a search for their MAPK substrates was performed. Yeast two-hybrid assays
confirmed our previous finding that MKP2 specifically interacts with two MAPKs, MPK8 and
MPK15. This suggests that deregulation of MPK8 and/or MPK15 potentially leads to the dramatic
albino phenotype with reduced chloroplasts in mkp2 dsptp1. Consistently, it was found that mkp2
dsptp1 mpk8 mpk15 high-order mutants supressed the lethal seedling phenotype of mkp2 dsptp1.
Based on this analyses, I propose that two MAPKs, MPK8 and MPK15 are potential substrates of
MKP2 and DsPTP1 in chloroplast biogenesis. In summary, this work identified two MAPK
phosphatases required for early plant development, chloroplast biogenesis, and also identified
possible MAPK substrates for further study.


identifier: Davis, Hannah Bel  (2022) The Things Maggie Made.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

title: The Things Maggie Made

abstract: “The Things Maggie Made” is an illustrated gothic fantasy novella starring Janet, a professional ballerina in her mid-twenties desperate to save her career after an Achilles tendon injury puts her at risk of losing her job. The novella’s central conflict revolves around Janet’s desperation to maintain her position as a dancer at her ballet company, while negotiating changes in both her environment and in her body, and simultaneously being involved in a hunt for a creature on the property that may or may not exist. As Janet tries to heal, the novella’s action revolves around Janet’s interactions with her cousin, The Director, Kerry, her late grandmother Maggie, and the fantastical hybrid creatures that roam the property. The novella’s magic, fantastic creatures and fantastic elements function as devices through which I explore themes of pain, memory, dysfunctional familial dynamics, the failure and triumph of bodies, and the celebration of unhealthy bodies in both the world of dog breeding and the world of ballet.


identifier: BITTON, Mikael  (2021) Can Mergers be Exploited to Consistently Generate Value and Gains?  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Despite the amount of research in the field of mergers and acquisitions, there still exists a significant gap in the literature. In fact, there is strong debate regarding the knowledge of the key determinants of post-merger performance. One side argues that the determinants are unknown to us and powerless in predicting performance whereas the other side asserts that many are captured in our understanding of the complicated process of mergers. Therefore, this study seeks to evaluate both sides of this debate and provide a better understanding of the conceptual framework of M&A. In addition, this study seeks to identify some of these still unknown determinants and generate a benchmark for future study to help facilitate their identification and research.


identifier: Parker, Robert  (2022) The Shadow of the Bomber: Maurice Gamelin, Air Power and the Fall of France.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Abstract
The Shadow of the Bomber:  Maurice Gamelin, Air Power and the Fall of France

Robert Parker, Ph.D.
Concordia University, 2022
This study aims to clarify the various means by which air power determined the course of the Battle of France from May 10 to June 25, 1940.  The influence of aircraft is shown to have played a dual role in the conflict, exerting both material and psychological effects upon both strategists and combatants.   The material business of war in the skies is explored with particular attention to the grievously neglected historical fact that in the spring of 1940, France had achieved numerical equality with the German Luftwaffe.  Pilot shortage, rather than insufficient production of aircraft, ensured that French aircraft were greatly outnumbered throughout the battle.  Materially, France was prepared to wage a defensive war with reasonable chances for success.  Chapter two outlines how France passed the industrial test of war.  Chapter three explores the financial resiliency of the French economy after mid-1939 and the strength of the national war chest.  However, the central concern of this study is the means by which the threat of modern air power exerted a decisive and overall deleterious psychological influence upon those tasked with defending the Republic.  Commander-in-Chief Maurice Gamelin, in particular, is shown to have devised a radical and unprecedented strategy based on minimizing the impact of German air power over the battlefield.  All else became subordinate to this overarching priority, resulting in the sacrifice of the entire French strategic reserve in a failed bid to neutralise the power of the German air force.
The absence of a strategic reserve force was instrumental to the collapse which took place on the Meuse River between May 12-15, 1940.  This study’s novel contribution lies in its exploration of the reasons behind the lack of reserves in the French order of battle, an omission which has been often noticed but never investigated.  The concluding chapter also expands our understanding of the man at the apex of the French military, Maurice Gamelin.  New insights into the state of his physical and cognitive health during the leadup to war provide deeper understanding of the causes behind the General’s ineffective leadership and strategy.


identifier: Hunter, Max  (2022) Transgender Drag, Transgender Joy: A Non-Binary Approach to Creating Joy Through Drag Performance.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

format: text image video

abstract: This thesis explores the potential for drag performance to be a tool for trans performers to create and amplify joy in embodying drag characters and developing them as practices over time. In this inquiry, I centre my own drag practice in order to engage in an autoethnographic perspective on drag performance that draws from both my lived experience and practice. Grounded in a performance creation component, this research uses my experience as a non-binary, trans drag performer to depart from analyzing drag performance solely within the realm of gender, and instead considering how it is situated in relation to joy. I contextualise the performance creation component with theoretical works on gaiety, utopia, failure, Camp, gender, and drag, in addition to drawing from my lived experience. I articulate how my lived experiences are intertwined with my drag practice, through an illustrated notebook component which builds towards the creation of a drag costume, which I then wear in a documented rehearsal that tests the effects of the costume. Through this work, I aim to expand notions of what drag can be for trans performers as both artists and individuals, and attempt to understand how its effects can be a means for creating joy outside of drag.


identifier: Tong, Juncheng ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2873-0465 <https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2873-0465>  (2022) A Performance-Consistent and Computation-Efficient CNN System for High-Quality Brain Tumor Segmentation.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Brain tumors cause serious health problems and brain tumor detection is important for the diagnosis. The detection is a very challenging task due to the complexity in brain structures and in brain tumor patterns. Manual segmentation requires an expertise of highly trained medical specialists and is very time-consuming. Therefore, it’s imperative to develop fully automated brain tumor segmentation systems, i.e., CNN based systems, to accelerate the diagnosis process. The research on developing such systems has been progressed rapidly in recent years. For the systems to be applicable in practice, a good processing quality and reliability are required. Moreover, for a wide range of applications of such systems, a minimization of computation complexity is desirable, which can also result in a minimization of randomness in computation and, consequently, a better performance consistency.
 In this thesis, a new CNN system for brain tumor segmentation is proposed. The CNN in the proposed system is custom-designed with 2 distinguished characters dedicated to optimizing the feature extraction and classification processes. Firstly, there are three paths in its feature extraction block, designed to extract, from the multi-modality input, comprehensive feature information of mono-modality, paired-modality and cross-modality, respectively. Also, it has a particular three-branch classification block to identify the pixels of 4 classes, namely, whole tumor, enhancing tumor, non-enhancing core/necrotic tumor and those in the background. By means of the three branches, a complex multi-class classification problem is decomposed into several simple binary classification problems. Each branch is trained separately so that the parameters are adjusted specifically to suit the detection of one specific kind of tumor areas. The parameters of the convolution layers in the proposed system are determined to suit the specific purposes so that the computation volume for each filtering operations in each layer are just-sufficient, which results in a very simple config of 61,843 parameters in total, while most existing CNN systems require multi-millions.
The performance of the proposed system has been tested extensively with BraTS 2018 and BraTS 2019 data samples. A good mean Dice scores in each experiment has been obtained. The average of the mean Dice scores obtained from ten experiments are very close to each other with very small deviations. In the case of the 10 experiments on BraTS 2018 validation samples, the average Dice scores and their standard deviations are 0.787±0.003, 0.886±0.002, 0.801±0.007, respectively, for enhancing tumor, whole tumor and tumor core. For the validation samples of BraTS 2019 in 10 experiments, the average Dice scores and standard deviations of enhancing tumor, whole tumor and tumor core are 0.751±0.007, 0.885±0.002, 0.776±0.004, respectively. The test results demonstrate that the proposed system is able to perform high-quality segmentation in a consistent manner. Furthermore, it only requires 146G FLOPs to complete a segmentation of the four 3D images (155x240x240x4 voxels) of a single patient case. The extremely low computation complexity of the proposed system will facilitate its implementation/application in various environments.
The high processing quality and low computation complexity of the proposed system make it implementable in various environments. It can be expected that such system will have wide applications in medical image processing.


identifier: Ren, Zhebo ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9019-8660 <https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9019-8660>  (2022) Numerical modeling of thermally induced ground deformations around potential geothermal energy storage wells in northern Quebec.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Literature from the past two decades demonstrates the feasibility of utilizing borehole geothermal energy storage (BTES) system for the heating of buildings in the cold climate region like Northern Quebec. However, BTES systems would generate an increase in temperature in surrounding soil formations, which may induce ground deformation and result in unexpected accidents. This study investigates the effect of BTES systems of 50-year service life period on thermal consolidation of surrounding soil formations in northern Quebec, where BTES sites are covered by a large quantity of unconsolidated glacial tills. A fully coupled thermal-hydro-mechanical modeling is conducted using Abaqus, and cases with different configuration and operation temperature are modeled. Thermally induced pore pressure generation and dissipation processes are simulated and analyzed. Thermally induced deformation of soil formations is also addressed. The glacial till in the upper layer is prone to sustain strain softening and the glacial till in the lower layer is prone to sustain strain hardening during the periodical thermal operation. A BTES system with a large geometric scale or with a high operation temperature (60°C in this study) would impose significant influence on the glacial till formation, which is displayed by significant changes in pore water pressure and ground deformations.


identifier: Stride, Shannon  (2022) A Name for Me: Reading Charlotte Salomon’s Life? or Theatre? as a Haggadah.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: This thesis explores how an understanding of the Haggadah—the ritual Passover script commemorating the Israelites’ Exodus from Egypt—illuminates otherwise hidden facets of Charlotte Salomon’s Leben? oder Theater? (Life? or Theatre?). In the epigraph to her work, Salomon writes that in 1941 she receded from all people and from the war raging on around her to paint and in doing so, to find “what I had to find: namely myself: a name for me.” This hidden exploration of the self resulted in thousands of semiautobiographical gouaches that she would later organize into her magnum opus, a silent opera titled Life? or Theatre?. A feat beyond comparison, scholars have long debated how we can categorize this play and in recent years, have asked what role Salomon’s Judaism played in her creation of Life? or Theatre?. Taking this question as a point of departure, this thesis examines how reading Life? or Theatre? in relationship with the Haggadah provides us with a new perspective on Salomon’s search for a name. Both Life? or Theatre? and the Haggadah share a number of narratological commonalities: they mix image, text, and music, employ similar visual conventions, and tell the story of a people subject to the bitterness of oppression. Salomon’s play, however, does not end with the parting of seas, but instead diverges from the familiar order of the Haggadah to tell a new story focused on the abuses of patriarchy and women’s subsequent despair. In understanding the Haggadah—its history and iconography—scholars can recognize Salomon’s allusions to the ritual text, but more significantly, can also recognize how she differences the Haggadah to tell women’s stories. Ultimately, I conclude that Salomon engages with and departs from the images and stories of the Haggadah in order to tell a story centring her own life and subjectivity, as well as that of the women she loved, thereby revealing their exclusion from the traditional text and from the promises of salvation found within it. In painting Life? or Theatre?, Salomon resists her exclusion from the Haggadah, creating her own freedom, situating herself as a subject in her play, and naming herself as an artist.


identifier: Peyman, Sareh  (2022) Data modeling and simulation approaches for Urban Greenery Systems in the context of climate change.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
ABSTRACT

Data modeling and simulation approaches for Urban Greenery System
in the context of climate change

Sareh Peyman

        Buildings' construction, operation, and maintenance consume more than 40% of primary energy in most countries. Heat loss through a building's envelope makes up a large portion of the operational phase. Several materials have been developed to reduce thermal transmittance through building enclosures, despite their heavy environmental impact. Moreover, the unregulated and rapid expansion of urban environments caused many problems. Greenery systems can be a potential solution for improving, among other things, thermal demands and reducing urban heat islands. However, vegetation as a construction material is often overlooked in urban settings because of its design process and operation uncertainty. Thus, their performance should be studied in depth under different configurations and climates.
First, a data model for greenery systems based on a UML class diagram was developed using Eclipse to be integrated into an energy simulation workflow based on EnergyPlus as the dynamic building energy modeling engine. Such a data model facilitates the data storage and organization to analyze and optimize green infrastructure. Moreover, an urban energy simulation platform can incorporate such a data model and facilitate the appraisals of the green envelope within whole buildings and city integrated greenery system. The data model allowed the study of the impact of each parameter on the system's behavior regarding energy consumption. The optimization study was conducted on the parametrization of a green roof and a rooftop farm system to identify their response under variable initial conditions. An analysis of the essential parameters in the vegetation model was performed. Consequently, the Leaf Area Index( LAI), the substrate thickness, leaf surface albedo, and finally, the moisture content of the substrate layer showed the highest effect. Compared to the heritage building and a retrofitted scenario, the largest reduction in heating and cooling demand, took place in the rooftop farm scenario due to the more LAI and soil thickness resulting in more shading and insulation features of green roofs. In terms of its potential as a mitigation strategy for the urban heat island, greenery systems in urban environments reduce the ambient temperature due to the change in the surface albedo and the cooling effect caused by the evapotranspiration process. This study aimed to investigate whether the integration of green roofs affects the surface temperature, which is not influenced by microclimatic conditions, such as wind patterns and vapor pressure deficit. The results showed a possibility of a temperature drop of 6°-9° C on a hot summer day. On the other hand, integrating a green roof and a rooftop farm results in lower energy consumption. Therefore there is an annual equivalent carbon reduction because of energy conservation.
       Because green roofs can reduce the energy consumption of buildings and sequester carbon in plants and substrates, they are considered effective for reducing atmospheric CO2. However, a green roof's components (substrate, waterproofing membrane, etc.) may produce CO2 during their lifetime. The annual amount of CO2 emitted during the production of a modular green roof and rooftop farm systems were found to be 723.6 t CO2 and 1575.76 t CO2 respectively. In the green roof and rooftop farming scenarios, annual CO2 reduction due to saved energy and CO2 reduction were 155.53 and 349.6 t CO2 respectively. Therefore the CO2 payback time of the extensive green roof and rooftop farming were between 4 and 6 years, which indicates that green roofs contribute to CO2 reduction within their lifespan. The same happened to the initial investment in green roofs assembly implementation. The cost could be paid back by the annual cost saving on energy consumption reduction which were 11 years for the extensive green roof and 23 years for the rooftop farming.
           Research shows that a greenery system can replace artificial insulating materials as a passive alternative for reducing energy demands in buildings. A decrease in the ambient temperature and a reduction in the negative impacts associated with the urban heat island effect can also be achieved based on the surface temperature findings.


identifier: Tremblay-Boily, Guillaume  (2022) Le virage vers la classe ouvrière : L’implantation et l’engagement des marxistes-léninistes québécois·es en milieu de travail.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Dans les années 1970, quelques centaines de jeunes militant·es communistes québécois·es ont décidé de devenir travailleur·euses manuel·les à des fins politiques. Dans la plupart des cas, il s’agissait d’étudiant·es ou de diplômé·es qui auraient pu occuper des postes de professionnel·les, mais qui ont décidé, au nom d’un idéal, de s’implanter en usine ou dans un hôpital afin de nouer des relations concrètes avec les travailleur·euses. Comme d’autres groupes similaires ailleurs dans le monde, il·elles considéraient cette démarche d’immersion comme un préalable à la construction d’un parti révolutionnaire de masse.

Cette thèse documente et analyse le mouvement d’implantation québécois en s’appuyant sur des documents d’archives et des entrevues d’histoire orale avec les protagonistes du mouvement. Je démontre que, pour les militant·es, l’implantation constitue une réponse aux limites de leur activisme dans le contexte d’effervescence sociale et politique de la fin des années 1960 et du début des années 1970. Ma thèse s’inscrit dans un courant de la recherche nord-américaine et européenne qui s’intéresse aux transformations de la gauche au tournant des années 1970, ainsi qu’à la dimension ouvrière des « années 68 ». Le parcours des implanté·es permet de porter un nouveau regard sur l’évolution du militantisme et du mouvement syndical durant une période charnière entre la Révolution tranquille et l’émergence du néolibéralisme.

Le thème des impacts concrets de l’implantation traverse l’ensemble de la thèse. Plusieurs implanté·es ont su s’intégrer dans leur milieu de travail en convertissant leur capital culturel et militant en influence syndicale. Ce faisant, dans les hôpitaux, il·elles ont contribué au renforcement de la CSN, tandis que dans la région industrielle du Suroît, il·elles ont maintenu et approfondi une culture ouvrière combative qui était déjà présente.

Il·elles ont aussi participé à différentes luttes pour l’amélioration des conditions de travail, bien que leurs tentatives de diffuser la pensée marxiste-léniniste aient trouvé peu de résonance auprès des travailleur·euses. Enfin, les groupes marxistes-léninistes québécois ont adopté une vision originale du prolétariat qui inclut les travailleur·euses des services, mais ils ont reproduit en leur sein une division genrée du travail militant qui a été un facteur de leur dissolution au début des années 1980.


identifier: Hossain, Dilshad  (2022) Diffusion coefficient of charge carriers in disordered semiconductors retaining a combination of exponential and Gaussian mobility-gap states: application to amorphous selenium.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Charge carrier transport in disordered semiconductors is highly influenced by the defect states near the mobility edges. The ratio of the diffusion coefficient and drift mobility in crystalline semiconductor under a wide range of carrier concentration can conveniently be calculated by the Einstein relation. The density of states (DOS) in the mobility gap in amorphous/disordered semiconductors can change the generalized Einstein relation. It has been found that the ratio of the diffusion coefficient and drift mobility is larger than the conventional Einstein relation even at the presence of lower carrier concentration than the degenerate limit. A theoretical model for the generalized Einstein relation (GER), namely, the diffusivity-mobility ratio, for disordered semiconductors retaining a combination of exponential and Gaussian mobility-gap states with square-root distribution of extended states, is presented in this thesis work. The conditions for determining the diffusion coefficient of charge carriers from Einstein relation are described in the thesis work. The effects of various parameters constituting the density of states (DOS) distribution on the Einstein relation are examined. The results show that the diffusivity-mobility ratio for such DOS distribution substantially deviates from traditional constant value for carrier concentration larger than 1010 cm-3. The value of diffusivity-mobility ratio strongly depends on the amount, energy position and the shape of the Gaussian peaks.
The diffusion coefficient determined from Einstein relation in amorphous semiconductors is valid at equilibrium transport when the electric field is very low. Under applied field, charge carriers undergo many trapping-detrapping events in the energy distributed mobility gap states during their travel. The statistical variations of the trapping and release times create a considerable spreading of signal. Thus, the actual diffusion coefficient appears to be much larger than it should be from the known Einstein relation. The additional diffusion coefficient due to multiple trapping in disordered semiconductors (namely field diffusion) under quasi-equilibrium transport is also examined as a function of electric field and carrier concentration.


identifier: Moradi, Vahid  (2022) Application of Digital-Twin Technology for the Job-Shop Scheduling Problem.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Job Shop Scheduling (JSS) is considered an optimization problem for implementing optimal job scheduling. Different techniques such as mathematical optimization or simulation-optimization have been used for the optimization of the JSS problem. However, Industry 4.0 and new developments in technologies such as the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) and Cyber-Physical System (CPS) caused the introduction of the digital twin technology which is considered a new method for optimization of the JSS problem.
The digital twin technology provides a cloud-based simulation model to make use of the real-time data provided by the IIoT and CPS from physical space. Additionally, the digital twin technology applies Machine Learning (ML) techniques to build prediction models and uses powerful cloud computing to do real-time what-if analysis, rescheduling, and response for optimization of the JSS.
In this thesis, we apply the digital twin concepts to a case study which is the stamping shop of AAL company to optimize its JSS problem. We build a JSS simulation model of the stamping shop manufacturing processes, use ML techniques to predict the probability of machine breakdowns through the real-time data captured from the sensors, and consider a Condition-Based Maintenance (CBM) process to optimize the JSS by reducing unexpected machine failures during operation.
Comparing the results of the digital twin technology with the traditional simulation-optimization technique used in the ALL company, the digital twin is a more efficient approach for optimizing the JSS problem by providing an accurate prediction model and implementing CBM scenarios to reduce unplanned machine failures.


identifier: Ayari, Afifa  (2022) A Study of Existing Professional Insertion Training Programs for Newly-Immigrated Teachers in the Québec School System.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
The education system in Quebec is currently faced with a paradigm shift. One of these shifts is that the teaching profession attracts less and less people due to several factors; another one is that as the cultural make – up of Quebec society is changing, with more and more students from varied cultural backgrounds attending the schools. One way the Ministry of Education can address both these problems is through the hiring of immigrant teachers – either those with plenty of experience already, or people new to the profession. However, for all the interest shown by immigrant teachers to integrate the Quebec education system, there still seem to be unique obstacles and barriers faced by these willing and ready teachers.
The interpretive phenomenological approach used in this study gives a voice to those people who live the situation under investigation. Through interviews conducted with participants from school centers across the Greater Montreal Region, this study aims to do just that – allow immigrant teachers to tell their own stories and relate their experiences accessing and participating in Professional Insertion Programs in the Quebec school system.


identifier: Zargham, Ridah  (2022) Juggling Demands: Allocating Time Between Family and Work.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Given limited temporal resources, many individuals struggle with juggling time between multiple domains, such as family and work, and previous research has found that time-based conflicts between family and work can occur. Thus, it is important to understand the impact of family time on work time, and how different factors can influence this relation. In this research, I focused on the impact of family time on work time, and whether there are gender differences and occupational level differences in this relation. Archival data from the American Time Use Survey, which is a single-day, time-diary survey, were analyzed for this study; the data were available from a sample of 33,296 individuals from 2003 to 2015. Consistent with my hypotheses, I found that family time had a strengthening negative relation with work time. Also in line with my hypotheses, I found that women spent more time on family activities than men, and individuals in managerial jobs spent greater time working than individuals in non-managerial jobs. I put forward a research question about whether gender moderates the curvilinear relation between family time and work time. In line with past research, gender moderated the linear relation between family time and work time, but did not moderate the curvilinear relation between them. In contrast to my hypothesis, occupational level did not moderate the relation between family time and work time. Supplemental analyses including leisure time and sleep time provided support for the importance of slack time resources, suggesting that family time has a stronger relation with work time when temporal resources in other domains are exhausted. Overall, these findings contribute to the existing literature on the work-family interface.