identifier: Rolbin-Ghanie, Maya  (2014) Stacking Wood: collected stories.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

title: Stacking Wood: collected stories

abstract:
Abstract

Stacking Wood: collected stories Maya Rolbin-Ghanie

Stacking Wood is a collection of short stories, some of which explore a woman's childhood relationship to her father, and some of which portray her romantic relationships as an adult. The stories highlight her struggles with the obsessive, tyrannical power and abuse that she experienced in her interactions with her father, in part as the consequence of the power imbalance that he experienced, as an immigrant and an eccentric. The woman's exploration of her love-hate relationship with her father, through reflections on the her past and present life, reveal him as integral to her sense of self, even as she struggles to deal with past injuries caused by him, and the deep sense of panic and paralysis created by his absence in her adult life. The stories complete one another, and in spite of their different points of view, by addressing common themes of power struggle, abuse, and trauma, in the service of an overarching exploration of paralysis versus agency.


identifier: Gholamhossein, Maryam  (2014) Gas Turbine Engine Prognostics Using Time-Series Based Approaches.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

type: Thesis NonPeerReviewed

abstract:
In todays market, the increasing demand on utilizing gas turbine engines can be quite costly if users rely only on traditional time-based maintenance schedules. Meeting both the safety and the economical aspects of such systems could be realized by using an appropriate maintenance strategy in which the prediction of the engine health condition is employed to ensure that the system is maintained only if necessary. Towards this end, in this thesis the prognosis problem in the gas turbine engines is investigated.
As in every rotational mechanical equipment, gas turbine rotating components also degrade during the engine operation which may deteriorate their performance. The engine
degradation may originate from different sources such as aging, erosion, fouling, corrosion, etc. Hard particles mixed with the air can remove the materials from the flow path components (erosion) and cause aerodynamic changes in the blades, which can consequently reduce the affected components performance. Accumulated particles on the flow path components and annulus surfaces of the gas turbine (fouling) can also reduce the flow rate of the gas and consequently decrease the power and efficiency of the affected components.
Among different degradation sources in the engine, erosion and fouling are considered as two well-known degradation phenomena and their effects on the engine system prognostics
are studied in this thesis.
Towards the above end, a controller is designed to control the thrust level of the engine and a Matlab/Simulink platform is employed to incorporate the effects of the above degradation factors and the engine dynamic model. The engine performance degradation trends are modeled by using three types of time-series based techniques namely, the autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA), the vector autoregressive (VAR) and the hybrid fuzzy autoregressive integrated moving average (hybrid fuzzy ARIMA) models. One of
the challenges associated with time-series approaches is selecting a proper model which
represents the structure of the time-series and is employed for prediction and prognosis purposes. Two widely used criteria namely, the Akaike’s information criterion (AIC) and the Bayesian information criterion (BIC) are used in order to select the best model. The challenges of coping with the uncertainties due to variety of sources such as measurement noise, insufficient data and changing operating conditions are inevitable factors. Taking the above facts into account, it may not be practical to obtain or be concerned with an exact prediction information. Therefore, we construct instead confidence bounds that provide a
realistic boundary for the prediction and this is applied to all our proposed approaches in this thesis.
The first method in this thesis deals with modeling a measurable parameter using its historical data which is a fine-tuned version of the ARMA model for non-stationary time
series analysis. The second method, VAR model, models the measurable parameters by fusing historical data with the current and past data of some other engine measurable data
in a vector form so that one can get benefit of more measurement parameters of the engine.
The third method deals with fusing two measurable parameters using a Takagi-Sugeno fuzzy inference engine.
In this thesis we are focused on modeling the engine performance degradations due to the fouling and the erosion which are the two main causes of gas turbine engine deterioration. In order to evaluate the performance of the proposed methods, they are applied to three different scenarios. These scenarios include the compressor fouling, turbine erosion phenomena and their combination with different severities. Our numerical simulation results show that the performance of the hybrid fuzzy ARIMA model is superior to that of the ARIMA and VAR methods.


identifier: Di Camillo, Fabrizio  (2014) Effects of Stress History of Sand on the Shaft Resistance of Large Displacement Piles.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
An experimental investigation on the coefficient of earth pressure of overconsolidated cohesionless soil developed around displacement piles was conducted. An instrumented
prototype set-up and model pile was developed in the laboratory. The set-up was capable of measuring the total load, the shaft resistance acting on the pile and the
overconsolidation ratio in the sand mass. Overconsolidated sand was prepared by placing the sand in the testing tank in layers, each subjected to a predetermined compaction
effort. The stresses in the sand mass were measured by means of pressure transducer units placed in selected locations in the testing tank. The model piles were driven into the sand mass to a selected depth. Pile load tests were conducted at a constant rate of penetration at different depths.
The pile capacity was determined from load-displacement curves. The shaft resistance and, hence, the coefficient of earth pressure around the pile were determined. The results
showed that the coefficient of earth pressure is heavily dependent on the stress history of the sand mass. A theoretical model was developed to incorporate the effects of overconsolidation of the sand on the shaft resistance of driven piles in cohesionless soils.


identifier: Mirvalad, Seyed Sajjad  (2013) Improving performance of Portland-limestone cements in sulfate exposures using supplementary cementing materials.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Portland limestone cement (PLC) is a recent addition to North America, promoted for its environmental benefits while maintaining suitable properties in both the fresh and hardened state. However, due to concerns regarding the degradation of concrete in sulfate exposure, especially in cold environments, its use is currently limited. In Canada, this type of cement was first introduced in 2008, but its practice in sulfate exposure was prohibited according to CSA A23.1. In 2010, CSA A3001 introduced physical requirements and suggested minimum amounts of supplementary cementing materials (SCMs) to be used for a blended PLC to be considered in sulfate exposure. Alongside, CSA A3004-C8, the standard test method for evaluating performance of cement in sulfate exposure, was revised.
In this study, different SCMs available in Canada were used in binary and ternary PLC blends in order to achieve sulfate resistance. For all PLC blends, ettringite sulfate attack (ESA) and thaumasite sulfate attack (TSA) were studied. It was found that the PLC blends containing the standard recommended amounts of SCMs were not resistant against TSA. However, when the SCM amount was increased in the blend, the desired resistance was achieved. Ternary blends of slag and fly ash were found to be the most resistant.
In addition, mass changes in ESA and TSA as well as compressive strength and ultrasonic velocity in mortar samples were studied. Moreover, a combined differential scanning calorimetry and X-ray diffraction study were performed on samples in TSA and indicated formation of thaumasite in the deteriorated samples as well as on the surface of the intact ones. Interestingly, the mortar samples of the ternary PLC blend containing 40% slag and 20% fly ash were the only ones that did not show formation of thaumasite after a two-year TSA study.
Overall, SCMs were found effective in improving the resistance of PLC blends in sulfate exposure. Additionally, it was found that, in general, the increase in the SCM content in a PLC blend promoted its resistance.


identifier: Fallatah, Hiba  (2014) Social network-Based Framework for Users and Web Services Discovery.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
With the emergence of Web 2.0 and its applications, social
networks have facilitated the discovery process of web services, a
cornerstone to the development of service computing. Very
recently, some frameworks have suggested adding a social element
to services' description, discovery, binding and composition. By
incorporating the social component in the Service-Oriented
Architecture, web services become active entities that can form
and be part of social networks. However, merging users and web
services in the same social network and analyzing the influence of
these entities (i.e., web services and users) on each other have
not been examined in the previous proposals and yet to be
investigated.

In this thesis, we propose a new social network-based framework
for analyzing the role and influence of users and web services in
the discovery process. We advocate the idea of incorporating, not
only social web services, but also social users in the discovery
process by merging users and web services nodes in the same global
social network. We first discuss the engineering process of such a
social network that takes into consideration users and web
services characteristics and the types of their interactions.
Thereafter, we analyze those types of interactions that fall in
one of two categories: web service discovery or user discovery.
The goal is to involve social networks of users in the service
discovery process and allow web services to be active parts by
advertising and introducing themselves to other users. Simulation
results show that the proposed approach provides an immediate and
wider exposure for web services and makes the discovery easier and
efficient.


identifier: Vasheghani Farahani, Ehsan  (2014) Product Development Flow: A Queueing Perspective.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
In today’s global marketplace, companies have become aware of the need for agility in the development of new products to survive or in the best case to continue the endless competition. In order to stay competitive, companies are adopting various approaches to maintain a high level of performance in all enterprise domains and deliver value to their customers. With much success in production environments, lean principles have also been found to be applicable in other areas of the enterprise, including product development (PD).
The research reported in this thesis addresses the goal of continuous improvement of flow in PD. While the lean philosophy has been implemented successfully in manufacturing, the context of PD lacks application of such concepts.To tackle the information flow problem, practitioners of lean in manufacturing have established the “one piece flow” logic where the size of the lot of goods moving from one process to the next is intented to be closer to one. However, information as the moving piece in PD is not as visible as in manufacturing. Therefore, the “one piece flow” concept is difficult, if not impossible, to achieve in PD.
A smooth and steady flow of value delivery among processes results in several improvements, such as a reduction in lead time, intellectual work in process (IWIP), rework, and so on. The current research is mainly focused on achieving flow in PD by making a bridge among lean principles, queueing theory and operations research. Information flow is translated into entities of a simple priority queuing system that monitors the flow rate of jobs among servers, or PD team members. The reverse flow of jobs from downstream processes represents rework which due to its nature has a higher priority than those of regular tasks. Since rework flow updates information and assumptions within a process, preemptive queuing policies are studied. Two types of waste through the value stream, namely queue waiting time and outdated information processing time (lost effort), have been quantified accordingly. The wastes, along with the throughput, have been optimized using a multi-objective non-linear model regarding the flow rates among engineers.
Results show higher rework generation in downstream processes increases the congestion (the main barrier to flow) in the system, which leads to increase in the overall lead time. Finally, in addition to a plausible approach to maintain flow, a criterion to improve decision making for value stream managers has been presented.


identifier: Shan, Qianyin  (2014) Three Essays on Derivatives Markets.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

title: Three Essays on Derivatives Markets

abstract:
This thesis consists of three essays. The first essay (chapter two) looks at the impact of derivatives regulation on liquidity and mispricing of US derivatives markets. In particular, we test the hypothesis that Dodd Frank derivative provisions may improve the efficiency of the exchange traded markets due to an increase of arbitrage by traders on the exchange traded markets, as opposed to the OTC markets. We examine the impact of key Dodd Frank events on market activity for financial derivatives (futures and option contracts on US T bonds, Eurodollar futures and options, and S&P 500 Futures contracts) and on foreign exchange derivatives (futures and options contracts on EUROs, British Pounds, and Canadian dollars).  First, we look at how liquidity on the markets has been affected.  Next, we test for mispricing of derivatives contracts. We find that measured liquidity does fall for US financial futures and options but rises for foreign exchange futures and options subsequent to the introduction of the Treasury guidelines for OTC trading. We also find that the efficiency of the U.S. exchange traded futures markets has improved, as reflected by a reduction in mispricing in the S&P futures contracts; some improvement in pricing efficiency is also shown for nearby Eurodollar futures contracts.  These results are consistent with an increase of arbitrage by traders on the exchange traded markets, as opposed to the OTC markets, in contrast to the “noise” model.
The second essay (chapter three) provides a description and comparison between OTC and exchange-traded derivatives market activity. It compares the turnover in OTC derivatives among three regions: Americas, Europe, and Asia/Pacific. Similar analysis is also conducted for non-financial customers. The empirical results show that the growth rate of exchange-traded derivatives leads growth rate of OTC derivatives. The conclusion still holds for derivatives of different risk categories.
The third essay (chapter four) examines the futures market efficiency of the VIX and the relative merits of the VIX and VIX futures contracts in forecasting future S&P 500 excess returns the future Russell 2000 excess returns, and the future small-cap premium.  We find that the current VIX is significantly negatively related to S&P 500 index excess returns and positively related to the Russell 2000 index excess returns. These results suggest that the VIX predicts asset returns based on size based portfolios asymmetrically – with higher (lower) values of the VIX associated with lower (higher) values of small-cap (large cap) returns in the future. However, the VIX and VIX modeled by an ARIMA process are not significantly related to future values of the small-cap premium. In contrast, VIX futures show forecasting prowess for the S&P 500 excess return, the Russell 2000 excess return and the small-cap premium. VIX futures are significantly negatively related to these series. The results for the speculative efficiency of the VIX futures contracts are mixed, however. Overall, the analyses support the hypothesis of informational advantages of the futures markets relative to the spot market in the price discovery process not just for size based asset returns, but on the size premium as well.


identifier: Liu, Di  (2014) Essays in Theoretical and Applied Econometrics.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
This thesis investigates three topics in theoretical and applied econometrics:
two sample nonparametric estimation of intergenerational income mobility, sparse sieve maximum likelihood estimation, and asymptotic efficiency of Improved QMLE and Sieve MLE.

The first essay proposes a two sample nonparametric GMM estimator, which
extends the local linear GMM estimator to two sample settings, and applies it to
estimate the intergnerational income mobility in the U.S and Sweden. The second
essay proposes an estimator that uses the Dantzig Selector to improve the finite
sample performance of Sieve MLE in a panel data setting. We show that in
simulations the sparsity imposed by the Dantzig Selector is innocuous with
respect to the sieve MLE, and substantially improves its computational
efficiency. The third essay compares  an optimal GMM estimator, known as
Improved QMLE, with sieve MLE in a panel data setting. We derive a condition
when these two estimators are equally efficient asymptotically and provide
simulation results to illustrate the extent of efficiency loss.


identifier: Scirocco, Alyssa  (2014) Moral Socialization in Mother-Child Conversations about Hurting Siblings and Friends.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Parents play an important role in helping their children make sense of their harmful actions towards others (Recchia & Wainryb, 2014). The purpose of this study was to examine the socialization strategies that mothers employ in conversations about children’s experiences of harm, and particularly how these strategies vary in response to children’s distinct experiences of conflict with siblings and friends. Thirty-four mothers and their 7-year-old children discussed two events: one in which they harmed a friend and the other, a younger sibling (order counterbalanced). Conversations were transcribed verbatim and a presence/absence coding system was employed for various moral socialization strategies. Results indicated that mothers employed different strategies to support their children’s moral understandings depending on the relationship context (sibling, friend). Perhaps due to the more terminable nature of children’s friendships, mothers more frequently highlighted repair and consequences for the relationship in these conversations. In contrast, in conversations about siblings, mothers more often negatively evaluated the harmful act and encouraged their child to explore feelings of guilt. Given the uniquely ruthless nature of children’s harm against siblings (Recchia, Wainryb & Pasupathi, 2013), mothers may use these strategies to encourage children’s moral concern for their sibling. Findings suggest that mothers may be responsive to the distinct features that characterize their children’s experiences with their siblings and friends in ways that may serve to highlight and maximize their children’s moral development.


identifier: Montplaisir, Israël  (2014) Limen: Six Short Stories.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

title: Limen: Six Short Stories

abstract:
The initial title of my thesis was Thresholds, but this brought to mind the idea of a door—perhaps too concrete a word for describing narratives about transition and inertia. I needed a word that would sit well both with the notion of change in the physical sense—spatial relocation and the altered body—and changes of a psychological—often private, more subtle—order.

“Limen” is that word. It shares its meaning with “threshold” but is less familiar, and change is about encountering the unfamiliar, stepping on to foreign territory. Some changes are preceded by fireworks and a blaring fanfare. Others cannot be perceived by the most astute observers. “A Shy Man” may end with Jacques having an epiphany, but his living situation remains mostly the same. This is also true for the characters in “Wayside.” In “Desperately Searching for Coda,” on the other hand, Simon’s life is completely turned around—although it does ultimately come full circle. Invariably, the characters must reach a tipping point before any type of change can take place, but this limit is not always as conspicuous as a doorframe.


identifier: Wilkinson, Rosalind Poppy  (2014) The Importance of Status: Social Consequences of Narcissism in Early Adolescence.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Six hypotheses regarding the association between narcissism (i.e., a personality trait characterized by a grandiose sense of self and a pervasive need for this supposed superiority be validated and recognized by other people) and children’s experiences with peers were studied in a multiwave longitudinal study conducted with 333 early adolescent girls and boys. Findings showed that (a) Children high in narcissism were continually attracted to high-status friends; (b) Narcissism was a negative predictor of friendship reciprocity and that this association was moderated by child acceptance and status in different ways; (c) Children high in narcissism demonstrated less friendship stability as compared to their peers; (d) For children high in narcissism at baseline, social status (not acceptance) served to maintain continued narcissism over time; and (e) The instability of friendship choices for children high in narcissism was not related to the status of the peers selected as friends. The results of our analyses demonstrate that status had a stronger significance for children who were rated as high on a measure of narcissism than for those who were not. Compared to its effect on other children, status had a stronger effect on the friendship selections of children who were high in narcissism and, further, status was observed to moderate the stability of narcissism.


identifier: Cluis, Corinne  (2014) Metabolic engineering of Escherichia coli for the production of coenzyme Q10.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Coenzyme Q10 is required for respiratory electron transport and protects biological membranes against oxidative damage. As coenzyme Q10 supplements are used to treat or to alleviate symptoms associated with an increasing number of health conditions, there is growing interest in the development of bioprocesses for its production. The biosynthesis of coenzyme Q10 involves the condensation of an isoprenoid, decaprenyl diphosphate, with an aromatic compound, para-hydroxybenzoate, followed by a series of modifications of the aromatic moiety of the molecule via the ubiquinone pathway. Escherichia coli naturally produces coenzyme Q8, but replacement of its octaprenyl diphosphate synthase by a decaprenyl diphosphate synthase is sufficient to eliminate the production of coenzyme Q8 and favor the synthesis of coenzyme Q10.
A rational genetic engineering approach was used to create a strain of E. coli capable of producing high levels of coenzyme Q10. First, the endogenous octaprenyl diphosphate synthase gene was deleted and functionally replaced by a decaprenyl diphosphate synthase-encoding gene derived from Sphingomonas baekryungensis. Additionally, this strain was engineered to produce elevated levels of para-hydroxybenzoate by over-expressing genes encoding enzymes of the E. coli shikimate pathway. The production of isoprenoid was increased by introducing a heterologous mevalonate pathway. Decaprenyl diphosphate and para-hydroxybenzoate were further directed toward the ubiquinone pathway by overexpressing a para-hydroxybenzoate prenyltransferase. The resulting recombinant strain was capable of producing elevated levels of coenzyme Q10. In order to further enhance production of this antioxidant, an investigation into the interplay between coenzyme Q10 biosynthesis and primary metabolism was conducted. This investigation revealed a link between sorbitol catabolism and coenzyme Q10 production in the engineered strain. Moreover, abrogating carbon flux to acetate by selected gene knock-outs also enhanced coenzyme Q10 accumulation. However, the engineered strains developed through this research were found to be highly unstable, leading to high variability in coenzyme Q10 production. This instability was hypothesized to result from the burden exerted by the engineered aromatic and foreign mevalonate pathways on primary metabolism. As a result, further optimization of these engineered strains of E. coli will be required in order to develop a suitable platform for coenzyme Q10 production.


identifier: Malka, Patrick H.  (2014) Foraging and territorial decisions by juvenile Atlantic salmon Salmo salar under chronic predation threat in the wild.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Most animals are at some point in their development required to perform behaviours under the threat of predation.  There is a need to trade off behaviours like foraging and territoriality with anti-predator behaviour in order to maximize survival.  Recent studies have shown that Atlantic salmon potentially compensate for chronic predation risk by reducing territory size but maintaining the same growth rate.  However, no direct measures of foraging or growth were collected.  Here, I tested the hypothesis that juvenile Atlantic salmon can adjust behaviours depending on the perceived risk of predation.  I conducted trials under semi natural conditions in which the experimental group was exposed to alarm cue and the control group to stream water over two field seasons in 2010 and 2011.  Territory size was recorded on Day 1 and Day 7 while foraging was recorded daily for as many individuals as possible.  The change in weight between Day 1 and Day 7 was also recorded for every individual.  Overall, I found that territory size reduced over the seven day period for the alarm cue group while foraging and growth did not differ significantly between treatments.  However, there were significant differences in results over the two field seasons.  These results suggest a behavioural compensation between territory defense and foraging under the effect of chronic predation.  The differences in response by year can be explained by looking at the resources dynamics of each year.  Future work could examine this influence further.


identifier: Rajalingham, Kalyani  (2014) Screening hybrid poplar clones for resistance to the forest tent caterpillar, Malacosoma disstria.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Susceptibility of various hybrid poplar clones to attack by Malacosoma disstria larvae was assessed. No-choice experiments were conducted on one week old foliage using first instar larvae. Performance of larvae on each hybrid was also determined. Clones 3389 (DxB), 3729 (NxM), 505508 (MxDT), 750316 (MxT), and 915320 (MxB) were found to be highly resistant to attack by first instar larvae. Susceptible clones were found to belong to the P. x euramericana and P. x generosa Henry crosses. Hybrids with a P. maximowiczii or P. balsamifera parent were found to be consumed at intermediate levels. Consumption was found to be positively correlated to survivorship and negatively correlated to instar duration; instar duration was negatively correlated to survivorship.


identifier: Smithson, Sean  (2014) State Space Modelling of Current-Mode Control and its Application to Input Impedance Shaping of Power Electronic Constant-Power Loads.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Distributed DC power systems offer many benefits over AC line distribution systems such as improved energy conversion efficiency and reduced mass due to high-frequency isolation.  Unfortunately, distributed DC systems with regulated bus voltages suffer from destabilising effects from loading by downstream power electronic converters behaving as constant-power loads.  Power electronic constant-power loads present a negative incremental input impedance to the main bus, which may result in negative impedance instability.  Avoiding the effects of negative impedance instability is most often achieved by following impedance ratio criteria, such as the Middlebrook stability criterion which has the drawback of imposing conservative constraints on the design of the power system components.  Such conservative criteria can also result in the over-design of converter input filters and artificially imposing limits on the bandwidths of the load power electronic converters.  Through the use of a current-mode controlled pre-regulator, the input impedance of power electronic constant-power loads can be shaped to interact with the main bus impedance in a stable manner while optimising converter bandwidth and line rejection.  A new state space based approach is developed to model peak and valley current-mode control.  Following this new approach, models for all basic DC-DC converter topologies are created (Buck, Boost and Flyback).  This new model allows for an accurate analysis of a pre-regulator and its straight forward design.


identifier: Jeskanen, Carrie  (2014) Performing Pregnancy:An Ethnography of American and Finnish Pregnant Women on Social Media.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
ABSTRACT

Performing Pregnancy: An Ethnography of American and Finnish Pregnant Women on Social Media

Carrie Jeskanen

For too long, the voices of pregnant women have been neglected by anthropologists and other scholars. Academic research has focused instead on the relatively brief moment of childbirth rather than the preceding nine months of gestation or pregnancy. This largely unexplored area of women's lived experience is examined in this thesis. From June 2014 to the end of October 2014, I conducted online participant observation fieldwork following Twitter, YouTube, blogs, Instagram and Pinterest, to study the uses of social media by women in the United States and Finland during their pregnancies. Specifically, I compare women's experiences of pregnancy in the United States and Finland through an ethnographic analysis of their pregnancy vlogs and blogs. These are spaces where women can make visible the work of pregnancy. Furthermore, they provide valuable ethnographic data on how women use these forums as places to share common experiences and build a sense of community. In this thesis, I contradict much of the academic literature that focuses on how women are controlled during pregnancy and childbirth. Instead, I argue that vlogs and blogs can be seen as spaces where women assert agency and seek to develop a sense of control over their pregnancies.


identifier: McNaughton, Stephanie  (2014) Switching to English: Effects on Motivation to use L2 French in Montreal.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Anecdotal information has suggested that individuals who use French as a second language in the Montreal public domain sometimes experience switches to English despite having initiated the conversation in French.  Although this anecdotal information suggested that experiencing switches might have had a negative effect on motivation to use French, the effect of these switches in the Montreal context had not been addressed in previous literature.  The current study explored whether or not the phenomenon of switching exists in Montreal as well as the possible effects it may have on motivation to use French as a second language. Data was collected from 13 French-as-a-second-language participants who documented their experiences using a web-based questionnaire.  Although results suggest that the phenomenon of switching happens less frequently than the amount of non-switches experienced, it was found that, for intermediate users, not experiencing switches suggested a positive effect on motivation to continue the use and practice of French.


identifier: Mohebi, Seyed Mohammad Mehdi  (2014) Modeling the J-V Characteristics of Hybrid Solar Cells based on Planar-Silicon/PEDOT:PSS and SiNW/PEDOT:PSS.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Solar cell devices have proven to be one of the promising energy resources in the future, owing to the following facts:
First and for most, solar energy is almost always available in all over the world and is an  infinite source unlike fossil fuels or other finite resources. Secondly, the expenses associated with the fabrication of solar cell devices, are much less than the fabrication costs of other energy generators. This is because the sun energy is free of charges. Besides, the materials that are used in the solar cell structure are mainly from the most abundant elements on the earth such as silicon. Thirdly, this source of energy is not in conflict with the issue of natural environment pollution. In turn, it helps in eliminating the concern of contamination production, which is a direct result of fossil fuel consumption.
Having investigated for the benefits of these photovoltaic devices, we were motivated to do some significant work in improving the efficiency of these renewable energy resources. Therefore, searching for the best solar cell configurations (planar-Si and SiNW) from the literatures and modeling the optoelectrical characteristics of them by the commercial software was the first step taken in this area. In broad terms, in this work we investigated the optical and electrical characteristics of the hybrid solar cells as well as analyzing the simulation results for investigating the optimum characteristic of the device for having a higher efficiency and cost effective solar cell.
In this study, we have shown that increasing the trap density reduces the short circuit current, open circuit voltage and the FF in the planar-Si structure. Note that, the same results have been obtained in the SiNW structure except for the short circuit current which did not change by altering the trap density in the SiNW cell configuration.  Furthermore, it is demonstrated that increasing the Si material length, enhances the solar cell efficiency, in both SiNW and planar-silicon structures when the dopant concentration of the silicon is 1×〖10〗^16  cm^(-3). However, it is found that when Si is doped with 6×〖10〗^18 cm^(-3) atoms, increasing the Si material thickness, does not change the current density and FF in the planar-Si structure while it improves the short circuit current and the cell efficiency in the SiNW based solar cells. By investigating the effect of dopant concentration on the planar configuration, we found that Si substrates with higher dopant concentrations did not result in a better solar cell efficiency. While, in the SiNW structure, the wires with higher dopant concentrations have shown to have a better cell efficiency. Finally, PEDOT: PSS polymer has been found to be a good candidate as the p-type material, since it can make a good heterojunction with silicon in the form of nanowires.
Therefore, this work enables the correlation of silicon material height, dopant concentration and trap density to the end solar cell performance.


identifier: Loya García, J. Luis  (2014) Frañol radio : un métissage textuel reproductif dans les borderlands sociolinguistiques et culturels hispano-francophones.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Ce mémoire de maitrise est une réflexion sur Frañol radio, une émission migrante qui se concentre sur la diffusion de musique d’origine latino. L’émission est conçue par Hugo, qui fait office d’animateur, de « DJ » et de responsable de la programmation. Le matériel le plus emblématique de l’émission vient d’artistes qui traversent la langue et la culture : les artistes francophones qui chantent en espagnol, les artistes hispaniques qui chantent en français et ceux qui chantent en frañol, une nouvelle expression artistique, linguistique et culturelle de la population d’origine latino à l’extérieur de l’Amérique latine.

Dans cette ère de globalisation et de capitalisme, les structures de pouvoir politique et économique forcent une nouvelle vague de migration de l’Amérique latine vers le Canada francophone. Il s’agit d’un phénomène de colonisation renversée où les immigrants d’origine latino décident d’être acculturés et colonisés par choix pour vivre la liberté qu’ils n’ont pas en Amérique latine. Ce phénomène est opposé à la colonisation violente des Amériques par les Européens à l’époque de la conquête. Maintenant, il y a un groupe de gens, les nouveaux métis capitalisés, qui veulent être transformés linguistiquement et culturellement pour obtenir des papiers, rester dans le pays et conquérir une vie meilleure.

Frañol radio touche la réalité de cette communauté migrante qui, dans le nouveau territoire, vise les interstices culturels et linguistiques particuliers des communautés de frontières. L’émission de radio contribue à l’existence du frañol comme code sociolinguistique et culturel qui aide la population d’origine latino dans le processus d’acculturation au sein de la nouvelle société. Le frañol comme code sociolinguistique et culturel alimente la programmation musicale et cette programmation revitalise l’existence de ce phénomène. Le frañol est un échelon linguistique qui rappelle aux personnes d’origine latino l’importance de parler français et de comprendre la culture d’accueil. Cependant, le frañol est aussi une esthétique et un style pratiqués par ceux qui habitent les frontières linguistiques et culturelles hispano-francophones. La musique en frañol exemplifie cette esthétique et nous invite à réfléchir aux manières dont la population d’origine latino s’imagine.


identifier: Saha, Apurba  (2014) Learning Based Relay and Antenna Selection in Cooperative Networks.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: We investigate a cross-layer relay selection scheme based on Q-learning algorithm. For the study, we consider multi-relay adaptive decode and forward (DF) cooperative diversity networks over multipath time-varying Rayleigh fading channels. The proposed scheme selects relay subsets that maximizes the link layer transmission efficiency without having knowledge of channel state information (CSI). Results show that the proposed scheme outperforms the capacity based cooperative transmission with the same number of reliable relays in terms of transmission efficiency gain. Furthermore, a Q-learning based cross-layer antenna selection for the multiple antenna relay networks is proposed, where multiple antennas allow more links from the relays to the destination under time varying Rayleigh fading channel. We studied the performance of multi-antenna relay networks and compared with single antenna case. Both schemes are shown to oﬀer high bandwidth efficiency from low to high signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs). Finally, we conclude that cooperative diversity with learning offers improved performance enhancement and bandwidth efficiency for the communication network.


identifier: Lu, Di  (2014) The Determinants of Mergers and Acquisitions in the Oil & Gas Industry: Evidence from Canadian and American Transactions.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: The study investigates the determinants of mergers and acquisitions in the oil and gas industry over the ten-year period from 2002 to 2011. Our large sample analysis results indicate that in the O&G industry: (1) U.S. acquirers are larger than Canadian acquirers overall; (2) value bidders generate greater abnormal returns relative to glamour bidders in Canadian market; (3) the geographical proximity of headquarters cannot generate pronounced synergies, and even destroys penny stock bidder’s value; and (4) there is no mispricing effect in the penny stocks, but they are more illiquid and have a higher level of idiosyncratic risk. We also examine three cases in 2012-2013 to verify our results and to identify several firm specific factors that are not considered in the large sample analysis. Consistent with our expectations, the Canadian transaction is more straightforward whereas the U.S. transactions depend more on pre-existing connections between the firms and suggest more corporate governance concerns.


identifier: Oberoi, Saurabh  (2014) AndroSAT: Security Analysis Tool for Android Applications.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
ABSTRACT

AndroSAT: Security Analysis Tool for Android Applications

With about 1.5 million Android device activations per day and billions of applications installation from Google Play, Android is becoming one of the most widely used operating systems for smartphones and tablets.

Besides typical personal usages, Android mobile devices are also being integrated into enterprises, government organizations, and military networks. Consequently, these devices hold valuable sensitive information which makes them face the same level of malicious attacks that have targeted the desktop environments over the past three decades.

In this thesis, we present AndroSAT, a Security Analysis Tool for Android applications. The developed framework allows us to efficiently experiment with different security aspects of Android apps through the integration of (i) a static analysis module that scans Android apps for malicious patterns. The static analysis process involves several steps such as n-gram analysis of dex files, de-compilation of the app, pattern search, and analysis of the AndroidManifest file; (ii) a dynamic analysis sandbox that executes Android apps in a controlled virtual environment which logs low-level interactions with the operating system.
The effectiveness of the developed framework is confirmed by testing it on popular apps collected from F-Droid, and malware samples obtained from a third party and the Android Malware Genome Project dataset. As a case study, we show how the analysis reports obtained from AndroSAT can be used for studying the frequency of use of different Android permissions and dynamic operations and detection of Android malware.


identifier: Beriro, Nathan  (2014) From Tahrir to Independence Square: The Evolution of Digitally Mediated Protest Movements 2009 – 2013.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: The surge in mass protest movements against authoritarian regimes around the world is raising questions about the reasons, motives and timing of such risky political activity. The hailing of social media as an enabler for contentious political action raises questions regarding the political impact of these new technologies, and how they may play a role in fomenting mass protests. A process-tracing analysis of four major protest movements will serve to examine the structural qualities of social media, and whether their particular use by activists and disgruntled publics is helping to spur mass disobedience and protest activity. The movements in Egypt in 2011, Iran in 2009, Turkey in 2013 and Ukraine in 2013 will serve to infer a broadly generalizable theory about social media’s role in contentious political activity and mass movements.


identifier: Marcotte, Jessica Rose  (2014) Shipwreck: Stories of Cold Water Canadian Scuba Diving.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: This collection makes use of scuba diving as an entry point into an exploration of water as something that is both primordially familiar to human beings and at the same time an Otherworld of the kind figured in literature as far back as medieval romance and the Breton Lai. The dramatic impetus for the stories in my collection, as in romance, lies in the potential danger of the journey and by the very presence of human beings in a space that is not their own. In literature, water is often mediated by a variety of barriers and boundaries such as the limit of a boat or a submarine, or the surface of the water itself. To progress beyond these barriers generally means death. By exploring water in the context of scuba diving, these stories strip away much of this mediation and expose an experience that immerses the frail human body directly in this Otherworld. Thematically, this project is concerned with modern folklore and oral tradition, as well as wonderment, the sublime, the human experience in an “other” space, and the idea of generations connected to place (such as the Saint Lawrence) or to a medium (in this case, of course, water). These stories were inspired by personal experience, field research, and anecdotes told to me by the coldwater Canadian diving communities of Ontario and Quebec, especially the Montreal Aquanautes.


identifier: Xu, Baoguang  (2014) Intelligent Eddy Current Current Crack Detection System Design Based on Neuro-Fuzzy Logic.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
The purpose of this study is to develop an artificial intelligent eddy current crack detection system in collaboration with 6-Degree-of-Freedom (DOF) robotic arm in order to provide the end users with reliable crack information.
  In this particular study, the main focus is on data fusion which includes signal filtering, signal feature extraction, feature recognition, and final decision making. Various features such as the amplitude, phase angle and width of the loop from the measured differential eddy current test (ECT) signals are extracted to represent the changes of the electrical impedance of the ECT probe due to crack presence. Furthermore, a data base has been built for the extracted features from the known notch cracks purchased from Olympus. An adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference engine is trained  to map the complex and nonlinear relationship between the extracted features and the crack information. The experimental tests show that not only the developed intelligent system is able to extract signal features and provide the user with 1. defect presence, 2. predict the depth of unknown crack based on the trained fuzzy logic engine. In addition, in terms of experimental setup, a data acquisition system implemented with 6 DOF robot  arm for ECT is established. Extra works such as coordinate calibration, prototype probe holder design, on-line crack position location detection has also been carried out.


identifier: Wang, Shu  (2014) Vibration Analysis of a Hand-Held Percussion Tool Coupled with the Hand-Arm System.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Exposure to hand-transmitted vibration (HTV) arising from hand power tools has long been associated with several disorders of the hand and arm, which are collectively termed as hand-arm vibration syndrome (HAVS). Owing to high prevalence of HAVS among the operators of the power tools, particularly the percussive tools, the desire to develop low vibration tool designs, has been widely recognized. The design of vibration isolators or assessment of vibration performance of tools necessitates development of dynamic model of the tool coupled with that of the hand-arm system (HAS) to account for energy absorption within the HAS.
This dissertation research is aimed at development of dynamic model of a percussive chipping hammer together with a biomechanical model of the hand-arm system. The model could serve as an essential tool for identifying effective vibration attenuation design features. The dynamic model of the tool is formulated considering identifications of various component contact pairs and the air flows between the primary piston and the striker. A tool tip-workpiece contact model is integrated to the tool model to describe the interactions between the tool and an energy dissipator. A biomechanical model of the hand-arm system is implemented to the tool model to develop a coupled hand-tool system, which could be applied to determine the hand vibration responses as a function of the push force. The properties of different impact pairs are identified from the theory of visco-elastic collision between rigid bodies. The validity of the hand-tool model is examined on the basis of available measured data under selected levels of the hand push force. A simple model of an anti-vibration glove is further introduced to study its effectiveness in limiting the vibration exposure.
The simulation results show that the percussive tool model coupled with the biomechanical hand-arm model can yield reasonably good trends in view of the hand-transmitted vibration. The results suggest that the tool vibration transmitted to the hand is more sensitive to variations in push force and the operating speed. Slight increases in the diameter of the upper chamber orifices and the weight of the tool body, together with lower the striker mass, could yield notable reductions in the magnitudes of vibration transmitted to the hand-arm system. The results further show that the anti-vibration gloves yield very minimal vibration attenuation.


identifier: Rampal, Rahul  (2014) The optics of Turbulent Compressible Vortices.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
In the past, a few investigators have examined theoretically and experimentally the optical properties of laminar compressible vortices. However, there is no theoretical study found in the scientific or technical literature for the turbulent kind. This thesis deals with the refracted shadows produced by turbulent compressible vortices. The construction of the theory is accomplished extending the previous laminar approach to include the effects of turbulence.
The pressure, temperature and density are calculated solving numerically the conservation of mass, momentum and energy equations along with the equation of state for the case of a turbulent vortex evolving in a compressible, viscous, heat conducting and calorically perfect gas in an unconfined domain. The radial distribution of light intensity is then deduced using the past general mathematical relation that links the density to luminosity of the shadowgraphs casted on an image plane by light ray refraction.
The differences in luminosity of laminar and turbulent vortices with Mach numbers ranging from 0.4 to 0.8 are compared. The darkness of the central disc and luminosity of the bright ring are found to be a function of the vortex Mach number: the higher the Mach number, the darker the disks and the brighter are the halos. Vortices of the turbulent kind are found to produce different shadow signatures than the laminar. Alike to the laminar case and depending on the focal length, turbulent vortices can also generate the previously disputed two caustics. The last effect is shown to generate the combination of dark circular area near the vortex center, followed by a thin halo that is succeeded by a dim ring, which is subsequently followed by a thicker corona.
In the future, the present methodology can potentially be developed to recover the thermo-fluid properties optically.


identifier: Boloorforoosh, Ali  (2014) Three Essays in Theoretical and Empirical Derivative Pricing.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
In this thesis we present three papers in empirical and theoretical derivative pricing. In the first essay, which is an empirical study on equity options, we use simultaneous data from equity, index and option markets in order to estimate a single factor market model in which idiosyncratic volatility is allowed to be priced. We model the index dynamics' P-distribution as a mean-reverting stochastic volatility model as in Heston (1993), and the equity returns as single factor models with stochastic idiosyncratic volatility terms. We derive theoretically the underlying assets' Q-distributions and estimate the parameters of both P- and Q-distributions using a joint likelihood function. We document the existence of a common factor structure in option implied idiosyncratic variances. We show that the average idiosyncratic variance, which proxies for the common factor, is priced in the cross section of equity returns, and that it reduces the pricing error when added to the Fama-French model. We find that the idiosyncratic volatilities differ under P- and Q-measures, and we estimate the price of this idiosyncratic volatility risk, which turns out to be always significantly different from zero for all the stocks in our sample. Further, we show that the idiosyncratic volatility risk premiums are not explained by the usuall equity risk factors. Finally, we explore the implications of our results for the estimates of the conditional equity betas.

In the next two essays, we present a theoretical methodology for the pricing of catastrophe derivatives. In the second essay, we present a new approach to the pricing of catastrophe event derivatives that does not assume a fully diversifiable event risk. Instead, we assume that the event occurrence and intensity affect the return of the market portfolio of an agent that trades in the event derivatives. Based on this approach, we derive values for a CAT option and a reinsurance contract on an insurer’s assets using recent results from the option pricing literature. We show that the assumption of unsystematic event risk seriously underprices the CAT option. Last, we present numerical results for our derivatives using real data from hurricane landings in Florida.

In the third and final essay, we extend the methodology developed in the second essay by relaxing several of its assumptions, and apply it to the valuation of a reinsurance contract given the value of a futures contract indexed on the CAT event. Since the payoff of the reinsurance contract has the form of a vertical spread, our methodology is also applicable to the valuation of derivatives with non-convex payoffs in other markets. Our approach recognizes the fundamental incompleteness of financial markets arising from the occurrence of rare events. Moreover, our approach does not rely on the existence of a representative agent and his/her risk preferences, and we do not assume knowledge of the martingale probability measure beyond the futures price. Using stochastic dominance methodology, we derive bounds for the value of the reinsurance contract. The derived bounds represent reservation write and purchase prices for the reinsurance contract, violation of which result in second degree stochastically dominating strategies that increase the expected utility of any risk averse investor. Our method is general in nature and is independent of distributional assumptions on the CAT event amplitude. It can be generalized without reformulation to any Markovian process that may include dependence between the amplitude distribution and the frequency of occurrence of the event.


identifier: Tehou Tekeng, Yves Mathurin  (2014) Fiscal transparency, its determinants and consequences for developing countries.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
This thesis has addressed the issue of fiscal transparency for developing countries in three essays. The first essay provided an overview of the existing literature on fiscal transparency and related questions, focusing on different angles and measurement methodologies involved. Our review was structured around four principal axes that include the determinants of fiscal transparency; the links between fiscal transparency and some selected institutional factors relating to international capital markets, and fiscal discipline, corruption, and economic growth. One of the major shortcomings discovered in the literature is the lack of exclusive attention devoted to developing countries on this important issue of fiscal transparency and how this could affect their growth potential.
The second essay proposed a new, replicable and more objective index of fiscal transparency based on criteria of developing countries as used by the World Bank in 2009. We also provided an analysis of the determinants of fiscal transparency based on information from 27 developing countries, taking into account a number of institutional and socio-economic determinants of fiscal transparency. For example, we examined the impacts of natural resources (wealth), quality of institution, openness on the above-mentioned index of fiscal transparency by the means of OLS and Two-Stage Least Square methods. Our empirical findings indicated that the performance of our proposed index appeared to be consistent with other existing indices.
The third essay presented an analysis of some potential consequences of fiscal transparency for developing countries. More specifically, based on the availability of data across the 27 countries of the sample, it was found that fiscal transparency can have some impact on the structure of government spending, education and health outcomes, attraction of international capital, but not economic growth.


identifier: Ma, Dina  (2014) Liquid Impingement Erosion Performance of Low Plasticity Burnished Ti6Al4V.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Abstract

	In power generation industry, inlet fog cooling is used for the turbine inlet cooling (TIC). However, this approach also leads to liquid impingement erosion (LIE) of the rotating blades in the compressor, resulting in performance degradation and reduction of service life of gas turbines.
	Previous studies have introduced Laser shock peening (LSP) and shot peening (SP) as potential solutions for LIE of Ti64. However, no study has been done on the LIE performance of the low plasticity burnished Ti64.
	Full factorial design of experiments was conducted to investigate the effects of LPB process parameters (Feed Rate, Spindle Velocity, Number of Passes, Pressure) on the residual stress distribution, microhardness and surface roughness of Ti64. The surface microhardness and the surface roughness of the Ti64 were improved after the LPB treatment. Moreover, a large magnitude of compressive residual stress layer was induced by LPB treatment on the surface of the Ti64. However, the results of the LIE tests showed that LPB treatment has little or no effect on the LIE performance of Ti64.


identifier: Bakry, Ibrahim  (2014) Optimized Scheduling of Repetitive Construction Projects under Uncertainty.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Uncertainty is an inherent characteristic of construction projects. Neglecting uncertainties associated with different input parameters in the planning stage could well lead to misleading and/or unachievable project schedules. Many attempts have been made in the past to account for uncertainty during planning for construction projects and many tools and techniques were presented to facilitate modelling of such uncertainty. Some of the presented techniques are widely accepted and used frequently like Project Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT) and Monte Carlo Simulation, while others are more complicated and less popular, such as fuzzy set-based scheduling. Although accounting for uncertainty has been a topic of interest for more than four decades, it was rarely attempted to account for uncertainty when scheduling repetitive construction projects. Repetitive projects impose an additional challenge to the already complicated construction scheduling process that accounts for the need to maintain crew work continuity throughout project execution. This special characteristic necessitates producing scheduling techniques specifically suited to resource driven scheduling.
Therefore, the main objective of this research is to produce a comprehensive scheduling, monitoring and control methodology for repetitive construction projects that is capable of accounting for uncertainties in various input parameters, while allowing for optimized acceleration and time-cost trade-off analysis. The proposed methodology encompasses three integrated models; Optimized Scheduling and Buffering Model, Monitoring and Dynamic Rescheduling Model and Acceleration Model. The first model presents an optimization technique that accounts for uncertainty in input parameters. It employs a modified dynamic programming technique that utilizes fuzzy set theory to model uncertainties. This model includes a schedule defuzzification tool and a buffering tool. The defuzzification tool converts the optimized fuzzy schedule into a deterministic one, and the buffering tool utilizes user’s required level of confidence in the produced schedule to build and insert time buffers, thus providing protection against anticipated delays affecting the project. The Monitoring and Dynamic Rescheduling Model capitalizes on the repetitive nature of these projects, by using actual progress on site to reduce uncertainty in the remaining part of the schedule. This model also tracks project progress through comparing the actual buffer consumption to the planned buffer consumption. The Acceleration Model presents an iterative unit based optimized acceleration procedure. It comprises a modified algorithm for identifying critical units of the project to accelerate. This model presents queuing criteria that accounts for uncertainty in additional cost of acceleration and for contractor’s judgment in relation to prioritizing critical units for acceleration. Moreover, this model offers six strategies for schedule acceleration and maintains crew work continuity.
Together, the three developed models offer an integrated system that is capable of accounting for uncertainty in different variables through different project stages, aiming at helping managers keep repetitive construction projects on track. The presented optimization technique is automated in an Object Oriented program; coded in C# programming language. A number of case studies are analyzed and presented to demonstrate and validate the capabilities and features of the presented methodology.


identifier: Larsen, Wayne  (2014) Staying Connected: Gauging the relevance of English-language community newspapers in the Montreal region.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Through a content analysis of seven Montreal community weeklies over a two-month period, as well as a case study of competition between two newspapers within a single market, this thesis examines how ownership structures and policies governing the provision of local content can affect the economic health of newspapers through the amount of advertising they attract. Informed by the theories that news is a commodity and that community news must be “relentlessly local,” this study focuses on how ownership and editorial practices — and their relationship to local readerships — can be credited for the continued vibrancy and financial health of some community newspapers while contributing to the floundering of others.


identifier: Jabri, Ahmad  (2014) Agent-Based Modeling and Simulation of Earthmoving Operations.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Simulation has been used in construction modeling for decades, especially in large scale operations, such as earth moving, where heavy and costly equipment is used. Simulation can be used as a planning tool to analyze the time and cost of earthmoving operations. Current methods used in simulating earthmoving operations are based on Discrete-Event Simulation (DES), with recent efforts to introduce System Dynamics (SD) in a hybrid DES-SD approach. However, due to the predetermined nature of Discrete-Event Simulation (DES) models, some inflexibility is experienced when modeling earthmoving operations, which translates into a higher degree of difficulty in regards to model creation and a reduced accuracy of outputs. Although the introduction of System Dynamics (SD) contributed significantly to accounting for qualitative factors and strategic aspects of earthmoving operations, there still exists a need for enhancing the accuracy of capturing the logistics of these operations in a smart and flexible manner.
With the advancement of computational capabilities, Agent-Based Modeling and Simulation (ABMS) is rapidly replacing the conventional simulation techniques. This thesis introduces Agent-Based Modeling and Simulation (ABMS) as an effective tool for modeling earthmoving operations. First of all, it provides a generic methodology introduced for creating Agent-Based models for construction operations, based on a set of rules and criteria. Then, an Agent-Based (AB) model for earthmoving operations consisting of bulldozers, loaders, haulers and spotters is developed. The model in question governs the process logistics, information sharing, equipment properties as well as activity durations. Finally, a Java-Based software application (ABSEMO) is developed as an implementation of the proposed Agent-Based (AB) simulation model. Overall, the desired outcome is to create a smart system that has a flexible logic in addition to a good representation of model operations.
A real-life case study of a riverbed excavation in a dam construction project is simulated using ABSEMO and the results are compared with those obtained from Discrete-Event Simulation (DES) models for verification. A percentage difference of 0.42% from the DES results was finally obtained, indicating that the model’s logic and flow of resources are indeed accurate. The proposed Agent-Based (AB) methodology and the developed model aim at enhancing current practices of modeling earthmoving operations by looking at these operations from an individual Agent-Based (AB) prospective. This allows the capturing of realistic behaviors, through crafting agents’ attributes, roles and interactions. The proposed methodology can be extended to general applications in construction management, where heterogeneity can be accounted for through replicating the different participants of construction projects in Agent-Based (AB) models as well as studying the emergent behavior of their interactions on the system.


identifier: Tataru, Otilia Maria  (2014) Frankétienne, un humaniste à rebours.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

title: Frankétienne, un humaniste à rebours

abstract: L’objectif de notre mémoire est de faire découvrir Ultravocal en tant qu’œuvre porteuse d’un humanisme à rebours. Malgré les proportions démesurées de l’œuvre de Frankétienne, les études sur l’écriture de cet écrivain ne sont pas très nombreuses. Par ailleurs, les auteurs de celles que nous avons consultées se sont surtout penchés sur la forme littéraire inventée et employée par Frankétienne, la spirale, ou encore sur la présence d’un Mal tout-puissant dans son écriture. En effet, le Mal hante sa création littéraire ainsi que ses tableaux ou dessins, sous plusieurs formes : chaos, cruauté, auto-destruction ou encore pure fascination que le Mal arrive à exercer sur l’humain. En ce qui nous concerne, nous avons essayé de regarder plutôt derrière le voile de souffrance, de déceler un message humaniste, comme derrière un masque. Entreprise bien aventureuse, car seule notre intuition nous a servi d’instrument au tout début. En essayant de répondre à la question : «Frankétienne est-il un humaniste à rebours?», nous nous sommes appuyés sur plusieurs théories et les avons adaptées aux besoins de notre recherche. Nous nous contenterons d’en citer deux : la théorie de l’intertextualité et la géocritique. De même, nous avons eu recours à un autre appui : l’œuvre de François Rabelais, un des maîtres de l’Humanisme français. Nous y avons trouvé un étalon fiable auquel mesurer l’humanisme de Frankétienne. Grâce à ces rapprochements et à l’utilisation de ces théories, nous avons réussi à mettre en lumière le message humaniste inscrit derrière le masque baroque de la souffrance, dans le livre de Frankétienne, Ultravocal


identifier: Huo, Wei  (2014) Employing Opportunistic Diversity for Detecting Injection Attacks in Web Applications.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Web-based applications are becoming increasingly popular due to less demand of client-side resources
and easier maintenance than desktop counterparts. On the other hand, larger attack surfaces
and developers’ lack of security proficiency or awareness leave Web applications particularly vulnerable
to security attacks. One existing approach to preventing security attacks is to compose
a redundant system using functionally similar but internally different variants, which will likely
respond to the same attack in different ways. However, most diversity-by-design approaches are
rarely used in practice due to the implied cost in development and maintenance, significant false
alarm rate is also another limitation. In this work, we employ opportunistic diversity inherent
to Web applications and their database backends to prevent injection attacks. We first conduct a
case study of common vulnerabilities to confirm the effectiveness of opportunistic diversity for
preventing potential attacks. We then devise a multi-stage approach to examine database queries,
their effect on the database, query results, and user-end results. Next, we combine the results
obtained from different stages using a learning-based approach to further improve the detection
accuracy. Finally, we evaluate our approach using a real world Web application.


identifier: Park, Emma  (2013) The Routes of Rule: The Role of Roads in Kenyan Governance and Popular Evaluations of “Development” and Authority, 1890s-1992.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
My dissertation explores the “politics of mobility” over the course of Kenya’s
colonial and postcolonial histories. Moving between the technopolitical strategies of the state and the quotidian practices of Kenyans, I consider how technologies of mobility have mediated social relationships, turning movement itself into a contested category of political action. In doing so, I track how colonial and postcolonial authorities have used road networks, the rights to mobility, and the circulation of the technologies associated with roads – bicycles, motorcycles, cars, and matatus (minibuses) – to reward “loyal” constituencies, thereby variously marking inclusion and exclusion from popular though
contested visions of “development” and “modernity.” Combining the insights of cultural studies and anthropology, with those of science studies, this research both tracks how the material and infrastructural routes of colonial and post-colonial governance have been used to extend coercive authority and, concomitantly, how these technologies have been appropriated by populations, becoming rich idioms as well as central material sites for popular expressions of discontent. To this end, this dissertation explores how roads are used as a central organizing theme in Kenyan discussions of the relative
“development” of the country, discussions that popularly express regional
understandings of the deprivations associated with state and everyday forms of
corruption.


identifier: Piebiak, Jill  (2014) Shit Harper Did: A community speaking truth to power?  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

format: text other

abstract: How did a small group of motivated citizens, with limited funds, break into a sphere of political commentary reserved for media and political elite? Built by a group of Vancouver-based comedians, in 2011, the website Shit Harper Did (SHD) mockingly reframed Harper’s policies through a number of satirical YouTube videos begging Canadians not to re-elect the Prime Minister. In 2013, SHD relaunched a community-based website, built on NationBuilder, and aired a TV commercial crowdfunded on IndieGoGo. They learned new organizing strategies and SHD embraced their online community. Their humorous interventions and media tactics have complimented their current, long-term strategy enabling them to become a sustained and engaged political organization. This group exemplifies how non-elite actors mobilize social media and online organizing software to influence Canadian politics. Political advocacy in Canada changes as online organizations find new strategies to run issue-based campaigns on the power of donations and volunteer actions.


identifier: Song, Qingjiao  (2014) Narrowband Cooperative Spectrum Sensing in Cognitive Networks.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
With the increase of different types of wireless devices, the radio frequency (RF) spectrum will not longer large enough to accommodate these increased devices for communication in the future under the traditional fixed spectrum access (FSA) policy. Therefore, cognitive radio (CR), which provides devices flexible spectrum access, has been proposed to solve this scarcity problem in RF spectrum. The ability of CR depends largely on its spectrum sensing since it provides device access to one spectrum band while avoiding interference to other devices. However, the results from single spectrum sensing is not reliable in real communication condition due to various fading effects. Thus, designing an efficient cooperative spectrum sensing scheme a significant task.
  In this thesis, two cooperative narrowed spectrum sensing schemes, multi-selective cooperation and selective cooperation, will be proposed. Multi-selective cooperation,
an improved version from selection combining (SC), is based on ordered statistics of the reporting links between the cooperative nodes and fusion center where the links with high signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) are selected as reliable reporting links. Furthermore, we examine the optimum N-out-of-K rule of our scheme under different detection threshold and SNR. Another new scheme, selective-cooperation, is proposed based on multi-selective cooperation and it selects the links, whose SNRs are larger than fusion center's, as reliable reporting links. The performance of both new schemes are compared to other existing schemes in-terms of the probability of detection and probability of false alarm over independent identity distributed (i.i.d) and independent non-identical distributed (i.n.d) Rayleigh fading channels. Both simulations and analytical results show that the multi-selective scheme outperforms some traditional schemes, i.e. selection combining, general N-out-of-K rule and square-law selection (SLS) under different system parameters. Simulations and analytical results also show that the performance of the selective-cooperation scheme gets further improvement compared with multi-selective scheme and it outperforms some traditional schemes, i.e. square-law combining (SLC), under different communication environments.


identifier: Cheng, Jie Chao  (2014) The comparison of the methods based on Wavelet Transform and Hilbert-Huang Transform in fault diagnosis of rotating machinery.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
As the most common mechanisms for transmitting power and motion, gears and bearings have been widely used in various mechanical equipment. Many accidents have happened because of failing to detect and replace the faulty gears or bearings in time. Hence it is very important to perform accurate fault diagnosis of gears and bearings. When a gear or bearing has a fault, the vibration signal collected from the mechanical equipment will become non-stationary and contain a series of periodic impulses that are caused by the fault. Many theories and techniques have been developed to extract the faulty information based on analyzing periodic impulses contained in the vibration signals.

It has been reported that neither time-domain analysis nor frequency-domain analysis can do well in analyzing non-stationary signals. Hence time-frequency analysis methods based on wavelet transform and Hilbert-Huang Transform (HHT) have been investigated. Wavelet transform includes continuous wavelet transform (CWT) and discrete wavelet transform (DWT). Research was reported to compare the performance of these methods in fault diagnosis of mechanical components. However, the previous works either only compared HHT based methods with CWT based methods, or only compared HHT based methods with DWT based methods, for certain applications. There are no reported comprehensive comparisons of the three methods for fault diagnosis of gears and bearings.

Cepstrum analysis can detect the periodicity and reduce the influence of the noise for the low energy signals. However, previous research usually only applied Cepstrum analysis directly to extract fault features from the entire original signal. Some other existing methods first applied DWT to decompose the original signal to obtain the detail signals, and then used Hilbert spectral analysis to analyze the periodic impulses contained in the detail signals through identifying faulty characteristic frequency with frequency domain analysis and plotting the instantaneous amplitude with time domain analysis. Hilbert spectral analysis has the advantage in frequency domain analysis. However, sometimes it is not very sensitive in time domain analysis when the energy of the periodic impulses is not strong enough.

In this thesis, we investigate fault diagnosis of gears and bearings using two sets of vibration monitoring data collected in the lab environment: one set for gear condition monitoring and the other for bearing condition monitoring. We propose an improved DWT method that integrates Cepstrum analysis to analyze the periodic impulses contained in the data. With the proposed method, the vibration signals are first decomposed using DWT, and Cepstrum analysis is used to analyze the resulting detail signals. The results show that the proposed method performs better than the existing methods of applying Cepstrum analysis directly. Furthermore, with the help of Cepstrum analysis, the proposed method has better performance in time domain analysis than Hilbert spectral analysis in analyzing the periodic impulses contained in the detail signals.

A comprehensive study is conducted in this thesis to compare the following three methods in fault diagnosis of the gears and bearings: (1) The CWT method using time-wavelet energy spectrum, (2) the improved DWT method using Cepstrum analysis, and (3) the HHT method. The results show that in fault diagnosis of gears, the HHT method has better noise immunity and is more sensitive in frequency domain analysis than the other two methods. The proposed method shows its advantage in analyzing the periodic impulses in time domain than the other two methods. In fault diagnosis of the bearings, the fault can be more clearly detected using the CWT and DWT methods in analyzing the periodic impulse that caused by the outer race fault of the bearing. The results obtained in this thesis can assist researchers and practitioners to select suitable methods for fault diagnosis of gears and bearings.


identifier: Bacon, Marc-André  (2014) FMRI study of the brain correlates of hedonic and sensory perception during thermal alliesthesia.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: This functional MRI experiment uses the alliesthesia phenomenon to map the brain correlates of hedonic experience and sensation. Alliesthesia refers to the dependence of the hedonic impact of a stimulus on the ‘milieu interne’. Thus, a thermal stimulus applied to the skin during hyperthermia or hypothermia should be perceived as having the same temperature but opposite hedonic impact. Twenty participants took part in two successive scanning sessions during which mild states of hyperthermia and hypothermia were induced. Participants wore a water-perfused suit consisting of a long-sleeved shirt and trousers. In two of the stimulus conditions, either cold or hot water perfused the suit; in the third ‘neutral’ condition, water flow was interrupted. At intervals of 9 seconds, the participants rated, on two Likert scales, the thermal sensation perceived (from hot to cold) and the corresponding hedonic experience (from unpleasant to pleasant).Three different regressors were built from the ratings: hedonic, homeostatic, and sensory. The hedonic regressor was derived from the pleasantness ratings, whereas the sensory regressor was derived from the temperature ratings. The homeostatic regressor was also derived from the temperature ratings, but the sign was adjusted to conform to the value that would oppose the deviation of core temperature. Application of the hedonic and homeostatic regressors revealed conjoint activations in the more lateral areas of the orbitofrontal cortex. Application of the sensory regressor revealed clusters of activation, mainly in the middle frontal gyrus, the superior frontal gyrus, the precentral gyrus, and the right orbitofrontal cortex.


identifier: Cheng, Lin  (2014) Implementing and Accelerating HMMER3 Protein Sequence Search on CUDA-Enabled GPU.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
The recent emergence of multi-core CPU and many-core GPU architectures has made parallel computing more accessible. Hundreds of industrial and research applications have been mapped onto GPUs to further utilize the extra computing resource. In bioinformatics, HMMER is a set of widely used applications for sequence analysis based on Hidden Markov Model. One of the tools in HMMER, hmmsearch, and the Smith-Waterman algorithm are two important tools for protein sequence analysis that use dynamic programming. Both tools are particularly well-suited for many-core GPU architecture due to the parallel nature of sequence database searches.

After studying the existing research on CUDA acceleration in bioinformatics, this thesis investigated the acceleration of  the key Multiple Segment Viterbi algorithm in HMMER version 3. A fully-featured CUDA-enabled protein database search tool cudaHmmsearch was designed, implemented and optimized. We demonstrated a variety of optimization strategies that are useful for general purpose GPU-based applications. Based on our optimization experience in parallel computing, six
steps were summarized for optimizing performance using CUDA programming.

We made comprehensive tests and analysis for multiple enhancements in our GPU kernels in order to demonstrate the effectiveness of selected approaches. The performance analysis showed that GPUs are able to deal with intensive computations, but are very sensitive to random accesses to the global memory. The results show that our implementation achieved 2.5x speedup over the single-threaded HMMER3 CPU SSE2 implementation on average.


identifier: Corbit, John  (2014) Is Schematic Biological Motion an Animacy Cue in Infancy?  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: The goal of the present research was to investigate whether schematic biological motion serves as a cue to the concept of animacy in infancy.  In order to present motion cues in the absence of bodily form cues, Michotte’s (1963) schematic biological motion stimuli (i.e., shape rhythmically expanding/contracting in the direction of movement) were used. The video animations displayed an amorphous shape moving in this way behind a screen (i.e., the shadow) and assessed looking patterns when the screen was removed to reveal either an animate or inanimate exemplar in the test phase. In Experiment 1, familiar exemplars of animate entities (i.e., dog, cow) were used as test items. In Experiment 2, the test objects were unfamiliar category exemplars associated with this type of motion (i.e., worm, caterpillar).  Infants (10- and 18-months) looked longer when biological motion cues were congruent with the test items in Experiment 1, but 10-month-olds did not show differential looking across congruent and incongruent trials in Experiment 2.  These findings suggest that the schematic biological motion stimulus does not serve as a primitive cue to the concept of animacy in infancy.


identifier: Bazrafshan, Majid  (2014) Lagrangian Relaxation for q-Hub Arc Location Problems.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
The topic of this Master thesis is an in-depth research study on a specific type of network systems known as hub-and-spoke networks.  In particular, we study q-Hub Arc Location Problems that consist, at a strategical level, of selecting q hub arcs and at most p hub nodes, and of the routing of commodities through the so called hub level network. We propose strong formulations to two variants of the problem, namely the q-hub arc location problem and the $q$-hub arc location problem with isolated hub nodes.
 We present a Lagrangian relaxation that exploits the structure of these problems by decomposing them into |K|+2  independent easy-to-solve subproblems and develop Lagrangian heuristics that yield high quality feasible solutions to both models.  We, further, provide some insights on the structure of the optimal solutions to both models and investigate the cost benefit of incomplete hub networks with and without isolated hub nodes. Finally, computational results on a set of benchmark instances with up to 100 nodes are reported to assess the performance of the proposed MIP formulations and of our algorithmic approach.


identifier: Adhikari, Ram Sebak  (2014) Image-based Condition Assessment for Concrete Bridge Inspection.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Abstract
Image-based Condition Assessment for Concrete Bridge Inspection

Ram Sebak Adhikari, Ph.D.
Concordia University, 2014

The following approaches are usually taken for the condition assessment and performance evaluation of civil infrastructure: visual inspection, structural response measurement due to loads, and sensing based inspection of bridge structures. This thesis concentrates on the last alternative using remote sensing for condition assessment of concrete bridge structures. Focusing on defect quantification problems for condition assessment of bridge structures, remote sensing techniques based on digital images provides superior result over conventional visual inspection-based methods. The aim of this thesis is to develop digital image-based condition assessment tools and techniques, which can be integrated with existing bridge management systems (BMSs) in order to enhance the reliability of current inspection practices.

The methodology of this research divides the entire task of bridge inspection into two modules. The first module develops quantification models based on the extent and severity of defects, and the second module develops a change detection model defined as change in element condition state over times. For defect quantification, three fundamental concrete defects such as cracks, spalling, and scaling have been considered. To illustrate the proposed methodology, digital images are acquired from laboratory experiments during the testing of reinforced concrete beams in flexure, and from field visits of bridges in Montreal, Quebec using portable digital cameras. This research contributes in the development of crack quantification model based on the corresponding crack skeleton which takes consideration of crack tortuosity for retrieving of crack properties. The output of the crack quantification model is validated by capturing the crack properties using a crack scale. In addition, an automated model for estimating the condition rating and related computational algorithms for bridge inspection are developed using the guidelines of the Ontario Structure Inspection Manual. The developed algorithms for mapping of condition ratings are based on the supervised training of back propagation neural networks. Recognizing the importance of 3D visualization, which can mimic the on-site visual inspection, 3D visualization model is developed using ordinary digital images by manually projecting images on the 3D model of the bridge being inspected.

The second module proposes a novel approach for periodic detection of defects in concrete bridges based on a set of dimensionless metrics pertinent to spectral and fractal analyses of the captured images. The fractal analysis of digital images is described by fractal dimension (FD) using Box Counting algorithms. Similarly, the method of spectral analysis requires digital images to be translated from spatial domain to Fourier domain, and then finds one dimensional signatures to quantify change detection. The developed algorithm for change detection demonstrates superior results and eliminates the limitations of traditional approach of change detection based on image subtraction. The developed image-based models can either be applied as standalone condition assessment and rating applications or integrated with existing systems such as PONTIS ( a Bridge Management System in USA) in order to enhance the reliability of visual inspection.


identifier: Brabander, Rolf  (2014) Dysfluencies.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

title: Dysfluencies

abstract:
Abstract

	Irregularities in the flow of fluent speech, dysfluencies are breaks caused by a person’s stutter, extended or repeated syllables and other forms of non-fluent communication. These are most often discussed in the realm of speech pathology, when specialists of communicative disorders endeavour to treat people affected by them.

	Verbal articulation varies in nature, and some types are less fluent than others. It is this broad sense of the term “dysfluency” that the thesis explores: the scope of our patterns of communication is comprised not only of disorders or lack of them, but of subtleties and delivery. Fluency, perhaps, is not as simple as a lack of stutter, or a standardized verbalization. Grammatical and syntactical differences can also dramatically alter the sound of a sentence. These poems express the nuances and difficulties of communication between a patient and his speech therapist, and track the gradual disintegration of their conversation. As the voice of the stutterer becomes increasingly anxious and introspective, the poems begin to offer examples of the many types of miscommunications that occur in human interactions. By the second half of the thesis, the therapist/patient dynamic transforms into an exploration of the misspoken and the unsaid.

	From the formal language of speech therapy to the anxiety in a troubled relationship or a man talking to a deceased relative, these poems explore language and the dysfluency of speech, finding through both compression and sparseness the possibility of more fluent communication.


identifier: Hassanpour, Avid  (2014) Design and Synthesis of Small Molecules for Specific Targeting of Proteins by Non-Covalent Interactions.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is a small, enveloped virus with a positive stranded
RNA genome that encodes a polyprotein of approximately 3000 amino acids. HCV polyprotein requires two distinct proteases for viral replication, the NS2 and the NS3. HCV NS2/3 protease is a cysteine protease that features a highly unusual active site where NS2 forms a dimer with the active site cysteine on one monomer and histidine and glutamate on the other. Initial in vitro studies for identification of site-derived cleavage products as inhibitors of NS2 protease showed that the decapeptide from the N-terminal cleavage inhibits the cleavage between NS2 and NS3 with an IC50 of 90 �M thus providing a useful starting point for the development of other inhibitors in the current studies. Our approach involves the synthesis of truncated NS2 site-derived
peptide cleavage products in order to evaluate the importance of hydrogen bonding interactions that are essential for host recognition and to aid in the reduction of the size of the polypeptide chain. Therefore, a number of truncated peptides were synthesized through solid-phase peptide synthesis. Furthermore, immunoblotting and UPLC-MS/MS methods were used for characterization of the NS2/3 protease and quantification of the peptide inhibitors. Our results demonstrate that a hexapeptide has encouraging potency towards inactivation of the NS2/3 auto-cleavage process.
The second project involves synthesis of islet amyloid polypeptide (IAPP) helical mimetics. Misfolding and aggregation of islet amyloid fibrils lead to the conversion of their secondary structure into cytotoxic �-sheet aggregates. Deposition of islet amyloid fibrils is related to the development and progression of type II diabetes, since their aggregation causes the impairment and death of the pancreatic beta cells. In order to prevent the formation of amyloid fibrils, we have designed aryl-substituted heteroaromatic core scaffolds to direct the secondary structure of pro-amyloidogenic peptides into non-amyloidogenic conformers to mimic and induce/stabilize the IAPP helical state. A range of 2,5-diarylated thiophenes were synthesized as small molecule mimetics of the �-helix to modulate the amyloidogenesis and cytotoxic effect of islet amyloid polypeptide. 3-Substituted thiophene-2-carboxylic acids were used as key intermediates and functionalized by palladium decarboxylative cross-coupling and direct CH activation successively with overall yields ranging from 23 to 95%. The effect of the ligands on IAPP amyloid fibril formation was evaluated with the thioflavin T (ThT) fluorescence-based assay. Furthermore, the capacity of these compounds to inhibit the cytotoxic effect of IAPP was assessed using �-pancreatic cells.


identifier: Neal, Rachael  (2014) An experimental investigation of contamination-related reassurance seeking: Familiar versus unfamiliar others.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
An experimental investigation of contamination-related reassurance seeking: Familiar versus unfamiliar others

Rachael L. Neal

	Excessive reassurance seeking (RS) in the context of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is heightened by ambiguous feedback (Parrish & Radomsky, 2011), and is theorized to be associated with a transfer of responsibility.  Research in related areas of psychopathology suggests that familiarity with a partner can influence the likelihood that symptoms will be expressed.  We hypothesized that participants (N = 90) in the company of a familiar (vs. unfamiliar) partner would seek more reassurance following an ambiguous dishwashing task, and that RS would be associated with changes in responsibility appraisals, such that RS would be associated with a decrease in ratings of personal responsibility and an increase in ratings of partner responsibility.  Results demonstrated that participants sought more reassurance from familiar (vs. unfamiliar) others (F(3, 86) = 9.20, p < .001, partial η2 = .24); this effect was robust when reported by the partner (F(1, 88) = 27.04, p < .001, partial η2 = .24), a trend when reported by the participant (F(1, 88) = 2.72, p = .10, partial η2 = .03), but not significant when using objectively-coded data (F(1, 88) = 0.14, p = .71, partial η2 = .00).  RS was not associated with responsibility decreases on the part of the reassurance seeker (F(1, 52) = 0.86, p = .36, partial η2 = .00) or increases for the reassurance provider (F(1, 52) = 0.03, p = .86, partial η2 = .00).  Overall, results suggest that RS may be perceived as more excessive by familiar others than by relative strangers, which may contribute to the distress experienced by carers of individuals with OCD.  Results are discussed in terms of cognitive formulations of and interventions for RS in OCD.


identifier: Binsalleeh, Hamad  (2014) Analysis of Malware and Domain Name System Traffic.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Malicious domains host Command and Control servers that are used to instruct infected machines to perpetuate malicious activities such as sending spam, stealing credentials, and launching denial of service attacks. Both static and dynamic analysis of malware as well as monitoring Domain Name System (DNS) traffic provide valuable insight into such malicious activities and help security experts detect and protect against many cyber attacks.

Advanced crimeware toolkits were responsible for many recent cyber attacks. In order to understand the inner workings of such toolkits, we present a detailed reverse engineering analysis of the Zeus crimeware toolkit to unveil its underlying architecture and enable its mitigation. Our analysis allows us to provide a breakdown for the structure of the Zeus botnet network messages.

In the second part of this work, we develop a framework for analyzing dynamic analysis reports of malware samples. This framework can be used to extract valuable cyber intelligence from the analyzed malware. The obtained intelligence helps reveal more insight into different cyber attacks and uncovers abused domains as well as malicious infrastructure networks. Based on this framework, we develop a severity ranking system for domain names. The system leverages the interaction between domain names and malware samples to extract indicators for malicious behaviors or abuse actions. The system utilizes these behavioral features on a daily basis to produce severity or abuse scores for domain names.

Since our system assigns maliciousness scores that describe the level of abuse for each analyzed domain name, it can be considered as a complementary component to existing (binary) reputation systems, which produce long lists with no priorities. We also developed a severity system for name servers based on passive DNS traffic. The system leverages the domain names that reside under the authority of name servers to extract indicators for malicious behaviors or abuse actions. It also utilizes these behavioral features on a daily basis to dynamically produce severity or abuse scores for name servers.

Finally, we present a system to characterize and detect the payload distribution channels within passive DNS traffic. Our system observes the DNS zone activities of access counts of each resource record type and determines payload distribution channels. Our experiments on near real-time passive DNS traffic demonstrate that our system can detect several resilient malicious payload distribution channels.