identifier: Bennett, Leanne  (1997) The origins of the peasant agitation in Oudh : the awakening of the peasants?  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: This thesis is an examination of the origins of peasant discontent and agitation in Oudh between 1917-22. The nature of the peasant cultivator situation under British rule, and the unofficial but pervasive system of exactions, both perennial and incidental, by the landlord are detailed. The origins and development of the Kisan Sabhas (peasant federations) demonstrate the peasants' ability to form groups independent of the aid of provincial or all-India figures or organizations. Two different groups of Kisan Sabhas developed in the United Provinces; one was led by political leaders from Allahabad and the other was organized by peasants. The second was originally based in Oudh and was chronologically earlier than that which developed in Allahabad. These two groups were eventually brought together and into the Indian National Congress' fold. Having examined the issues which led to peasant discontent, the organization of peasants into Kisan Sabhas and the role played by the Indian National Congress in relation to the peasants' cause, I argue that contrary to popular belief the beginnings of peasant agitation in Oudh were independent of the Indian National Congress.


identifier: Dahlke, Kevin  (1997) A safer and more civilized country : gun control, public health, and the state monopoly on force.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

type: Thesis NonPeerReviewed

abstract: The study looks at some cultural, political, and historical aspects of the idea that gun ownership is a "public health problem". The strategy is to reinterpret modern public health in terms of its relationship to the modern State. Public health is located in a milieu of beliefs and values associated with discourses on "civilization" and the "social contract". The latter generated beliefs that individuals are dangerous, in order to legitimate the State monopoly on force; this idea is the basis of public health, which seeks to direct unlimited State power to control danger. The contemporary public health discourse on gun control is examined; beneath ultra-technocratic pretensions lie myths of "the natural state". "Injury prevention" casts all citizens as driven by "impulses", which can only be contained by strict gun control; this view is shaped by the discourse of the "social contract". Gun control proposals reflect cultural beliefs about the need to "civilize" individuals by subordinating them to the State. This shows the ideological roots of technocratic efforts at improving "safety"; gun control is a priority because of the importance attached to State monopolized force in the ideology of "civilization".


identifier: Daignault, Julie  (1998) The design, development and formative evaluation of a multimedia-based pediatric patient education package : The BMT voyage : all you need to know about your bone marrow transplant.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: The design, development and formative evaluation of a multimedia-based pediatric patient education package is described. The CD-ROM informs children about the bone marrow transplant process (presents declarative information) and helps to reduce pediatric patient and family stress and anxiety (attitude change) through the delivery of interactive multimedia instruction for self-paced instruction. A script covering the subject-matter and written in a question and answer format was produced. A storyboard depicting the overall concept as well as the navigational features of the application was produced. The results of these evaluation efforts were implemented in the subsequent development of the application. Results of all the evaluation efforts are also presented. Overall, appeal to children, use of animation and appropriate presentation of information for children are the main strengths of the CD-ROM. Lack of interactivity and sophistication in animation are considered to be the main weaknesses. Evaluative comments and suggestions for the further design and development of the CD-ROM, as well as suggestions for further research, are discussed.


identifier: Dénommée, Pierre  (1998) A case study in documenting and developing frameworks.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: A framework is a collection of abstract classes that provides an infrastructure common to a family of applications. The design of the framework fixes certain roles and responsibilities amongst the classes, as well as standard protocols for their collaboration. The variability within the family of applications is factored into so-called "hotspots", and the framework provides simple mechanisms to customize each hotspot. Customizing is typically done by subclassing an existing class of the framework and overriding a small number of methods. Sometimes, however, the framework insists that the customization preserves a protocol of collaboration between several subclasses, so customization requires the parallel development of these subclasses and certain of their methods.  A framework exists to support the development of a family of applications. Typically a framework is developed by expert designers who have a deep knowledge of the application domain and long experience of software design. On the other hand, a typical application developer who reuses the framework is less experienced and less knowledgeable of the domain. However, a framework is not an easy thing to understand when one first uses it: the design is very abstract, to factor out commonality; the design is incomplete, requiring additional subclasses to create an application; the design provides flexibility for several hotspots, not all of which are needed in the application at hand; and the collaborations and the resulting dependencies between classes can be indirect and obscure.  The large learning curve faced by the first-time user of a framework is a serious impediment to successfully reaping the benefits of reuse. How can an organization address this problem?  This thesis presents a simple game framework, called S scUB, as a case study for the documentation of frameworks and for the development of frameworks in C++.


identifier: Douglas, Susan  (1998) Contingencies : visualizing tensions between contemporary critical theory and Canadian art practice.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: This thesis represents a practical exposition of some of the most urgent debates in contemporary art history. Focussing on deconstruction, formalism, and cultural theory as critical methodologies within the theory of art, it examines a range of cultural expressions and contemporary currents of thought relative to the problem of vision and visuality. As a terrain of enquiry whose key words emerge in this account as representation, reception, and identity politics, vision and visuality (here called visualism) in the literature refers to four things: a critical standpoint, a rejection or retreat from authority, a symbol or iconology, visibility as alterity. Thus from the perspective of new enquiries visualism emerges as a key category of postmodern analysis. As a discourse, it shapes the contingencies that, in this assessment would productively reformulate the relationship of theory with current visual art practices.  The problem of the visual is at the same time the problem of a split between art and cultural theory, also between art production and the theory of art. Hence it can be productively reformulated as a model for performing or negotiating a form of disruptive linkage; this is what brings this study to a critical sense of the potentialities of thinking beyond postmodern representation as a strategic counterproduction. The work, then, articulates several implicated connections. For example, the linguistic and graphic elements at work in the interpretation of visual texts; the materiality of art-objects and the situatedness of experience that co-determine artistic production and the reception of meaning; a sense of process that renders theory as contingency, i.e. as indeterminate, mythical, and continually in flux. The work advances by thinking the conjunctions between individual art theorists (Jacques Derrida, Michael Fried, and Svetlana Alpers) and representative Canadian artists: Geneviève Cadieux, Attila Richard Lukacs, and Robert Houle. Since this dissertation expresses a series of possibilities beyond conventional aesthetic and discursive reductions, a process, a theory, and a method, its best description is as a conduit for new alignments, meanings, conditions, and effects


identifier: Dubé, Stéphane Philippe  (1997) Visual bases for the perception of facial expressions : a look at some dynamic aspects.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: This series of experiments was designed to investigate ecological sequences of dynamic facial expressions. Several manipulations were performed to examine the visual system's sensitivity to dynamic in comparison to static facial expression displays. Experiment 1 investigated subjects' sensitivity to changes in the duration of a neutral expression embedded in a dynamic sequence. The sequences depicted a change in emotion from sadness to happiness (or vice versa). Both forward and backward presentation were utilized. The results showed sensitivity to subtle information associated with the presentation direction of a facial expression sequence. This proved to be independent of the type of presentation used, either real or induced. Experiment 2 was designed to screen for any possible artifacts (expressive noise) in the sequences and to establish a threshold of discriminability. The discriminability of the emotional expressions was found to be acute and judgment accuracy was approximately 100%. Nevertheless, this manipulation turned out to be sensitive to expressive noise present in the sequences suggesting that a sequence segment may, therefore, not accurately reflect the targeted emotion. Experiment 3 examined whether temporal parameters influence the perception of emotional expression. The results indicated that emotional intensity and realness judgments were only marginally affected by the speed variations. Experiment 4 compared the amount of information necessary for correctly identifying facial expressions presented either statically or dynamically. The results showed a none significant advantage of dynamic sequences over static ones only for short sequences. This suggests that after a certain amount of information is presented no further benefit is gained. The advantage of dynamic expressions may be due to the contextual information preceding the required judgment Experiment 5 explored this hypothesis via a priming paradigm. The static primes affected the ambiguous test which was judged opposite to them. Dynamic primes showed no effect. Taken together these findings caution the use of static material in postulating underlying perceptual mechanisms associated with emotional facial. This series of experiments supports the ecological perspective by showing that dynamic facial expressions contain relevant veridical contextual information which, as opposed to static facial expressions, is relatively immune to non veridical contextual influence.


identifier: El-Rayes, Khaled A  (1997) Optimized scheduling for repetitive construction projects.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: An object-oriented model is presented for optimized scheduling of repetitive construction projects such as: high-rise buildings, housing projects, highways, pipeline networks, bridges and tunnels. The model provides a number of practical features, and incorporates newly developed algorithms for scheduling of repetitive construction projects including: (1) a resource-driven scheduling algorithm for repetitive activities; (2) an interruption algorithm; and (3) an optimization procedure. The scheduling algorithm identifies the scheduled start and finish times as well as the assigned crew for each unit of a repetitive activity. The algorithm provides a schedule that complies with precedence relationships, crew availability and crew work continuity constraints, and considers the impact of a number of practical factors commonly encountered during scheduling. The interruption algorithm generates feasible interruption vectors for each repetitive activity in the project and provides added advantage over available formulations that consider arbitrary user-specified interruption vectors. The optimization procedure is based on a dynamic programming formulation. Unlike available dynamic programming formulations, the present formulation is capable of incorporating cost in the optimization process, thus offering valuable support to project team members in minimizing the overall cost of the project.  For each repetitive activity in the project, the present model assists the planner in selecting the optimum crew formation and interruption vector from a set of possible alternatives. As such, the model can be used to evaluate the impact of different project acceleration strategies (i.e. multiple crews, increased crew size, overtime policies, or additional shifts) on the overall cost. The present model is implemented as a prototype software system. The system is developed as a 32-bit windows application that supports user-friendly interface including menus, dialog boxes, and windows. A number of application examples are analyzed to illustrate the use of the model and demonstrate its capabilities. The model can be used as a decision support system for generating optimized schedules for repetitive construction projects. This should contribute to cost-effective delivery of constructed projects.


identifier: Emmerson, Shannon  (1997) Negotiating the boundaries of gender : construction and representation of women in the work of Michael Ondaatje.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: This study is a theoretical and text-based exploration of Michael Ondaatje's construction and representation of female characters in four fictional works: The Collected Works of Billy the Kid, Coming Through Slaughter, In the Skin of a Lion, and The English Patient. The primary focus is on the demarcating lines or 'boundaries' drawn between male and female characters, which results in the self-consciously incomplete portrayal of the female, in all of these texts. Issues to be addressed include the gendered identification of the author with male, rather than female characters, the difficulties of representing female characters within a masculine discourse, and Ondaatje's chronologically increasing awareness of gender issues within his texts.


identifier: Fan, Rong  (1998) Recognition of dates handwritten on cheques.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: In this thesis, an automatic system for processing date information handwritten on bank cheques is described. This system is composed of date image segmentation, handwritten digit recognition, and cursive word recognition. The proposed method does not impose any restriction or require any a priori information on the date written, and is able to handle both English and French cheques. With appropriate modification, this method can be extended to recognize date in other application environments.  Much effort has been dedicated to the design and implementation of date image segmentation. Two groups of features, shape features and spatial features, are developed and utilized to locate possible cutting positions on date$\sb{-}$zone images. In addition, a set of heuristic rules are proposed to complete the segmentation of this image, identify the three fields (Day, Month and Year), and also determine the writing style of Month in order to apply the appropriate recognizer (i.e. digit or cursive word) to process the Month field.  Both segmentation and date recognition systems were tested on two different databases, i.e. (a) the CENPARMI database, and (b) data collected from a utility company.  The results obtained prove the efficiency and feasibility of the proposed date recognition system. Areas which require further development are also specified.  An image tagging tool has been developed for this research. In addition to its user-friendly environment and simple operation, it also provides powerful functionality in recording contextual information. This makes it possible and convenient to extract data such as words, digits, characters, punctuations, etc. A lot of useful statistics can also be gathered from the tagged information


identifier: Fedortchenko, Alexei A  (1997) Stabilization of transition states of organic reactions by cyclodextrins, micelles, and dendrimers.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Micelles of cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) catalyze the basic cleavage of p-nitrophenyl alkanoates, whereas micelles of sodium dodecyl sulphate (SDS) inhibit this reaction. The strength of binding of the esters to both CTAB and SDS shows the same linear dependence and sensitivity to the acyl chain length, but the catalysis by CTAB and the inhibition by SDS do not depend on this parameter.  Micelles of SDS catalyze the hydrolysis of aromatic acetals and orthoesters in the acidic solution. There is no sharp linear correlation between the substrate and the transition state binding for different acetals and orthoesters, which reflects the importance of both nature of the substituent, and its location in the molecule of the substrate.  Amino- and carboxylate-terminated dendrimers modestly catalyze the basic cleavage of p-nitrophenyl alkanoates. Both substrate and transition state binding are independent on the ester acyl chain length, but were found to be a function of the dendrimer generation number. Carboxylate-terminated dendrimers catalyze the hydrolysis of aromatic acetals and orthoesters in the acidic solution. The observed dependence of the substrate and the transition state binding on the nature of the substituent supported the previously made suggestion that the interior of PAMAM dendrimers possesses hydrophilic character.  The hydrolysis of aromatic acetals and orthoesters is retarded by cyclodextrins. The magnitude of the effect depends on the size of cyclodextrin cavity. The observed rate retardation is attributed to the unfavourable transition state binding to cyclodextrins, and possible retardation of diffusional separation of carboxonium ion and the newly formed alcohol molecule.


identifier: Frances, Melanie  (1998) Independence and other poems.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

title: Independence and other poems

abstract: This collection of poems in free verse is an exploration of all the different meanings of the word "independence". In the description of singular events, people and places and in a deliberate rootedness in concrete things, the poems also try to capture complicated states of being and to illustrate questions relating to various aspects of freedom: how can one be free from the memory of the past, from discontinuity, from loss? What do places represent in our lives? How do we belong or not belong to a place? What is exile? What is home? How are happiness and unhappiness contingent on these attachments? To what degree do fate, chance and environment account for who we are, and to what extent do we create ourselves?  Above all, in the unravelling of these questions, these poems reaffirm the awe and astonishment that lie at the heart of our perception of the world


identifier: Fu, Taiqi  (1998) Studies on memory consistency and synchronization : failure detection in parallel programs.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: We have studied two related issues in the design, execution and debugging of shared memory parallel programs: memory consistency and techniques to detect synchronization failure in parallel programs.  Overlapping execution of operations from a thread is an efficient way to effectively tolerate memory latency in shared memory multiprocessor systems. for a programmer to reason about his program, a sequentially consistent machine with full generality must execute memory operations sequentially in program order, leading to poor performance. We propose Link Consistency which still preserves Sequential Consistency for parallel programs that contain no data race or synchronization failure while permitting out of (program) order execution of operations. By classifying synchronization operations according to whether they satisfy some distinct conditions ( Exclusive Producer and Exclusive Consumer ), Link Consistency allows richer relaxation of program orders than some previous work such as Release Consistency. Compared to other work that also tries to improve upon Release Consistency such as PLpc, Link Consistency is conceptually clearer for programmer, and possesses a rigorous basis for reasoning.  We also address the following Synchronization Failure detection problem: Given a trace set from a complete (i.e. successful ) execution, whether there exists another execution that can be derived from the same trace set and is incomplete. The answer to the problem is useful in debugging parallel programs. After showing that the problem is NP-complete, we present some techniques to tackle the problem in practice. These include Trace Reduction, Local Failure Validation, and Partial Order Checking. Trace Reduction may reduce the size of a trace set up to a small fraction of its original size while still preserving its failure property. Local Failure Validation explores a heuristic that is based on individual semaphores rather than all semaphores together. Compared to detecting strategies based on interleaving semantics, Partial Order Checking completely avoids the state explosion problem caused by the large amount of concurrence in trace sets. Our experimental result shows that for many trace sets with synchronization failures, the above techniques solve the detection problem in time linear to the trace set sizes, which are measured by N n , the number of events or by N s x N t , the product of the number of semaphores by the number of program threads, in a trace set.


identifier: Kamthan, Pankaj K  (1997) Dynamical systems education on the WWW.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

title: Dynamical systems education on the WWW

abstract: The study of dynamical systems is significant in mathematics education. The medium of the Internet and the World-Wide Web (WWW) opens new avenues in dynamical systems education.  The following aspects of the WWW technology pertaining to dynamical systems education are studied: representation of mathematical documentation; issues in design and development of computer programs for carrying out client- and server-side computations; use of multimedia, in particular computer-graphics, animation and sound; significance of locally accessible databases and search strategies; use of interactive and noninteractive communication tools; development of tools for assessment. Usability, advantages and limitations of the tools and techniques involved are pointed out. Applications to teaching dynamical systems topics in traditional areas of mathematics, and to teaching the specific topic of iteration of functions and fixed points in a real-environment of classroom are discussed.


identifier: Kidd, Catherine  (1998) Bestial rooms : a work of prose fiction.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

title: Bestial rooms : a work of prose fiction

abstract: This work of prose fiction traces the recollections of a young narrator as she attempts to piece together her own past through stories and letters written to her infant daughter. Particular emphasis is placed on the way the narrator's faltering memory figures and disfigures her sense of physical identity and gender, and also on issues surrounding the subjectification and objectification of desire. Focus is also placed on the narrator's consciousness of her written medium and the degree to which it supplants experience with an artificial facsimile; the narrator's inability to locate a consistent point-of-view in the vanishing world of her childhood points to the impossibility of constructing a reliable chronicle of the past. But unlike devices of mystery and suspense employed in fiction, the sense of mystery resulting from an incomplete memory does not necessarily point toward singular revelation. Instead, the narrator recalls the elaborate mythologies which she had created in childhood to explain those aspects of her family history which had been left unspoken or kept hidden. Her memory begins to resemble a series of rooms which the adult constructs in order to retain and restrain the mythical beast of childhood, an obscure creature which seems to vanish whenever it is looked at directly. Although the narrator's past remains obscured in shadow, its negative shape begins to emerge as her stories describe the peripheral environment surrounding her family's central inability to see, hear, or speak to one another.


identifier: Kisil, Gerry  (1997) Technologies of abundance : consumer culture, government and the media arts.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Arts funding provides one of the clearest examples available of the cybernetic metaphor, that is, the role of cultural policy in hierarchically ranking cultural forms and their publics. Justification for the hierarchical control of the cybernetic apparatus in the national cultural interest takes on a rhetorical form because it is, in essence, an ideological argument, reflecting the dominant social beliefs and interests which underpin political action. The objective of arts funding policy is cultural survival in global capitalism through government subsidy and top-down prescription of appropriate social practices. This emphasis on the creative dimension offers not only images of what is, but also those of what might be--alternatives to the status quo.  The convergence of the home computer, television, and telephone lines as the nexus of a new social machinery--interactive media, on-line multimedia and their hybrids promises new cultural territories for consumer capitalism. The new contexts, technological, commercial, and telesocial, require a reconsideration of methodologies of cultural production and conventions of consumption. The new forms of production and consumption will inevitably generate new cultural institutions. With these potential realities in mind it would seem appropriate to anticipate what kind of art we are going to make in these new social spaces, what kind of audience we will have, and what kind of interaction will occur-- ultimately, to consider what art will become in this context. The era of on-line digital interactivity and virtual communities will evolve a genre that may be unrecognizable in a traditional sense.


identifier: Kovitz, Marcia  (1998) Mining masculinities in the Canadian military.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Gender is a contested category of analysis, generally understood to describe the characteristics and practices of its end products, men and women. Alternatively, this interdisciplinary study of changing masculinity in the Canadian Forces conceptualizes gender as characterizing the social worlds that people inhabit, worlds through which they are constructed and reconstructed as gendered beings, and which they negotiate, change or resist. The military has been selected as the investigative terrain because military technology--a social system comprising human and material resources--has been under-researched as a matrix of gender in the West.  The conceptual framework for this study draws on linkages between gender constructs and warfare practices in various small-scale societies, and on comparisons between the organization and practice of warfare in pre-state versus archaic state societies. The result of this comparative framework is the problematization of certain structural features of the contemporary Forces, features which address one of it core preoccupations: engendering and sustaining bellicosity in its combatants, and obviating their resistance. These technologically rationalized features, shown to be historically anomalous, are designed to control how soldiers think about and carry out their deadly work.  The study employs a triangulated methodology to gather data from interviews, written texts, and participant observation. Narrative analysis of this data affords a gendered mapping of military social practice and thought, culminating in the military gendering of human lives and deaths. Women, in their multiple feminine incarnations, are revealed for the threats which they pose to the Forces' 'operational effectiveness'--constructed as homogeneously masculine. Herein lie the ideological and practical reasons why 'gender integration' in the Forces--ordered in a 1989 Canadian Human Rights Tribunal ruling--may be an oxymoron, and why women more readily resist military authoritarianism than men.


identifier: Lakshmanan, Nagarajan  (1997) Molecular characterization and transcriptional regulation of GCV3, the Saccharomyces cerevisiae gene encoding the H-protein of the glycine cleavage system.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: YAL044 , a gene on the left arm of Saccharomyces cerevisiae chromosome one, is shown to code for the H-protein subunit of the multienzyme glycine cleavage system. The gene designation has therefore been changed from YAL044 to GCV3 to reflect its role in the glycine cleavage system. GCV3 encodes a 177 amino acid residue protein with a putative mitochondrial targeting sequence at its amino terminus. Targeted gene replacement shows that GCV3 is not essential for growth on minimal media. It is, however, essential for growth when glycine serves as the sole nitrogen source. Studies of GCV3 expression revealed that it is highly regulated. Supplement with glycine, the glycine cleavage system's substrate, induced expression at least 30-fold. In contrast, addition of the C1-metabolic end products repressed expression about 10-fold.  The regulation of glycine cleavage system activity reflects the availability of glycine and the cellular demand for its metabolic products. In addition the glycine cleavage system has been shown to be important for the growth and viability of organisms ranging from microorganisms such as E. coli and S. cerevisiae to humans. Although, this system is important and its activity highly regulated little was known about the transcriptional regulatory mechanisms that control its activity.  To address this I have examined the transcriptional regulation of the S. cerevisiae GCV3 gene. The results presented here show that at least six different transcriptional activators control GCV3 expression. These include: an as yet unidentified activator that is partially responsible for its induction by glycine; Gcn4p the transcriptional activator that mediates general amino acid control; Gln3p which is involved in the activation of nitrogen regulated genes; Gcr1p, a transcription factor important for the expression of glycolytic genes; Bas1p/Bas2p which cooperatively mediates the glycine-dependent expression; and an as yet unidentified factor that represses expression regardless of the growth condition. Additional evidence suggests that Rap1p, Nil1p, Acr1p, Ure2p, and Da180p also regulate GCV3 regulation.


identifier: Legault, Marie-Claude  (1998) James Merrill's use of performance imagery and AIDS in his last three collections.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: This thesis offers a particular analysis of the new concerns, structures and themes of James Merrill's last three collections: Late Settings (1985), The Inner Room (1988), and A Scattering of Salts. What I argue is that, prior to Late Settings, Merrill was concerned with static imagery and frozen formalism. With Late Settings, however, the static imagery gives way progressively to animated imagery--a move which also marks the poet's increasing concern with social issues. The Inner Room follows the poetical orientation undertaken in Late Settings in that performance and social change are represented more concretely through drag performativity and AIDS. In his last collection, A Scattering of Salts, Merrill refutes the social turn of his two previous collections. The poet's drag performance is used this time not to challenge society, but to express a desire to cut himself off from the world.


identifier: Loncke, Paul G  (1998) Hydrolytic cleavage of p-nitrophenyl esters of N-protected amino acids in the presence of cyclodextrins : transition state stabilization.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: The kinetics of cleavage of p-nitrophenyl esters of N-tert-butyloxycarbonyl amino acids (BOC-Esters) and N-benzyloxycarbonyl amino acids (CBZ-Esters) in basic solution containing $\alpha$-cyclodextrin, $\beta$-cyclodextrin, or $\gamma$-cyclodextrin, ($\alpha$-CD, $\beta$-CD, or $\gamma$-CD) were studied. Most of the cleavage reactions occur through conventional 1:1 (ester:CD) complexes. In some cases, a second cleavage process involving two CD molecules is evident. Also, an additional process involving the formation of non-productive 1:2 complexes is apparent in two cases.  In order to determine the dominant mode of binding for the esters in the 1:1 complexes, variations in the kinetic parameters with structure were examined, along with circular dichroism studies. Also, the extent to which the three stabilize the transition states of the normal ester cleavage reactions was estimated, and used to probe the structures of the transition state complexes.  Cleavage of the p-nitrophenyl esters of BOC-Asn, CBZ-Asn, BOC-Gln, and CBZ-Gln in basic aqueous solution involves intramolecular nucleophilic attack by ionized internal amide groups. In the presence of CDs, moderate rate enhancements were observed in most cases due to reaction within 1:1 complexes. However, cleavage of BOC-Asn and CBZ-Asn in the presence of $\beta$-CD is initially retarded due to the formation of very stable non-productive 1:1 complexes, and then enhanced due either to reaction between the non-productive 1:1 complexes and unbound CD molecules, or to reaction within weak productive 1:2 complexes.  Finally, modest enantioselectivity was observed for cleavage of pairs of p-nitrophenyl esters of N-protected amino acid enantiomers in the presence of CDs. Similar results were seen for cleavage of a pair of N-hydroxysuccinimide esters of BOC-Pro enantiomers. The selectivity observed was shown to be almost entirely due to stronger transition state binding of the L-ester


identifier: Mahanta, Girish  (1997) Video transmission over constrained bandwidth channels.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Multimedia applications are often considered adaptive in the sense that their behaviour can be adapted to the available resources. One way to achieve this is through a selective dropping of media frames. Different media types have different tolerance to loss, for example, humans are more sensitive to loss of continuity in audio as compared to video. It is, therefore, attractive to develop best effort services targeted for a particular media type (e.g., video). Such a service should provide graceful performance degradation as resources become scarce by exploiting the particular characteristics of the media type.  In this thesis, we consider providing a best effort service targeted for video transmission, by multiplexing multiple video streams over a reserved bandwidth network channel. The emerging services architecture in ATM networks as well as the Internet provide the capability to reserve resources such as bandwidth, and to use them to provide higher level services. We use simulation to consider the effect of different scheduling and buffer management policies on the performance when the bandwidth is scarce and losses are inevitable. By using effective frame rate as a performance measure, we show that FIFO scheduling is unable to ensure fairness in terms of equitable performance degradation of the multiplexed streams. Our simulations reveal that explicit bandwidth allocation is required, and that this bandwidth allocation must be (1) targeted to ensure that the performance of each of the multiplexed streams degrades equitably, and (2) must be dynamically changed to take advantage of the time varying characteristics of video data


identifier: Martin, Grant S  (1998) Making sense of religion and religions : the value and limitation of religious unity in diversity.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Exclusivism, inclusivism, and pluralism have become common terms for sorting out different responses to religious diversity that have appeared within the Christian tradition. In this study, I argue that each of these responses is a different form of what could be called "unity in diversity." Religious unity in diversity understands every different religious form as a variant of one religious form. The different responses to religious diversity make sense when it is understood that they derive from different ideas about what the unifying religious form is. The connection between the conception of unity and the resultant perception of diversity is so strong that we can go so far as to say that exclusivism, inclusivism, and pluralism are all rooted in a particular conception of what religion is. And to repeat, it is these ideas about what religion is that precipitate different ideas about what all religions are. At the heart of this study are five case studies of different attempts, within the Christian tradition, to make sense of religious diversity; the conclusions above are derived from these case studies. Although every form of unity in diversity reduces all forms to one, no form of unity in diversity should be rejected if it works, and this can be determined by applying it. The only situation that no form of religious unity in diversity can handle is one in which there truly are different forms of religion. This situation, if it exists, shows the limitation of every possible form of religious unity in diversity.


identifier: Miller, Doug  (1998) Women, development and social change : the women of rural Malawi : a case study.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: This study explores the contradictions which arise between global market driven development and the lived reality of Malawi's rural women with respect to the critical elements of peasant life which are usually defined as land, labour and social regime. Policy makers and planners design programmes and projects to integrate the peasantry into the free market economy which emphasizes productivity, technology and cash returns. On the other hand, peasant farmers, particularly women, with their primordial responsibility for domestic reproduction, are faced with the need to feed their families and provide social supports not available through the market system. Poor women have little or no influence over the impact of the application of administrative policies which produce strain on the subsistence system, with which the population must cope by calling on the social regime which sustains them, albeit inadequately in the face of a restructured economy.


identifier: Milovan, Denise L  (1998) Generation of mismatch negativity in a sample of treatment-resistant schizophrenia patients.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Mismatch negativity (MMN) was recorded in thirteen treatment-resistant schizophrenic patients and age- and gender-matched fourteen healthy controls. The MMN was obtained by subtracting the standard from the deviant event-related potential (ERP) brain wave. Subjects responded to infrequent visual stimulation while ignoring binaurally presented auditory input. The patient population showed a larger frequency-MMN amplitude than the normal controls. Separate analyses of the standard and deviant waveforms revealed the expected reduction in the amplitude of the MMN from frontal to central and parietal locations in the control group. In contrast, treatment-resistant patients had the largest MMN amplitudes recorded at the central-posterior electrode location. Although no cerebral lateralization was noted, the patient group displayed larger negativities at the left and right temporal sites, and at the left frontal scalp location than the normal subjects. Behavioral and ERP measures of performance to task-relevant stimuli yielded no group differences for reaction time, or P300 amplitude. The percentage of correct responses was excellent for all subjects, but controls were more accurate.


identifier: Mullick, Nancy S  (1998) The transfer of the Northern Affairs (NA) and Indian and Northern Affairs of Canada (INAC) collections of Inuit art, 1985-1992.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Between 1954 and 1984, the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development amassed two collections of Inuit art, the Northern Affairs (NA) collection and the Indian and Northern Affairs of Canada (INAC) collection. Combined, they embodied 4,999 works. In 1985, the Department initiated the deaccessioning and disposal of these two collections of Inuit-made arts and crafts in response to budget cuts and decentralization efforts.  During the "transfer years" from 1985 to 1992, the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development successfully negotiated with five Canadian institutions the distribution of these artworks. Ultimately the NA and INAC collections were divided into five allotments, which were bequeathed to the National Gallery of Canada, the Canadian Museum of Civilization, the Winnipeg Art Gallery, the Inuit Cultural Institute, Rankin Inlet, and the Avataq Cultural Institute, Inukjuak.  Drawing on archival material supported by personal accounts of selected people involved with the transfer and negotiations, the intent of this thesis is to give a brief history of the Northern Affairs collection and Indian and Northern Affairs of Canada collection and to reconstruct the negotiations during the transfer years (1985-1992). Significant attention will be paid to each set of talks between the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development and the two Northern cultural institutions, the Inuit Cultural Institute (1988-1990) and the Avataq Cultural Institute (1990-1992) as repatriation and museological conservation standards, respectively, became important issues.


identifier: Narayanan, Vasumathi K  (1997) A state-oriented, partial-order model and logic for distributed systems verification.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: A theory of state-oriented, partially-ordered model named, Communicating Minimal prefix machines (CMpms) that represent a fixed set of processes, is presented. Each of these Mpms is a possibly infinite, State Transition System . Communication among a set of Mpms is by synchronization. Enriched by a global, causal dependency relation among the Mpm-states that is partial , the disjoint union of CMpms comprise a sum machine . It is shown that the set of all global states of the product machine of CMpms is obtainable dynamically from the local Mpm-states of the sum machine using the monotonicity property, linking the product machine's global states and the sum machine's local ones. In this sense, the product-machine is generated virtually , simulated by the sum-machine.  More interestingly, it is shown that from every given set of Communicating Finite state machines (CFsms), a truncated (finite) version of a set of CMpms and so a sum machine can be generated in a recursive functional manner. The set of global states of the product machine of CMpms surjectively map onto that of CFsms. Consequently, it is possible to generate all the global states of the latter using the local states of the sum machine composed by a corresponding set of CMpms. The sum machine models true causality and hence true sequence, true concurrency and true choice among local states, as exhibited by the original input CFsms specification without enumerating all the runs of the system nor all the nondeterministic interleavings of each run as opposed to the product machine .  A Spatial, temporal logic or space-time logic named CML (Computational Mpms Logic), is proposed that combines the conventional branching time feature with what is proposed as branching space feature: the latter corresponds to concurrency just as the former to conflicts , as exhibited by the input specification. CML therefore introduces operators to reason about properties of interleavings within each run, orthogonal to the branching time operators, to reason about runs . The logic turns out to be more expressive than the ones in vogue for specifying properties of concurrent systems. In addition, CML coupled with the sum machine model, enables the implementation of a deterministic model checker algorithm to verify the properties of a given CFsm system that is free of exponential complexity caused by the enumeration of runs as well as that of all interleavings within each run.


identifier: Papadakis, Vasilis  (1998) Error detection and error concealment for MPEG2 over communication networks.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Video will be an important application for communication networks. During transmission errors may occur. For compressed video, that means degradation of the picture quality. Different error control strategies have been proposed to compensate for the problem of transmission errors. In this work we concentrate on combining Error Detection together with Error Concealment. Two schemes based on that strategy were tested. The first uses redundancies which are still present in the compressed video signal. The second one relies on the redundancies that the syntax of compressed bitstream provides. The performance of those two schemes were compared against a general error correcting scheme.


identifier: Paulson, Aaron  (1998) Rabbit stew.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

title: Rabbit stew

abstract: Rabbit Stew is a collection of short stories about the characters of Rabbit and Baby Judy and their friends. The stories are set in a post-punk, near-future world parallel to our own. Human society is dystopian. The natural setting has all the force and presence of an, at best, amoral character.  The style of the stories, the present tense narration, the shifts in points of view, and the tone of the descriptive writing reflect the impatience, the anger, and the often melodramatic nature of these characters struggling into some form of adulthood in a hostile environment


identifier: Pidduck, Julianne  (1997) Intimate places and flights of fancy : gender, space, and movement in contemporary costume drama.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: If social theory and common wisdom might posit a gendered binary between the feminine principle of stasis and a masculine principle of dynamism, contemporary costume drama presents a delightfully complex and nuanced feminist philosophical dilemma. In this dissertation, I explore the tension within this genre between the intimacy of perfect interiors and precise, nuanced dialogue--and its offer of a fanciful escape into romantic and exotic costumes, landscapes, situations. My fascination with the gendered implications of these comfortable and confined interiors ("intimate places"), contrasted with dynamic journeys into the past ("flights of fancy") frames this cycle of film and televisual texts through the problematic of space and movement. A popular and formally interesting case study, costume drama charts nineteenth-century historical spaces embedded with gender, class, and colonial relations of power. As such, this corpus offers a rich site to work through these complex interrelated axes of power through the audio-visual blocking of space and movement. In advancing this approach as an alternative to the psychoanalytic framework dominant within feminist film theory, I develop an original "topographical" approach to the analysis of audio-visual texts. Figured through a close reading of textual space and movement, this dissertation advances a detailed critical reading of this significant cultural phenomenon--and proposes innovative epistemological and methodological avenues for the study of audio-visual texts.


identifier: Ravi, Mathi  (1998) Knowledge-based system approach to integrated design of multistorey office buildings at the preliminary stage.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: The work described in this thesis represents a significant original contribution in identifying, acquiring, synthesising and organising design knowledge related to tall buildings. Due to the non-formalised nature of preliminary design, no computer-based tools could be developed using common procedural programming methods. Preliminary design stage also has the maximum ability to positively impact the final cost of the building project. In the absence of computer-based tools and also due to resource and time constraints, the current preliminary design tasks are mostly restricted to exploring one or two design alternatives often proceeding with a less than efficient solution. Therefore a computer-based design tool that could be used by designers at the initial stages of a project to explore many design alternatives on a comparative basis could potentially lead to better and more economical designs than those produced without such a design tool. Preliminary design needs the consideration of all relevant parameters affecting the product designed. For multistorey buildings the architectural and structural design considerations are closely tied together and in this work an integration of the two is demonstrated. Architectural planning considerations for office buildings and feasible structural solutions are incorporated in a knowledge-base. A model for the design system is developed that incorporates the gathered design knowledge in declarative form which is then used to selectively generate and evaluate integrated building design solutions. Thus part of this work is the implementation of a knowledge-based system, Tall-D, using a development tool. Then, a methodology is devised for the testing of Tall-D under practical conditions. External industry experts are invited to furnish completed project designs and evaluate the corresponding designs performed by Tall-D by answering a comprehensive questionnaire. The result is a very favourable endorsement of the many facets of the current work as well as that of Tall-D system performance and features. The overall thrust of this work has been to research the area of preliminary design with a view to originating computer-based tools for this phase in engineering.


identifier: Saracino, Daniele Erik  (1997) Environmental/social cost-benefit analysis : the integration of sustainability : the cases of the Narmada Valley Project and the Three Gorges Dam.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: In this thesis I provide a brief summary of the diverse and opposing camps of environmental supporters and their criticism of conventional economic models of development. I also review the basic tenets of the environmental/social cost-benefit analysis which has had the most influence in the arena of developmentalism.  Despite the attraction of the model and its theoretical acceptability to international and often national development procedures, in practice, environmental/social cost-benefit analysis has had little influence, in part due to the lack of political and ideological commitment among most development policy makers and governments. The major problem, however, lies in the absence of a comprehensive and workable framework for environmental/social cost-benefit analysis.  Focusing on major mega-dam projects in two case studies, namely the Narmada Valley Project in India and the Three Gorges Project in China, I underline, in this thesis, the theoretical and conceptual problems with cost-benefit analysis and the comprehensive environmental, social and economic impacts of each project. Contemporary evaluations fail to address the complexities and interconnectedness of the ecology-economy cycle and underestimate actual projects costs. Based on the findings of these two case studies I suggest that the evaluation of development projects with an improved environmental/social cost-benefit analysis could be more effective at bringing about comprehensive sustainable economic as well as human development. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)


identifier: Sayedi, Sayed-Masoud  (1997) Experimental investigations of corona-discharge oxidation of silicon.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: As integrated-circuit device dimensions decrease, the importance of having new reliable processes for growing MOS gate oxides becomes more and more evident. Short process times and low process temperatures are desirable features in view of tight thermal budget constraints and the need for precise location of dopants. However, conventional thermal oxidation to grow high quality films usually requires relatively long oxidation times and relatively high temperature.  Previous research on negative point (anodic) corona-processed SiO 2 films has shown that the thermal budget incurred using the corona process is much lower than in standard thermal oxidation due to the greatly enhanced oxidation rate. Promising results of low-T corona-processed [Special characters omitted.] 100Å films have shown that the films had physical characteristics comparable to those obtained in thermal oxidation. This research extends the previous work: (a) thin oxides ([Special characters omitted.] 200Å) are processed in order to be potentially more relevant to modern MOS processes, and (b) a more thorough electrical characterization is initiated. Electrical tests show that oxide and interface charges are comparable to thermal oxides. Breakdown characteristics are promising. The boundary between the corona-processed and control regions is found to be severely compromised. Subsequent corona treatments which overlap such boundary regions are found to restore the quality of the oxide. Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) Spectroscopy results show that the negative corona films have a different structure from that of thermal oxide films. Electrical tests on positive point (cathodic) corona-processed SiO 2 films show that the electrical quality of the films is much worse than that of standard thermally grown films, grown at a similar temperature. In the interests of growing more-uniform negative-corona SiO 2 films on broader areas of silicon wafers, experiments using multi-point or multi-needle structures were conducted. The enhancement profiles of films grown in both positive and negative cases are simulated using linear-parabolic rate constants, modified to account for the corona current


identifier: Schafrick, Ronald  (1997) Meteors.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

title: Meteors

abstract: Meteors is a collection of five short stories, each of which illustrates a concern for those who are inarticulate and for that which goes unspoken in everyday speech, for the failure, in other words, of language to adequately communicate. The characters presented here either lack the words they need or are constrained from saying them; as a result, they live both in silence and powerlessness. The stories themselves, one might suggest, search for articulation, not only at the level of narrative, but also at the level of the text.


identifier: Spence, John Cochrane  (1997) Anabolic-androgenic steroids : a series of meta-analyses.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: The present study attempted to quantitatively summarize the psychological, physiological, and ergogenic effects of anabolic-androgenic steroids (AAS)s in healthy humans. Using the format of a meta-analysis, data from 127 studies and 35 outcomes was converted into 894 effect sizes and summarized across studies. In order to account for any significant variability within effect sizes, each finding was coded for 15 moderator variables. Unfortunately, due to a lack of adequate findings, no psychological outcome was included in the analysis.  As indicated by the magnitude of the average effect size, large negative treatment effects of AASs were observed for sperm concentration, testicle size, follicle-stimulating hormone, and luteinizing hormone. Moderate positive treatment effects were observed for lean body mass, thigh circumference, bench press, and squat; while moderate negative effects were found for Apo-AI, high-density lipoprotein, sex hormone binding-globulin, and albumin. Small positive treatment effects were observed for hemoglobin, hematocrit, body weight, biceps circumference, low-density lipoprotein, serum estrogen, and serum testosterone.  Significant heterogeneity among effect sizes for high-density lipoprotein (HDL), low-density lipoprotein (LDL), estrogen (E2), follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH), luteinizing hormone (LH), and testosterone (T) indicated that these findings were not reliable and that further analysis of moderator variables was required. In general, type of drug and route of administration were identified as being the two most important moderators of variability in the six heterogeneous outcomes. Specifically, testosterone and its esters produced higher serum levels of HDL, E2, and T and lower levels of LDL and LH than other synthetic steroids. Also, when compared with oral compounds, the use of parenterally-administered steroids resulted in higher serum levels of T and lower levels of FSH and LH.  Models incorporating indicators of study quality and subjects' experience with AASs along with treatment variables (i.e., drug, form, dose, and cycle length) sufficiently accounted for the heterogeneity in HDL, LDL, and FSH. However, excess heterogeneity in effect sizes prevents conclusions of any certainty being made about the relationship between AASs and E2, LH, or T


identifier: Wang, Jiangang  (1998) Building socialist broadcasting with Chinese characteristics : the substance and contradictions of China's broadcasting policy in the Reform Era (1978-1994).  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: The denouement of the democratic movement in Tiananmen Square in 1989 shocked the whole world. Complex social, political, economic reasons precipitated this tragedy. This thesis attempts to explore the tension between economic liberalization and political totalitarianism, and how it caused increasing contradictions in China's broadcasting system. 'Building socialist broadcasting with Chinese characteristics' was created as a creed of faith to stifle broadcasting reform. The content, the ideological and theoretical bases of this concept will be disclosed. By using the integrative model of media and culture, broadcasting reform from 1978-1994 will be analyzed within the context of political and economic integration as a whole. The critique is mainly based on the libertarian theory of the press. Much attention is paid to the influence and determination of political power on broadcasting policy making.  The main points of this thesis are as follows: The Chinese Communist Party's monopoly of and autocracy in broadcasting has become an obstacle to broadcasting reform; has been shaken by the tremendous economic decentralization, and should be replaced by libertarianism so as to meet the people's demand for information and to regain its credibility


identifier: Waters, Juliet  (1998) El Niño.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

title: El Niño

abstract: David Leavitt writes: "if the novel is the marriage, the novella is a prolonged infatuation, an extended holiday." Although Leavitt is discussing the relationship of the writer to his work, infatuations and extended holidays tend also to be the favourite subjects of the novella. El Nino, keeps with this tradition. Written from the perspective of Charlotte Winters it tells the story of her infatuation with her boyfriend, Green, and their road trip trough the South Western U.S. and Mexico. As they travel, their relationship disintegrates into a war of intimate terrorism and they become entangled in a psychodrama of projected hostility, envy and pity. The question that El Nino grapples with is "how is it that the love between men and women can seem like an increasingly scarce resource that needs to be fought over like land or language or money?" And is it?


identifier: Werbin, Kenneth C  (1998) The electronic learning community : a framework for design and development.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: How can community or organization anticipate, address and satisfy its ever-evolving learning and communication needs in a cost-effective manner? The argument is presented that learning and communication efficiencies can be achieved by employing a framework that fosters the active questioning and re-use of knowledge within communities and organizations. The author names this framework the Electronic Learning Community. In short, an Electronic Learning Community (ELC) is defined as a collaborative, on-line environment that allows individuals in an organization or community to learn, evolve, and interact as a holistic entity by dynamically leveraging extant and evolving knowledge and media assets ubiquitously in day to day activity. Using existing case studies as justification, the Electronic Learning Community is meant to be a unifying framework that ties issues of knowledge management to the implementation of tools and technologies for communication and learning. Additionally, the exploration of the ELC framework is meant to identify research agendas and evaluation questions.


identifier: Zachariah, John  (1997) Above all, shut up : a study of Lyotard's ethical genre.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: A common critical evaluation of Jean-Francois Lyotard's work is that it is concerned to find new ways of speaking, or of expression. This thesis argues that Lyotard's work, particularly Just Gaming and The Differend, is concerned with finding new ways to listen. Those motifs are considered that relate or contribute to Lyotard's elaboration, in The Differend, of the ethical genre of discourse, in which one is compelled to listen. A critique is offered of this genre as Lyotard presents it. Another genre, poetry, is suggested as more suited to the demands that Lyotard, following the work of Levinas, makes of an ethical genre. The relevance that such an ethical genre might have to media studies is discussed.


identifier: Bazzi, Rami  (1998) Board structure and market reaction to corporate divestiture decisions.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Recently, the topic of internal corporate governance has been the focus of many studies by scholars and practitioners. Specifically, researchers have studied the effects of board structure on shareholders' wealth in the context of different financial decisions, such as green mail, management buy-out, bankruptcy, and mergers and acquisitions. However, the differences in the internal governance of divestitures, usually undertaken to reverse a merger activity and increase the firm's focus on its core business, have not been empirically investigated.  This study examines the market reaction to divestiture decisions characterized by spin-offs and equity carve-outs. It further moves to analyze the determinants of such reaction by focusing on firm specific variables, as well as those characterized by the board structure of the divested firm. To our knowledge, this latter aspect of divestiture decisions has not been comprehensively analyzed in the literature.  The results show that only shareholders of spin-off firms realize significant abnormal returns at the announcement date. There is some support for the hypothesis that states that carve-out firms have higher needs for external financing. The belief that carve-out firms have better access to capital markets is not empirically supported. Also, market reactions to divestitures, which are characterized by smaller boards, are found positive and larger, supporting the efficiency argument of the firm's internal governance. Moreover, a higher voting control by outside directors was positively related to the abnormal returns of the divestiture sample. Spin-off firms with higher dividends realize lower returns at the announcement of a divestiture. Outside board directorships are associated with positive abnormal returns for spin-off firms. In addition, CEO-chairman duality decreases shareholders' wealth in spin-off firms.


identifier: Bouffard, Marc  (1998) A commercially viable computer security implementation framework.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Commercial computer security concerns have grown in importance with the continued rise of computer literacy among the general populace. Despite this, the education of management information system professionals in the application of computer security techniques has been largely ignored. This study groups a comprehensive list of security methods using Leonard Fine's Total Computer Security Concept and Security Policy, which divides security concerns into 9 categories: security policy, organization, physical and fire, personnel practices, insurance, systems security, application security, standards and the audit role. Due to the vast scope of the framework, only one of Fine's categories was validated: systems security. To allow computer security issues to be addressed in a timely manner, the implementation schedule of each method has been addressed in terms of a 4 phase Systems Development Life Cycle. Finally, to address commercial security concerns, a third dimension of cost/effectiveness was added for each method under consideration. The conclusions include the results of the validation of the 12 systems security methods, as well as further research possibilities.


identifier: Rowland, Brian  (1998) Relationship marketing's positive impact on successful new industrial services.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Collaborating with a client-partner during new service development (NSD), a phenomenon seen more and more often, has certain advantages for the industrial services provider. Among them is the ability to reduce risk of service failure by developing the new service to meet the client-partner's specific needs, sharing NSD costs, and gaining access to specific client expertise not found in-house. There are, however, certain hazards to performing NSD with a partner firm. Not only must the service provider master and manage the NSD process, but also the client relationship as it evolves throughout the NSD process. Indeed, a large part of a successful new service outcome depends on a solid relationship between supplier and client, since many industrial services require on-going interaction between the two parties long after the new service is in production. One of the most effective tools available to the service provider to manage the client relationship is Relationship Marketing. Relationship Marketing (RM) is a process by which the service firm builds an excellent relationship with the client firm based on mutual trust and motivates the client to commit to the relationship over the long term. Through the use of case study analysis, this research identifies a "best practices" list of Relationship Marketing activities that a service provider can use throughout the different collaborative NSD phases. When implemented, the best practices boost the likelihood that the client will be satisfied with its relationship with the service provider, and ultimately, satisfied with the new service.


identifier: Chan, Fungyee Claudia  (1998) The effects of Chinese immigrants' acculturation and changes in family environment on childrens' product influence in family purchase decisions.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: This study investigated the relationship among three major concepts, i.e., acculturation, family climate, and children's product influence. The acculturation construct was measured according to fathers', mothers' and children's responses. Family climate was measured by ten FES subscales. Four product areas were used to investigate children's product influence. Results indicated that mothers' acculturation level has the strongest impact on the family climate. The family environment has the most effect on children's purchase influence on purchase of expensive family products, while acculturation has no relationship with expensive children products. The mediating role of the family environment was weak. Only three FES subscales, i.e., moral religious emphasis, control, and independence appeared to be mediators of the acculturation and product relationship in the hypothesized direction. Results of the Family Incongruence Scores showed that the Chinese families are very traditional and acculturation does not strongly affect their level of family unity.


identifier: Nathalie., Han Kin Sang  (1998) Tobin's Q for Canadian firms.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

title: Tobin's Q for Canadian firms

abstract: Defined as the ratio of market value to replacement cost of tangible assets, Tobin's q is commonly used as a performance measure in research. Although the use of the q ratio is theoretically appealing, its empirical construction is subject to considerable measurement error. In this thesis, we compare and contrast five estimators of q, ranging from the simple q to the estimator based on the Lindenberg and Ross (LR) (1981) procedure. We examine the means, medians and variances of the q estimates and investigate how robust sorting and regression results are to changes in the construction of q. We find that the empirical results are sensitive to the estimation method used in obtaining the q value. The estimator calculated using the Hall (1990) method produces the highest means and variances and has the lowest correlation with the four other estimators. The simple q and the benchmark q are highly correlated, and results from tests for the equality of their coefficient estimates reveal no significant differences. We infer that the Hall estimates are theoretically superior, and the simple q which provides good estimates of the LR q's are satisfactory given the simplicity of their calculations. Finally, we find that the firm's attributes used in Morck, Shleifer and Vishny (1988) and Chung and Jo (1996) have an influence on the q value estimates.


identifier: Hong, Wong  (1998) Empirical study on the motivations of bidders' second tender offer contests.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: This study examines the motivations behind the bidders' second tender offers for a sample of 366 bidders who made a first attempt over the period of 1976-1990. In both the short-term and the long-term, bidders do not experience a significant abnormal return. As the bidders do not earn a significant gain from their first tender offer attempts, the motivations for making another tender offer attempt are examined. A multinomial logit model is used to examine the rationales for bidders attempting a second acquisition. The results are consistent with the management entrenchment and the convergence-of-interest hypotheses. Also, a binary logit model is applied to examine the probability of the bidders becoming involved in acquisitions in the five years after their first tender offer attempts. We find that bidders with good management performance, small initial offer premium, and high dividend payouts are more likely to become involved in subsequent acquisition activity. Finally, the Cox Proportional Hazard model is estimated to incorporate the time dimension. This model examines the probability of bidders becoming involved in a subsequent acquisition activity in the two years and the five years following their first tender offers. Market variables and financial variables are highly significant in explaining the probability of bidder involvement in subsequent acquisition activity in the two-year model, whereas only financial variables are highly significant in the five-year model.


identifier: Kader, Monica  (1998) Optimizing drug formulary decisions for the antiretroviral treatment of HIV-1 infection : a treatment outcomes maximization approach based on stakeholder objectives and preferences.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: This study examined the optimization of formulary decisions concerning the selection of therapeutic options for reimbursement. It sought to identify an appropriate procedure to facilitate formulary decision making and guide healthcare policy in satisfying multiple therapeutic objectives representing an acceptable level of healthcare outcomes to be achieved with respect to the values and preferences of stakeholders.  Multiattribute decomposition measurement and goal-programming methods were combined to optimize the selection of antiretroviral agents used in the treatment of HIV-1 infection. The case study method employed focused specifically on the antiretroviral treatment of an asymptomatic, treatment-naive HIV infected population with regard to the achievement of defined therapeutic objectives, and subject to clinical management decision constraints.  The research questions were studied through the development and validation of a goal programming formulary decision model specific to the selection of evidence-based antiretroviral pharmacotherapy aimed at optimizing health outcomes through formulary reimbursement policies. The optimization of health outcomes was defined in terms of maximizing the achievement of therapeutic objectives.  This study identified an optimal formulary selection reimbursement policy, determined its corresponding funding requirements, and quantified the tradeoffs made in defining the patient-specific optimal therapeutic selection under conditions of unrestricted cost-based reimbursement.  The study also examined the potential impact of restricted drug formulary reimbursement policies on the maximal achievement of therapeutic objectives and related health outcomes by quantifying the magnitude and extent of tradeoffs required to compensate for shifting optimal solutions when progressively restricted cost-based constraints on reimbursement were introduced.


identifier: Kittiruengcharn, Nipha  (1997) Impacts of job and organizational satisfaction, and organizational commitment on turnover intention in Thai public sector engineers.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: This study addresses the causal linkages between attitudinal determinants of employees' turnover. Using data from a survey of 408 public sector engineers working in sixteen organizations in Thailand, this study examines the relationships of job satisfaction, organizational satisfaction, and organizational commitment with turnover intention. Impacts of various factors, particularly the effect of self-efficacy expectation and pension, are also analyzed on turnover intention. Pearson correlation and path analysis through multiple regressions are conducted for the data analysis. The results are: (1) turnover intention is significantly inversely associated with both job and organizational satisfaction, and organizational commitment: (2) path analysis partially supports that job and organizational attitudes relate differently to job and organizational behavioral intention: organizational commitment is more strongly linked with turnover intention than is job satisfaction: (3) multiple regressions do not confirm the importance of self-efficacy expectation as an independent factor of job satisfaction or the importance of pension as a predicted antecedent of turnover intention.


identifier: Klasa, Sandy  (1998) LBO's, reverse LBO's, and the reduction of agency problems.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Jensen (1986, 1989) claims that LBO (Leveraged Buyout) process is a mechanism to decrease agency problems and improve efficiency in firms where managers' interests are not properly aligned with those of the corporation. Characteristics of LBOs such as high levels of financial leverage and management ownership of equity are thought to align the interests of owners and managers and lead to value maximization.  Whereas other studies have limited their examination of the pre-IPO period to the year before the IPO, our study examines operating performance during the four years preceding the IPO. We document that during the last four years prior to their IPO, reverse LBO firms more than triple their operating performance relative to their same industry counterparts. Operating performance during the three years leading up to the IPO is shown to be positively associated with both high levels of financial leverage and management ownership of equity.  Additionally, we find that reverse LBO underpricing is significantly negatively related to changes in operating performance occurring before the IPOs, to the length of time between the buyout and the IPO, and to the size of reverse LBO firms prior to their IPO. As well, we document a significantly positive relationship between underpricing and both the decrease in the leverage ratio at the time of the IPO and post-IPO stock price volatility. Finally, our study does not find an association between underpricing and managerial levels of equity ownership before or after the IPO


identifier: Koutsogianopoulos, Spiros  (1998) Operating performance of reverse leveraged buyouts and underwriter prestige.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: LBOs return to the public by issuing new equity in a reverse LBO. Since these companies were once publicly traded, they may suffer less from the information asymmetry plaguing regular IPOs and causing their underpricing. Prestigious underwriters may be able to signal firm quality to the market thereby possibly reducing underpricing. Previous research has found a significant negative relationship between prestige and underpricing in regular IPOs. It has been also determined that prestigious underwriters are associated with better operating firms. A recent study has found no such relationship between prestige and underpricing in reverse LBOs, possibly because they are less subject to information asymmetry problems.  In this study, it is hypothesized that, since reverse LBOs have fewer information asymmetry problems, they may not need a prestigious underwriter to signal their quality, where quality is assessed by operating performance. Second, it is hypothesized that prestigious underwriters will associate themselves with quality firms in order to preserve their reputation. In a sample of two hundred reverse LBOs, operating performance is examined two years before and up to five years after the stock offering. Operating income and cash flow measures are used and adjusted for industry effects and mean-reversion problems.  It is determined that firms may time their reverse LBO to coincide with their best performing year. Performance gradually decreases afterwards, but is still better than that of the industry. Using different proxies for prestige and different performance measurements mixed results are found. Sometimes a small and insignificant relationship is detected between performance and prestige which supports the first hypothesis. In other cases, a positive and significant relationship is detected, which supports the second hypothesis


identifier: Laurin, Jean-Paul Gilbert  (1997) Product management and performance appraisal systems in the Canadian pharmaceutical industry.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: This thesis first examines existing research on product management and performance appraisal systems, presenting methods of aligning the two systems so they work congruently toward improving overall organizational performance. Following is an examination of these systems as they currently exist in the Canadian pharmaceutical industry. The analysis of these two systems as they appear in this highly volatile marketplace lead the author to speculate that they may not be sufficiently aligned, and therefore may not be working congruently toward attaining the goals of the organization. A number of issues are presented that lead the author to question the effectiveness of existing performance appraisal systems. One such issue is significant ambiguity between product manager and supervisor perceptions of the functions and objectives used to evaluate the product manager's performance. Ultimately, this ambiguity may indicate that product managers are not performing the tasks that their supervisors and their organizations believe they should be performing to be successful in their roles.


identifier: Levinzon, Roman  (1998) Investors' reaction to the recommendations of analysts published in the Financial Post "Hot Stock" column.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: A substantial amount of research has accumulated over the past twenty years in support of the semi-strong form of market efficiency theory. This theory asserts that security prices reflect all available public information. In such a market, opportunities to earn abnormal profits should not persist as prices quickly adjust to incorporate new information. Under such conditions, even if an investor possesses superior knowledge about a security and is able to use this knowledge to earn abnormal profits, prices should quickly react; Therefore, by the time this information is published in the financial press, it should not yield excess returns.  However, evidence points to the possibility of earning short-term abnormal returns by acting on buy/sell recommendations of analysts when they are published in the U.S. financial newspapers and magazines, and long after they are available to analysts' clients. Using an event-study methodology, this paper found that statistically significant abnormal returns could be earned in Canada by following analysts' recommendations published in the Financial Post "Hot Stock" column. Tests of economic significance proved inconclusive


identifier: Malara, Yann B  (1997) Comparing models of work-family relations.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: This study examines the work-family environment to compare three theories of work-family relations. These three theories are spillover, compensation and segmentation. In the spillover theory, one environment (work or family) spills into the other environment (family or work), negative emotions will be carried from one environment (e.g. work) to the other environment (e.g. family). In the compensation theory people, if unfulfilled in one environment (e.g. family), compensate to have their needs fulfilled in the other environment (e.g. work). In the segmentation theory the work environment and the family environment are seen as separate, they do not influence each other. Within the theories of spillover and compensation, models of direct and indirect work-family relations were tested. Data for the study was collected from nurse in three hospitals in Ontario and Quebec. The results are from the study using structural equation modeling showed that nurses segmented their work stresses from their family, and their family from their work. Neither the spillover nor the compensation models were supported. The implications and potential applications are discussed.


identifier: McCarthy, Joanne  (1998) Family decision making and sex role attitudes in the context of selection of a vacation destination.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: The purpose of this research is to investigate family decision making and more specifically, how decisions are made and what factors might impact them. Sex role attitudes have been related to household role behaviors and they are believed to be linked to decision influences within the family.  This research addresses the family decision making process in a vacation decision context. The Brisoux-Laroche model of awareness sets is tested and the husband-wife decision influence patterns within the same decision context are examined, taking into consideration sex role attitudes of the spouses. Finally, the impact of sex role attitudes on the awareness sets is examined.  The results indicate a high level of agreement between spouses when looking at the awareness set analysis: importance ratings, determinant attributes, frequency of destinations in each set, agreement on all measures as well as on presence of attributes in common sets.  The perception of decision influence analysis indicates that spouses perceive certain sub-decisions to be under a different influence (husband or wife) depending on their sex role attitude; however, the trend is not clear.  In terms of influence sharing, the results indicate that, as sex role attitude becomes more modern, six out of seven decisions become more egalitarian according to at least one of the spouses.  Finally, looking at the relationship between awareness set profiles and sex role attitudes, it was found that set sizes and confidence levels were related to sex role attitude. Also, modern spouses chose destinations that had a different profile than those chosen by the more traditional spouses while attributing less importance to the cost of the trip.


identifier: Gagnon, Hubert  (1997) Molecular signalling in Lupinus albus-Rhizobium lupini symbiosis.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: The symbiotic interaction between Rhizobium lupini and Lupinus albus results in the formation of root nodules where nitrogen fixation takes place. In these associations, molecular signals such as flavonoids (or non-flavonoid type), nod gene-inducers, and bacterial lipochitooligosaccharides (LCOs) are known to act as modulators of species-specificity in the early stages of infection. Of the several known Rhizobium -legume symbioses, signalling in Lupinus remains to be determined.  Using a screening method based on the in vitro ability of the flavonoid inducer to adsorb onto the membranes of its symbiont, indicated that derrone, wighteone and lupiwighteone were adsorbed most onto R. lupini membranes. A second screening method, based on the ability of the inducer molecule to stimulate the growth rate of the symbiont, showed that 0.5 oM each of derrone, lupalbigenin, genistein monoprenyls, licoisoflavone A and lupinalbin A, resulted in a significant growth stimulation of R. lupini when cultivated in a minimal medium. A third strategy involved monitoring Ý-galactosidase activity of R. lupini strains harboring nodC :: lacZ fusions, in the presence of (a) authentic lupin isoflavones, (b) carbohydrate-like inducers, and (c) HPLC-fractionated lupin seed effusates and root exudates as putative nod gene inducers. The results indicated that both erythronic and tetronic acids (C4 sugar acids) led to low, but significant increases in Ý-galactosidase activities, as compared with the controls. In addition, lupiwighteone, a monoprenylated isoflavone, seems to exert a synergistic effect with the carbohydrate-like inducers, as compared with other isoflavone treatments.  Incorporation studies of [ 14 C]LCO-precursors into induced R. lupini cultures, confirmed the inductive role of erythronic and tetronic acids, as well as their synergistic effect when combined with lupiwighteone or derrone. Enzymatic hydrolysis of the R. lupini LCOs with various enzymes substantiated their putative identities. Similar incorporation experiments were carried out on other Rhizobium spp . in order to assess the role of aldonic acids in promoting LCO biosynthesis. These results are discussed in relation to the impact of these unusual signal molecules on our knowledge of signalling in Rhizobium -legume symbiosis by flavonoids and LCOs.


identifier: Bicknell, Janice  (1998) The development, delivery and evaluation of a harassment awareness training package for a corporate workplace.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: The aim of this thesis-equivalent was to develop, deliver, and evaluate a harassment awareness program for airline employees. The program addressed what constitutes harassment, types of harassment and discrimination, and the effects of harassment on employees and the workplace. The target audiences were Flight Operations and In-Flight Service personnel. The development of the harassment program was based on instructional design theory, and research into flight crew and cabin crew performance.  Formative evaluation of the training package was conducted where qualitative data was collected from subject matter and facilitation experts. Two small-group reviews of the modified package were conducted with members of the target audiences. Their knowledge gain was assessed through a pretest followed by the treatment and a posttest. Feedback was gathered through the use of a course evaluation questionnaire as well as group interviews. The package was then presented to the program facilitators for their input. Response to the training was positive. The performance objectives were achieved, however, additional evaluation would be necessary to assess the long-term impact of the training on the work environment.


identifier: Bui, Tien Hy  (1998) Performance evaluation of multimedia satellite communications systems using on-board packet switches.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Satellite communications systems are ideally equipped to provide future multimedia services on a global level and at a distance-independent cost. In order to meet the ever-growing bandwidth demands of these new applications, satellites employing multiple spot beam antennas are required. An on-board packet switch is an essential element in such a system as it offers full connectivity among users and offers efficient utilization of the space segment. This thesis evaluates the performance of a satellite-switched system in a multimedia environment mainly composed of voice, video, and data sources. Aggregate voice or video traffic is modeled as a 2-state Markov Modulated Poisson Process (MMPP) while two models for aggregate data traffic, MMPP and Pareto Modulated Poisson Process (PMPP) are used to examine the effects of traffic burstiness and long-range dependent behaviour. Multiple Frequency Time Division Multiple Access (MF-TDMA) is utilized on the uplink in conjunction with a dynamic capacity allocation scheme. Higher priority is given to voice and video real-time traffic to avoid delay variation. On-board downlink queue is provided for data jitter-tolerant traffic to achieve high statistical multiplexing gain.  Simulation results show that the system can support traffic predominantly composed of real-time applications. As jitter-tolerant data becomes the dominant traffic component and becomes highly correlated, the size of the uplink and downlink queues need to be increased to maintain an acceptable quality-of-service (QoS). The packet loss due to the Knockout contention scheme is much lower than that due to the limited capacity on the uplink and downlink. This makes the Knockout switch fabric attractive for on-board switching since it achieves low complexity. The need for a congestion control scheme that can shape the traffic is required, especially when the traffic has long-range dependent behaviour.


identifier: Lee, Leon C. K  (1997) A new technique to reduce phase distortion of recursive filters for video and image processing.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: IIR filters require less multiplication and less memory to perform filtering than their FIR counterparts. On the other hand, IIR filters have nonlinear phase response as a side effect. This is a major concern in applications such as video and image processing. In this thesis, a new method of preventing artifacts caused by nonlinear phase filtering is introduced. The proposed method, called State Value Updating technique, will remove frequency components of a picture that are shifted nonlinearly due to the nonlinear phase response of recursive filters. This thesis will provide a method of finding the proper new state values and decision algorithms to reduce the artifacts. Simulations for sampling structure conversions, video deinterlacing and 3-D Y-C separation are performed in this thesis. The resulting picture quality is at least as the one using nearly-linear-phase recursive filters alone, and close to that achieved with more complex algorithms. The timing overhead and complexity of the new method are low so that video and imaging systems could benefit.


identifier: Solomon, Marc  (1974) Under the volcano : the conjunction of heaven and hell.  Masters thesis, Sir George Williams University.


identifier: Lan, Jie  (1997) Escherichia coli mutants unable to use a combination of L-serine, glycine and L-leucine as carbon source.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Previously, medium containing a combination of L-serine, glycine and L-leucine (SGL medium) has been used to study the characteristics, including the activation system, of L-serine deaminase (L-SD), an interesting enzyme from Escherichia coli that is first synthesized in an inactive form. In this thesis, I isolated two new E. coli SGL- mutants through $\lambda$placMu insertion. All these mutants MEW20b and MEWb1 are quite likely involved in the activation of L-SD enzyme. Applying inverse PCR technique, I identified the mutated gene in these two mutant strains to be nuoM and torA respectively. A formerly isolated SGL- mutant MEW84 was also identified as a $\lambda$placMu insertion in the glpC gene. Further experiments proved that mutations in these three genes actually were responsible for the SGL- phenotype of the mutant strains. A comparison of the functions of the three mutated genes suggests that electron donation may be part of the process necessary to activate L-SD. Physiological studies were carried out to investigate further these three mutants.


identifier: Ward, Caroline  (1997) Robust theory applied to Jewell's hierarchical credibility model.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Introduction of robust theory is considered in Jewell's hierarchical credibility model. A comparison is made with the classical linear credibility models, Kunsch's model and Gisler & Reinhard's model.


identifier: Stevenson Maurel, Mary Lee  (1997) French nationals in Montreal : post-colonial, transnational projects.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: This study is a small scale ethnography of French nationals living in Quebec. Although there are French metropolitan institutions in Montreal, this group does not fit the usual concept of an ethnic community as they do not know each other and the French institutions serve the local community as well. I argue that the concept of transnational is a more appropriate term to describe these people as they invest much time and money in maintaining personal and economic links with France as well as taking advantage of the media links. Although Quebec has not been a French colony for over two hundred years, the French in the sample group have a similar relationship with France as did the former colonials.


identifier: Waddington, Keith  (1998) Pictures and poetry : debunking the bunk : an examination of picturesque influence.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: This thesis examines the history and development of the Picturesque, its definition, theoreticians, and practitioners; and its influence on romanticism. The focus is the correction of pejorative and negative assessments common in modern literary studies which provide a misleading interpretation of both the Picturesque and its influence. The goal is a broader understanding which suggests the necessity of a new evaluation of Wordsworth's "groundbreaking" contribution to literary development. Accordingly, an extensive introductory section examines pre-Picturesque and Picturesque painting, outlining the beginnings of a new and particularly English aesthetic. Also, an exploration of pre-Picturesque poetry and formative Picturesque poetry reveals the literary ramifications of this aesthetic. Finally, Wordsworth and Keats are canvassed within the Picturesque context: Wordsworth to demonstrate the origins and erroneousness of the modern critical bias and the way his poetry was often formulated according to Picturesque principles; Keats to demonstrate the longevity and continuing importance and influence of the Picturesque. Conclusions are conclusive.


identifier: Gorecki, Lisa  (1997) The stirrings still of popular forms of entertainment in Samuel Beckett's first published play : examining the influences of the Music-Hall, Vaudeville, Circus and Early screen comedy on Waiting for Godot.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: The Irish playwright Samuel Beckett has long been known for his indefatigable spirit of irreverence in the face of many of Western society's most cherished institutions and hallowed belief systems. Yet his consistent reverence for one particular bastion of Western culture remains a lesser known fact: that of popular stage and screen entertainment. This thesis explores the ways in which Beckett interlards Waiting for Godot with a selection of thematic motifs and comic conventions culled from the English music-hall, American vaudeville, circus clowning and, finally, early screen comedy in order to present us with a vision of the human condition that is as universal as it is devastatingly comical or, for that matter, comically devastating. Special attention is paid to Beckett's deployment and/or adaptation of: (a) the "multi-sensory" language of the clown of 'low' comedy; (b) vaudeville and the music-hall's self-referential stage and stage-world; (c) the popular, "shifty" tramp-clown figure of stage and screen, and (d) the comic 'double-act' of the music-hall, vaudeville and circus--each of which serves to underline the bafflingly complex nature of human experience in a universe characterized by radical indeterminacy.


identifier: Grant, Alyson  (1998) Rhetoric and the social production of knowledge in criticism of Henry V.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: In this thesis, Henry V and its critical context are used as a context for examining critics attached to the critical issues that underpin the tension in literary studies between more traditional approaches to texts and contemporary developments within criticism. Moreover, critics are organized through an understanding of the social production of knowledge so as to consider connections between their different critical discourses on Henry V and the possible production of knowledge through their critical interaction. This thesis is not meant to suggest, however, huge epistemic claims. Rather, the term knowledge means here more simply a possible way of approaching and appreciating critical diversity; namely, the criticism surrounding Henry V is understood communally as a kind of critical conversation on the diversity within literary studies produced through a network of inter-relating critical texts.