identifier: Bulut, Alma  (2016) Acquisition des locutions verbales et des constructions à verbe support en français.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Ce mémoire met l'accent sur la distinction formelle entre les locutions verbales et les constructions à verbe support telles que présentées et décrites par les chercheurs travaillant dans le cadre théorique du lexique-grammaire. Ces séquences de mots sont souvent confondues les unes avec les autres en raison de leur assemblage lexical parfois identique, en ceci que le syntagme nominal, par exemple, n'est pas nécessairement précédé d'un déterminant réalisé phonétiquement. Nous présenterons, dans la première partie de ce travail, les caractéristiques principales de chacune des deux séquences de mots à l'étude. Appuyée par ces distinctions, nous nous pencherons, dans la deuxième partie de ce travail, sur l'acquisition et l'appropriation des locutions verbales et des constructions à verbe support par les apprenants du français langue seconde. Étant donné que les locuteurs natifs du français utilisent et comprennent ces constructions sans s'en rendre compte, les apprenants, afin d'atteindre un niveau avancé, devraient apprendre à utiliser et à maîtriser ces structures verbales. Nous examinons, dans le cadre de ce travail, plusieurs aspects de l'acquisition et de la maîtrise des locutions verbales et des constructions à verbe support par des apprenants du français langue seconde, et ce aux niveaux débutant, intermédiaire et avancé.


identifier: Clark, Jordan  (2016) Teaching L2 vocabulary with student- and teacher-generated gestures: A classroom perspective.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

type: Thesis NonPeerReviewed

abstract: This action research project explored the use of gestures for teaching and learning French vocabulary in an upper-beginner adult classroom with 21 students from various language backgrounds. Over the course of four weeks, the teacher developed and used four sets of themed activities using both teacher- and student-generated gestures to introduce new vocabulary to the students, encouraging students to take an active role with respect to creating gestures. Detailed classroom observations and the teacher’s field notes showed that students became comfortable using gestures after the first class and that the gesture activities had positive effects on student participation and the classroom interaction. Weekly quizzes and a final vocabulary test revealed benefits of gesture-based activities for word learning. Students’ comments suggested that they enjoyed the gesture activities and that the gestures helped them remember words better, particularly when the word naturally evoked a gesture or when the gesture contained clues for word length or pronunciation. Several pedagogical considerations guiding the design and implementation of gesture-based vocabulary activities in a second language classroom are discussed.


identifier: Fulton, Colin  (2016) Presence Detection System.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

title: Presence Detection System


identifier: Duman, Onur  (2016) Application of Fault Analysis to Some Cryptographic Standards.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Cryptanalysis methods can be classified as pure mathematical attacks, such as linear and differential cryptanalysis, and implementation dependent attacks such as power analysis and fault analysis. Pure mathematical attacks exploit the mathematical structure of the cipher to reveal the secret key inside the cipher. On the other hand, implementation dependent attacks assume that the attacker has access to the cryptographic device to launch the attack. Fault analysis is an example of a side channel attack in which the attacker is assumed to be able to induce faults in the cryptographic device and observe the faulty output. Then, the attacker tries to recover the secret key by combining the information obtained from the faulty and the correct outputs. Even though fault analysis attacks may require access to some specialized equipment to be able to insert faults at specific locations or at specific times during the computation, the resulting attacks usually have time and memory complexities which are far more practical as compared to pure mathematical attacks.
Recently, several AES-based primitives were approved as new cryptographic standards throughout the world. For example, Kuznyechik was approved as the standard block cipher in Russian Federation, and Kalyna and Kupyna were approved as the standard block cipher and the hash function, respectively, in Ukraine. Given the importance of these three new primitives, in this thesis, we analyze their resistance against fault analysis attacks.

Firstly, we modified a differential fault analysis (DFA) attack that was applied on AES and applied it on Kuzneychik. Application of DFA on Kuznyechik was not a trivial task because of the linear transformation layer used in the last round of Kuznyechik. In order to bypass the effect of this linear transformation operation, we had to use an equivalent representation of the last round which allowed us to recover the last two round keys using a total of four faults and break the cipher.

Secondly, we modified the attack we applied on Kuzneychik and applied it on Kalyna. Kalyna has a complicated key scheduling and it uses modulo 264 addition operation for applying the first and last round keys. This makes Kalyna more resistant to DFA as com- pared to AES and Kuznyechik but it is still practically breakable because the number of key candidates that can be recovered by DFA can be brute-forced in a reasonable time. We also considered the case where the SBox entries of Kalyna are not known and showed how to recover a set of candidates for the SBox entries.

Lastly, we applied two fault analysis attacks on Kupyna hash function. In the first case, we assumed that the SBoxes and all the other function parameters are known, and in the second case we assumed that the SBoxes were kept secret and attacked the hash function accordingly. Kupyna can be used as the underlying hash function for the construction of MAC schemes such as secret IV, secret prefix, HMAC or NMAC. In our analysis, we showed that secret inputs of Kupyna can be recovered using fault analysis.

To conclude, we analyzed two newly accepted standard ciphers (Kuznyechik, Kalyna) and one newly approved standard hash function (Kupyna) for their resistance against fault attacks. We also analyzed Kalyna and Kupyna with the assumption that these ciphers can be deployed with secret user defined SBoxes in order to increase their security.


identifier: Newcomb-Anjo, Sarah Elizabeth  (2016) A person-centered analysis of risk factors that compromise wellbeing in emerging adulthood.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: The transition to adulthood is marked by potential for both enhanced wellbeing and problematic outcomes, such as mental health problems. The purpose of this study was to identify profiles of emerging adults with different risk factor experiences, and to examine whether these profiles were differentially related to mental health and academic wellbeing. Undergraduate emerging adults (N = 903, 82% female), aged 18-25 years (M = 21.14, SD = 1.75), completed a series of questionnaires about childhood, current contextual, and dispositional risk factors, mental health, and academic variables. Results from a cross-sectional latent profile analysis identified four distinct risk profiles: Low Risk (76%), Low Social Support Risk (4%), Financial Risk (11%), and Multiple Risk (8%). Overall, individuals within the Multiple Risk group fared the worst across the majority of wellbeing outcomes. However, individuals within the Financial Risk and Multiple Risk were comparable to each other in many instances, displaying more depressive symptoms, lower self-esteem, and lower life satisfaction relative to those in the Low Risk and Low Social Support Risk profiles. All risk profiles were comparable on levels of positive affect and academic performance, and those within the three risk-prone groups reported more academic stress relative to the Low Risk profile. Implications for targeted interventions are discussed.


identifier: Sparks, Daniel W  (2016) Modulation of Synaptic Responses in the Entorhinal Cortex Evoked by Repetitive Stimulation of the Parasubiculum.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
The entorhinal cortex provides the hippocampus with the majority of its sensory input. The entorhinal cortex also receives the largest output projection of the parasubiculum, a structure that receives output projections from the hippocampus. The parasubicular projection to the entorhinal cortex could play a critical role in determining how the entorhinal cortex responds to incoming sensory inputs. Therefore, alterations in how the entorhinal cortex responds to and processes sensory input, influenced by its projection from the parasubiculum, could be important for mnemonic processing the hippocampus. Neural activity in brain regions throughout the hippocampal formation, including the parasubiculum and entorhinal cortex, is heavily modulated by the neurotransmitter acetylcholine and the associated theta- and gamma-frequency oscillatory EEG rhythms. However, it is not known how cholinergic activity and synaptic inputs at these frequencies affect communication between the parasubiculum and entorhinal cortex, and how this could influence the processing of sensory inputs within the entorhinal cortex.
The first experiments in this thesis utilized field potential recordings of excitatory postsynaptic potentials (fEPSPs), and found that activation of cholinergic receptors, despite reducing the amplitude of responses to single pulses of stimulation, facilitated entorhinal cortex responses during trains of stimulation of the parasubiculum at both theta- and gamma- frequencies. This effect was found to be reliant upon M1 muscarinic receptors and was associated with cholinergic reductions in the cationic conductance Ih. In a second series of experiments, intracellular recordings of EPSPs in stellate cells in layer II of the medial entorhinal cortex replicated the findings obtained in field potential recordings, and indicated that the facilitation of train-evoked responses at theta- and gamma-frequencies by cholinergic agonism is due in part to reductions in Ih that lead to increased input resistance and widening of EPSPs. In a third series of experiments, when a second stimulating electrode was placed in layer I of the medial entorhinal cortex to activate sensory input pathways, it was found that trains of stimulation in the
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parasubiculum at theta-frequency modulated the strength of subsequent entorhinal cortex responses to incoming layer I sensory inputs. Stimulation of the parasubiculum was found to either suppress or facilitate responses to layer I inputs depending on the interval between parasubicular and layer I stimulation, suggesting that the parasubiculum can influence the ongoing processing of sensory inputs by the entorhinal cortex. When prolonged, repetitive, delivery of theta-frequency parasubicular stimulation trains was paired with single pulses of stimulation of layer I at short intervals after each train, it was found that co-activation of these inputs pathways resulted in a selective and lasting depression of entorhinal cortex responses to layer I stimulation. These results indicate that activation of the parasubiculum can have a lasting impact on how the entorhinal cortex responds to sensory inputs. Overall these results have strong implications for how information is processed in the hippocampal formation, and suggest that parasubicular inputs to the entorhinal cortex can influence the nature of the sensory and associational information that the entorhinal cortex provides to the hippocampus.


identifier: Giroux, Marilyn  (2016) Powerful Connections: Two Essays on How Brands Can Influence and Strengthen their Connections with Consumers.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Although numerous studies have examined relationships between brands and consumers, how consumers create those connections with brands in their daily lives is not yet well understood. This dissertation consists of two essays that focus on how brands can influence and strengthen their connections with consumers. The first essay examines how brand personality can be associated with consumers’ actual and ideal self to create stronger self-brand connections. Using a series of six studies, the author addresses hypotheses related to the importance of congruence between actual and ideal self and the underlying processes (i.e., self-verification and self-enhancement). Results suggest that consumers communicate diverse parts of their identities through different brand personality traits, and that this matching mechanism stimulates self-brand connections. Different boundary conditions (i.e., identity threat, public vs. private threat) are examined. The second essay investigates the effect of identity conflict and ambiguity on self-brand connections in the context of self-expression. It investigates how brands can serve as coping mechanisms to reduce uncertainty during periods of identity conflict and ambiguity. Across six studies, the author examines how identity conflicts and identity ambiguity can lead to different strategies for consumers in terms of their rebranding strategies and communicating their identities to other consumers. Taken together, the two essays suggest that identity processes have an important effect on how connections between brands and consumers evolve and strengthen over time.


identifier: Franks, Kristy  (2016) Neebee Miseew aa Aiispitaskimka chaastchee aa Kiniwaptoomk / Water Ethics: Exploring Cree youth’s relationship with water in Eeyou Istchee.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: This study explores the question ‘What characterizes the relationship that Cree youth in Eeyou Istchee (Eastern James Bay, Northern Quebec) have with water?’ The research process followed an ecosystem approach as well as a case study methodology, and was guided by the principles of Indigenous methodologies. Methods included my participation in Cree youth activities related to water, a canoe expedition, and conducting semi-structured interviews and video elicitation exercises with 17 Cree youth aged 15 to 24 from the community of Wemindji. Five adults working with youth and/or with water in the community were also interviewed. Findings show that the relationship Cree youth have with water is rooted in a complex web of influences coming from a hybrid-narrative of cultural references from both traditional Cree codes and Western institutions, infrastructures and technologies. Notably, the rapid change resulting from colonial history and residential school impacts has influenced the interactions Cree youth have with the natural world, including with water. The findings point to the following seven key dimensions that shape their relationship with water: physical interactions with water; Cree culture; Western-laden institutions; technology and indoor comforts; contemporary youth culture; the pan-Indigenous movement; and perceptions related to Cree youth. The discussion presents the concept of an integrative water ethic, applied to Cree youth. With adequate supports that address challenges of lost stories, splitting and disengagement by nurturing cultural pride and positive self-identity for Cree youth, their integrative water ethics could contribute to the development of a more sustainable mainstream water ethic in Canada.


identifier: Christopher, Aquiles  (2016) A comfort index for public transportation riders.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Some municipalities cannot succeed at making its citizens use public transportation. The use of private cars is usually preferred and this leads to more congestion, longer commuting time, more fuel consumption and gasses’ emissions. Travel preferences of commuters are commonly estimated with discrete choice methods that consider their socioeconomic characteristics, along with some form of travel cost, failing to incorporate any measure of comfort. This research develops a standardized indicator of comfort for mass transportation systems. The functional form for a proposed index is developed over three key indicators: vehicle vibrations, air quality and noise levels, and the index is illustrated on a case study of the city of Montreal with comparisons to London and Santo Domingo (Dominican Republic). The index was developed in a way that allows an objective calculation, avoiding qualitative judgment from commuters, thus eliminating individuals’ subjectivity, and enabling comparisons among cities and modes. It was found that the automobile is the most comfortable mode, explaining its popularity. The data showed that, the number of stops is the most important factor affecting total vibration levels, and hence the comfort of buses and trains. Noise was found to be linked to vehicle’s vibrations. Newer metro cars in London and Dominican Republic showed better comfort levels, suburban trains in Montreal performed better and close to their counterparts in the United Kingdom. Express bus line was more comfortable than the local bus, performing better in the level of vibrations and noise, but not in terms of air quality.


identifier: Mohebshahedin, Mahmood  (2016) Three essays on mutual fund governance and sponsorship.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
This thesis explores the role of governance and sponsorship on mutual fund characteristics like advisory contracts, fees and returns. My first and second essays are related to board governance for a special type of mutual funds called closed-end funds (CEFs herein). Unlike corporates and open-end funds, CEFs have unique characteristics like similarity in size and complexity along with compulsory public filings which make them an exemplary laboratory for an examination of questions dealing with corporate finance and investments.
In June 2004, the SEC required mutual fund boards to reveal additional information about the inputs and processes involved in advisory contract approvals to help investors make more informed decisions and to encourage independent directors to act more independently when negotiating advisory fees. Using a hand-collected governance panel database of all U.S. closed-end funds (CEFs) during 1994-2013, we examine the effect of this change on advisory fees. We find that the percentage of independent directors is significantly and negatively related with advisory fees only after this event. The maximum (minimum) numbers of advisory fee decreases (increases) occur in the year after the 2004 SEC amendments. We find that advisory-rate decreases are significantly more likely for a CEF with a higher percentage of independent directors after but not before the event even after controlling for post-event board structure changes. Overall, our results support the idea that the 2004 SEC amendments successfully encouraged independent fund directors to act more independently in negotiating advisory fees with fund advisors.
Using the same governance data, the second paper explores how CEF governance affects expense ratios, returns and premiums. Independent directors are more effective in monitoring and influencing fund performance measures that are less complex and more directly controllable. The results suggest that CEFs with higher board ownerships are better aligned with shareholders’ interests. Ownerships of directors are positively and significantly associated with most variables that are expected to indicate greater value from the monitoring of directors. Using a dynamic panel two-step system generalized method of moments estimator, the results are robust in the presence of endogeneity concerns (reverse causality, unobserved heterogeneity and simultaneity).
In the third essay, we focus on mutual fund governance at the sponsor level. Taking advantage of the wide variety of sponsors in the Canadian mutual fund market, we examine how different fund sponsorships affect measures of fund performance. We find that cost minimization and manager abilities are important drivers of performance differences among Canadian fixed-income funds differentiated by sponsor and fund types.


identifier: Cross, Alicia  (2016) The Horror of Rape on Cable TV: Exploring Rape Narratives in American Horror Story and The Walking Dead.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: This thesis explores the representation of rape in two successful cable horror programs, FX’s American Horror Story (FX, 2011-) and AMC’s The Walking Dead (AMC, 2010-). I first offer a contextual analysis of the American television industry, focusing on the economic specificities of cable television and the brand identities of FX and AMC networks. I argue that the building of a quality brand within the contemporary television industry demands the valuation of controversial and edgy content, which includes sexual violence. Next, I engage in a textual analysis of American Horror Story: Coven and the fifth season of The Walking Dead. Drawing on narrative theory and film theory on horror, I look critically at the construction of the rape narratives, their visual representation, and their relationship to the conventions and expectations of the horror genre. Overall, this thesis considers how AHS and TWD relate to rape culture, both as products of a particular industrial context that values rape as controversial—yet desirable—content and as texts that depict rape. While both programs articulate feminist understandings of rape, they also include patriarchal and postfeminist discourses. Moreover, through different representational strategies, both programs represent rape as horror. TWD resists portraying literal rape and thus denies any pleasure in watching rape, whereas AHS incorporates rape into spectacles of violence. By aestheticizing and commodifying rape, AHS represents a tension between challenging rape culture and reaffirming it.


identifier: Wilson, Samantha  (2016) Aesthetics of Astonishment and Contemplation in the Sublime View: Nature Tours and Early Scenic Filmmaking in Great Britain.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
This dissertation examines the shift between object and image in popular and philosophical attitudes towards nature by tracing the aesthetic and epistemological role of the sublime view through a series of prescriptive texts and screen technologies which became increasingly popular in Great Britain within the second half of the 19th century. The natural sublime was symptomatic of a crisis that lies at the heart of environmental aesthetics: the inability to construct and rely on a framing mechanism when making judgments about natural spaces.  Each text provided a way to mediate those experiences beginning with early 18th century topographical literature, Romantic and picturesque tour guides written in the early 19th century, mid 19th century painted panoramas, and, finally, scenic filmmaking in the first two decades of the 20th century. The project uses this discursive lineage to analyze the role of these texts and technologies  in reconstructing the expectations of nature appreciation, with scenic filmmaking representing the culmination of that transition. While each catered to a separate socio-economic group, they all helped mask a persistent cultural anxiety over where spectator and natural phenomena should meet.
The project proposes a shift away from previous historical models which address contemplation and astonishment as separate aesthetic models by presenting a new reading of the 18th century natural sublime. Unlike traditional forms of appreciation like beauty, which depended upon detached contemplation, the sublime was only accessible at the precarious place where immersion and detachment met. Here specific vantage points constructed an interplay between traditionally opposed spectatorial states. The aesthetic category seemed, in fact, completely counter intuitive to both the other categories valued by the period and the stability provided by the neo-classical frame, and yet this precariousness only enhanced its cultural and conceptual cache. The concept eventually initiated its own cultural industry associated with nature appreciation which placed the problem of spectatorship at the centre of its popular discourse.


identifier: Ostadjoo, Shaghayegh  (2016) Identification, Cloning, Expression and Characterization of Novel Endoglucanases.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
A major bottleneck preventing the economically favourable production of biofuels from cellulose is the high cost of the cellulase enzymes used to convert cellulose into fermentable glucose units. One way to reduce the cost and increase the efficiency of cellulose hydrolysis is to develop new cellulase systems with enhanced cellulose hydrolysis rates and efficiencies. A better understanding of the relationship between cellulose structure and cellulose hydrolysis mechanisms will facilitate the development of cellulases with sufficiently enhanced hydrolysis rates and efficiencies. To achieve this, I am pursuing the following two research objectives: (i) express a library of evolutionarily diverse endoglucanases representing each of several different glycosyl hydrolase families and tertiary structures; and; (ii) perform detailed characterizations on the enzymes to gain insight into the relationship between cellulase structure and cellulase function. For these studies, I compared the hydrolysis capabilities of a library of novel endoglucanases against Trichoderma reesei (T. reesei) cellulase system endoglucanases using the model substrate phosphoric acid swollen cellulose (PASC), a substrate used in commercial ethanol production (pre-treated wheat straw), carboxymethylcellulose glucooligosaccharides and various hemicellulose components found in pretreated lignocellulose feedstocks. About 100 fungal genome sequences were downloaded from public databases. From these, 23 fungal species were selected based on their ability to hydrolyze vascular plant biomass and their evolutionary diversity. The 75 genes encoding endoglucanases selected from 23 fungal species were manually annotated, cloned and expressed using Aspergillus niger as the expression host. Congo Red indicator plate screening revealed that at least 37 of the endoglucanase genes expressed an active secreted endoglucanase (EG). Among the 37 EGs subjected to preliminary biochemical characterization, it was shown that the optimal pH and temperature of the 26 endoglucanases with the highest levels of activity ranged from pH 3.0 to pH 6.0 and from 40 ˚C to 70 ˚C. Based on the results of
this detailed screening, 17 endoglucanases were selected for further analyses that included: assessing their thermostability, assessing their ability to hydrolyze short oligosaccharides, determining their substrate specificity and assessing their ability to enhance the saccharification of cellulosic substrates by the T. reesei cellulase system and various derivatives thereof.


identifier: Wang, Ting  (2016) Time-varying Resilient Virtual Networking Mapping for Multi-location Cloud Data Centers.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Abstract
In the currently dominant cloud computing paradigm, applications are being served in data
centers (DCs), which are connected to high capacity optical networks. For bandwidth and
consequently cost efficiency reasons, in both DC and optical network domains, virtualization
of the physical hardware is exploited. In a DC, it means that multiple so-called virtual
machines (VMs) are being hosted on the same physical server. Similarly, the network is
partitioned into separate virtual networks, thus providing isolation between distinct virtual
network operators (VNOs). Thus, the problem of virtual network mapping arises: how to
decide which physical resources to allocate for a particular virtual network? In this thesis,
we study that problem in the context of cloud computing with multiple DC sites. This
introduces additional flexibility, due to the anycast routing principle: we have the freedom
to decide at what particular DC location to serve a particular application. We can exploit
this choice to minimize the required resources when solving the virtual network mapping
problem.
This thesis solves a resilient virtual network mapping problem that optimally decides
on the mapping of both network and data center resources, considering time-varying traffic
conditions and protecting against possible failures of both network and DC resources. We
consider the so-called VNO resilience scheme: rerouting under failure conditions is provided
in the virtual network layer. To minimize physical resource capacity requirements, we allow
reuse of both network and DC resources: we can reuse the same resources for the rerouting
under failure scenarios that are assumed not to occur simultaneously. Since we also protect
against DC failures, we allocate backup DC resources, and account for synchronization
between primary and backup DCs. To deal with the time variations in the volume and geographical
pattern of the application traffic, we investigate the potential benefits (in terms
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of overall bandwidth requirements) of reconfiguring the virtual network mapping from one
time period to the next. We provide models with good scalability, and investigate different
scenarios to check whether it is worth to change routing for service requirement between time
periods. The results come up with our experiments show that the benefits for rerouting is
very limited.
Keywords: Cloud Computing, Optical Networks, Virtualization, Anycast, VNO resilience


identifier: Mohammadi, Morteza  (2016) Droplet Impact and Solidification on Solid Surfaces in the Presence of Stagnation Air Flow.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Droplet Impact and Solidification on Solid Surfaces in the Presence of Stagnation Air Flow. Morteza Mohammadi, Ph.D.
Concordia University, 2016

     Understanding the fundamentals of ice accretion on surfaces can help in proposing solutions to reduce or prevent ice accumulation on aircraft components and power lines. The main way in which ice forms on a surface is the solidification of supercooled droplets upon impacting on the surface. On an aircraft wing, ice accumulation can easily change the flow pattern, which could result in an increase in drag force. This research investigates the use of superhydrophobic coatings (surfaces with contact angles larger than 150) to counteract icing (anti-icing) as a result of their extremely low surface energy. The main goal of this study is to assess the performance of superhydrophobic surfaces in the presence of stagnation flow to mimic flight conditions (e.g. droplet impinging on the leading edge of an aircraft’s wing). A wide range of droplet impact velocities and stagnation flows in splashing and non-splashing regimes (at high and low Weber numbers) were carried out on surfaces with various wettabilities. The results were analyzed in order to highlight the advantages of using superhydrophobic coatings. Free stream air velocity were varied from 0 to 10 m/s with a temperature which was controlled from room temperature at 20 oC  down to -30 oC.
It was observed that while the presence of stagnation flow on hydrophilic (i.e. aluminum substrate) results in thin film formation for droplets with Weber numbers more than 220 upon impact in room temperature condition, instantaneous freezing at the maximum spreading diameter was observed in low temperature condition where air and substrate temperature was below the -20 oC. Same phenomenon was observed for hydrophobic substrate at aforementioned temperature. On the other hand, striking phenomenon was observed for superhydrophobic surface when stagnation air flow is present. Although it was expected droplet contact time to be increased by imposing stagnation air flow on an impacting droplet it was reduced as a function of droplet Weber number. This was referred to the presence of full slip condition rather than partial one where the spreading droplet moves on thin layer of air. Consequently, it promotes droplet ligament detachment through Kelvin-Helmholtz instability mechanism. While in low temperature condition above temperature of heterogeneous ice nucleation (i.e. -24 oC)1 supercooled water droplet contact time is reduced up to 30% to that of still air cases, droplet solidified diameter was increased up to 2 folds for air velocity up to 10 m/s compare to the still air condition at temperatures as low as -30 oC. These results were compared with a new predictive model of droplet impact behavior on the superhydrophobic substrate.
New universal predictive model of droplet impact dynamics on the superhydrophobic surface was developed based on the concept of mass-spring model2 which was validated against experimental results. In the new model, viscosity effect was considered through adding a dashpot term in mass-spring model. In addition, the effect of stagnation flow was also integrated to the model through classical Homann flow approach.3 For non-isothermal condition, the effect of phase change (i.e. solidification) on droplet wetting dynamics was coupled to the model through classical nucleation theory. The universal model was compared against experimental results in room and low temperature conditions (i.e. supercooled condition) for model’s validation.


identifier: Kaviani, Mahsa Somayeh  (2016) Three Essays on Corporate Debt Financing.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Three essays on corporate debt financing
Mahsa Somayeh Kaviani, Ph.D.
Concordia University, 2016

In the first of three essays, we study the relationship between corporate debt structures and the strength of creditor rights. Firms use a more concentrated debt-type structure as a reaction mechanism to stronger creditor rights. We show that managers form more concentrated debt structures in response to stronger creditor rights in order to first, reduce bankruptcy costs and second, to provide more monitoring incentives for creditors. Across 46 countries, we document that firms have more concentrated debt-type structures in countries with stronger creditor rights. Based on an examination of the cross-sectional heterogeneity of firms to different creditor rights regimes, we confirm our two proposed mechanisms. This study extends the literature of debt structure to an international setting and is the first to document the effect of cross-country legal and institutional determinants on the choice of debt structures.
In the second essay, we investigate how uncertainty about economic policies influence corporate credit spreads. We find a large and positive association between corporate credit spreads and a news-based index of policy uncertainty. We document that a one standard deviation increase in policy uncertainty results in 25 basis points increase in the credit spreads of corporate bonds controlling for bond, firm and macro-economic variables. We find that the influence of policy uncertainty on corporate credit spreads differs across firms and is more pronounced for firms with higher investment irreversibility and dependence on government spending. We also document a larger impact of policy uncertainty during economic recessions. Our results show that not only firm-level default probabilities, but also bond-CDS bases increase in response to elevated policy uncertainty.
The third and final essay empirically measures the financial and economic costs (benefits) to firm value associated with deteriorations or improvements in the firm’s credit quality. We document that firms incur economically large and statistically significant costs to their values following credit-rating deteriorations.  Consistent with an asymmetric effect, we find significant but smaller firm-value benefits associated with credit-rating upgrades. The financial costs to a firm’s market value associated with each notch downgrade to the investment and speculative grade categories are 7.1% and 14.8%, respectively, and these costs are generally larger than the economic costs to the firm value from credit rating downgrades. Using a continuous KMV distance to default model, we conclude that deteriorations (improvements) in a model-generated credit rating quality can also adversely (positively) affect firm value. Our findings have implications for corporate financing and leverage decisions, and for the unresolved underleverage puzzle (Graham, 2001).


identifier: Maleki, Hosein  (2016) Three Essays on Capital Structures Determinants.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Three essays on capital structure determinants
Hosein Maleki, Ph.D.
Concordia University, 2016
The first essay studies the influence of credit ratings on the time-series evolution of corporate capital structures. We show that better rated firms have significantly more stable leverage ratios over time. By comparing firms across the investment-grade cut-off, we conclude using treatment effects estimation, that assignment to more stable rating classes leads to more stable capital structures over time. Extending this study across the whole range of ratings, we show that a one standard deviation improvement in credit-rating quality can reduce the leverage hazard ratio by more than 70%. In alternative investigations, rated firms tend to have largely more stable leverage ratios compared to not-rated firms. Matching firms based on their propensity to have credit ratings, rated firms take between 1.5 and 9 years longer to change their leverage ratios to the same levels as their not-rated counterparts. Our results are robust to the choice of different time frames and variety of controls. They extend the literature of the effects of credit ratings on capital structures by highlighting the importance of credit ratings on the long-run financing behaviors of firms.
The second essay studies the stability of various debt-structure dimensions. Survival and long-run clustering analyses are used to assess the stability of debt-rank orderings, debt heterogeneity and main debt type(s). Firms only maintain stability in their main debt type, while frequently changing the weights and priorities of other debt types, heterogeneity indexes and rank orderings. While all debt structure metrics are less stable with the assignment of a credit rating, the effect on the stability of the main debt type is minor. Firms with higher tax rates, market leverages and cash flow volatilities exhibit higher stability in their debt structures.
The final essay investigates how the optimal corporate debt maturity is influenced by the strength of creditor rights and the efficiencies of contract enforcement mechanisms. Using a correlated random effects specification, we find that across 42 countries stronger creditor rights are associated with shorter corporate debt maturities while greater contract enforcement leads to longer maturities. These empirical results are consistent with the differing effects of creditor rights and contract enforcement on the choice of corporate maturity predicted by our model. Our results are robust to using different measures of debt maturity, individual components of creditor rights and different measures of contract enforcement. Our results are mostly driven by developed country debt and hold with the inclusion of various controls.


identifier: Beillahi, Sidi Mohamed  (2016) Towards the Design Automation of Quantum Circuits.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Quantum mechanics based computing systems are expected to have high capabilities and are considered good candidates to replace classical cryptography and supercomputing systems. Among many implementations, quantum optics systems provide a promising platform to implement universal quantum computers, since they link quantum computation and quantum communication in the same framework.  Recently, several quantum gates, circuits, and protocols have been experimentally realized using optics. Despite the fact that big advances in building the physical quantum computers were achieved, there are no currently available industrial computer aided tools that can perform the modeling, analysis, and verification of optical quantum computing systems. In this thesis, we tackle the idea of design automation for quantum circuits, where we use a sound language, higher order logic, to model and reason about quantum circuits formally. In particular, we propose a framework for the hierarchical modeling and automated verification of quantum computing circuits. The modeling approach captures quantum models built hierarchically from quantum gates, which models are readily available in a library. The analysis and verification of composed circuits is done seamlessly based on dedicated mathematical foundations formalized in the theorem prover.
Specifically, the tensor product and linear projection are used to extract the quantum circuit outputs. Subsequently, a rich library of quantum gates which includes 1-qubit, 2-qubit, and 3-qubit gates is formalized. In order to automate the analysis process, we developed a decision procedure to eliminate the need of user guidance throughout the formal proofs. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed framework, we conduct the formal analysis of a benchmark of quantum circuits including the Shor's integer factorization algorithm, the Grover's oracle, and the quantum full adder.


identifier: Yott, Jessica  (2015) Beyond false belief understanding: Theory of Mind development in infancy.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Beyond false belief understanding: Theory of Mind development in infancy

Jessica Yott, Ph.D.
Concordia University, 2015

Theory of Mind (ToM) development in infancy has generally been investigated using studies conducted on a single age group with a single task, usually measuring false belief. The goals of the current dissertation were to examine ToM understanding in infancy using multiple tasks, two paradigms, and a within-subjects design. An additional goal was to determine if ToM abilities in infancy follow a predictable pattern of development.
The aim of the first study was to investigate 14- and 18-month-olds’ understanding of intentions, true beliefs, desires, and false beliefs using a violation of expectation paradigm. To do so, Study 1 used a within-subjects design, whereby infants observed both a congruent and an incongruent trial for each task. Results revealed that both groups of infants looked significantly longer at the incongruent trial on the intention and true belief tasks. In contrast, only 18-month-olds looked significantly longer at the incongruent trial of the desire task. Lastly, neither age group looked significantly longer at the incongruent trial of the false belief task. Furthermore, inter-task analyses revealed only a significant correlation between looking time at the false belief and intention tasks.
The second study examined if ToM abilities developed in a predictable sequence as observed in preschool children. To do this, 18-, 24-, and 30-month-olds completed four tasks measuring intention, emotion, desire, and false belief understanding, using interactive spontaneous-response tasks. Results revealed that infants’ ToM understanding does develop in a predictable scale sequence. That is, infants were more likely to pass the intention task, followed by the emotion, desire, and false belief task. Moreover, infants’ performance on the intention, emotion, and false belief tasks appeared to improve with age.
Together, the results from both studies suggest that ToM abilities begin to develop in infancy. However, results from the current dissertation also highlight some of the limitations in infants’ ability to reason about other people’s mental states. Nevertheless, using two distinct paradigms, the present findings demonstrate that intention, emotion, and true belief understanding develop before more complex ToM abilities, including desire and false belief understanding. Furthermore, these results suggest that implicit ToM follows a similar developmental sequence as observed in more explicit ToM development.


identifier: Ayoubi, Sara  (2016) Traffic and Resource Management in Robust Cloud Data Center Networks.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Cloud Computing is becoming the mainstream paradigm, as organizations, both large and small, begin to harness its benefits. Cloud computing gained its success for giving IT exactly what it needed: The ability to grow and shrink computing resources, on the go, in a cost-effective manner, without the anguish of infrastructure design and setup. The ability to adapt computing demands to market fluctuations is just one of the many benefits that cloud computing has to offer, this is why this new paradigm is rising rapidly. According to a Gartner report, the total sales of the various cloud services will be worth 204 billion dollars worldwide in 2016. With this massive growth, the performance of the underlying infrastructure is crucial to its success and sustainability. Currently, cloud computing heavily depends on data centers for its daily business needs. In fact, it is through the virtualization of data centers that the concept of "computing as a utility" emerged. However, data center virtualization is still in its infancy; and there exists a plethora of open research issues and challenges related to data center virtualization, including but not limited to, optimized topologies and protocols, embedding design methods and online algorithms, resource provisioning and allocation, data center energy efficiency, fault tolerance issues and fault tolerant design, improving service availability under failure conditions, enabling network programmability, etc.
This dissertation will attempt to elaborate and address key research challenges and problems related to the design and operation of efficient virtualized data centers and data center infrastructure for cloud services. In particular, we investigate the problem of scalable traffic management and traffic engineering methods in data center networks and present a decomposition method to exactly solve the problem with considerable runtime improvement over mathematical-based formulations. To maximize the network's admissibility and increase its revenue, cloud providers must make efficient use of their's network resources. This goal is highly correlated with the employed resource allocation/placement schemes; formally known as the virtual network embedding problem. This thesis looks at multi-facets of this latter problem; in particular, we study the embedding problem for services with one-to-many communication mode; or what we denote as the multicast virtual network embedding problem. Then, we tackle the survivable virtual network embedding problem by proposing a fault-tolerance design that provides guaranteed service continuity in the event of server failure. Furthermore, we consider the embedding problem for elastic services in the event of heterogeneous node failures. Finally, in the effort to enable and support data center network programmability, we study the placement problem of softwarized network functions (e.g., load balancers, firewalls, etc.), formally known as the virtual network function assignment problem. Owing to its combinatorial complexity, we propose a novel decomposition method, and we numerically show that it is hundred times faster than mathematical formulations from recent existing literature.


identifier: Le Cam, Mathieu  (2016) Short-term forecasting of the electric demand of HVAC systems.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) systems of large buildings have a high contribution to the electric grid peak demand. During those periods, electric utilities face important mismatch issues in power supply and demand. In the context of Demand Response (DR) programs, there is a need from building energy managers for tools to forecast the electric demand of HVAC systems to plan for fast-DR control strategies. This thesis contributes to the DR research field by proposing a method for multi-step forecasting of the electric demand of existing HVAC cooling systems on the short-term in large commercial and institutional buildings.
Two forecasting methods are proposed: a cascade-based (global) method and a component-based method. The cascade-based method includes a sequence of forecasts of target variables. First, the air flow rate supplied by the AHUs is forecasted, followed by the cooling coils load, the cooling load of the whole building, and finally the electric demand of the primary cooling system is forecasted. The component-based method forecasts the electric demand of one component of the HVAC system such as a fan. Data-driven models are developed based on Building Automation System (BAS) trend data for electric demand forecasting of HVAC cooling system over the next six hours with a time-step of 15 minutes.
The large amount of data collected through the BAS presents a gold mine of information which could be used for better understanding of the actual building operation and performance. Data mining techniques are used as pre-processing steps to help in the development of the forecasting models, for the selection of regressors, to identify typical daily profiles of the target variable and to better understand the operation of HVAC systems. Different sequences of preprocessing steps are tested and their impact on the forecasting performance is compared.
The proposed forecasting methods are validated on two case studies: the Genomic research center on Loyola Campus of Concordia University and an office building located in Shawinigan-Sud (Québec). The thesis compares the forecasts with measurements, and discusses the quality of forecasting results.


identifier: MacRae, Katherine  (2016) Does it lead if it bleeds? An analysis of Toronto newspapers and their coverage of trauma-related events.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: This thesis explores the ongoing perception of news media as an outlet that is fixated on sex, death and violence, through an analysis of three GTA newspapers. I argue that despite this consistent perception and the more recent push to online news media, trauma-related news stories do not dominate the news media landscape. A quantitative method was used to analyze the three newspapers to determine the actual percentage of trauma-related news stories in each of the newspapers and their online counterparts. Scholarship in the areas of news values, sensationalism and tabloidization, and the negativity bias also informed this thesis. The results of the research indicated that the percentage of trauma-related news stories was significantly lower than that of the percentage of overall news stories. However, secondary results indicate a difference in the types of trauma-related news stories between tabloid newspapers and broadsheet newspapers. The primary conclusion of this thesis is that the perception of news media needs to be reconsidered as the data does not support the existing perception.


identifier: Shaw, Allison  (2016) Jimi Hendrix and the Laughing Girl.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

title: Jimi Hendrix and the Laughing Girl

abstract:
Abstract

Jimi Hendrix and the Laughing Girl

Allison Shaw

	Jimi Hendrix and the Laughing Girl is a collection of seven short stories that revolve around the lives of women and men in their late teens and early twenties, as they mature and transition towards adulthood.  Set in different North American cities, the stories explore changing dynamics in friendships, romantic relationships and families.  The construction of individual identity is central to many of the narratives, which examine how the various characters attempt to find and build a sense of self through their relations with others, artistic creation and storytelling.
Several stories in this collection include surreal or fairy tale elements, such as a porcelain doll that comes to life.  These fairy-tale elements are set in contrast with the characters’ experiences of loss and disappointment as they grow up, but also reflect the beauty that the characters find in the everyday world, in spite of their personal struggles.  The structure of many of the stories is experimental – “Photographs for New York” and “Coffee” are both collections of vignettes, while the final story, “Filmmaker”, incorporates a short film script into the prose.


identifier: Loghmany, Alireza  (2016) Design, Microfabrication, and Characterization of Polar III-Nitride HFETs.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
ABSTRACT
Design, Microfabrication, and Characterization of Polar III-Nitride HFETs
Alireza Loghmany, Ph.D.
Concordia University, 2016
With excellent performance in high-frequency power amplifiers, AlGaN/GaN heterojunction field-effect transistors (HFETs) as next generation power amplifiers have drawn a great deal of attention in the last decade. These HFETs, however, are still quite limited by their inherently depletion-mode (D-mode: negative pinch-off voltage) nature, relatively poor gate-leakage, and questionable long-terms reliability. In addition, since AlGaN/GaN HFETs operate at extremely high-power densities, performance of these devices has so far remained quite limited by self-heating effects.
While a number of techniques have already been developed for realization of enhancement-mode (E-mode: positive pinch-off voltage) AlGaN/GaN HFETs, these techniques in addition to having a number of difficulties in achieving enhancement-/depletion-mode pairs, fall short of satisfying  requirements such as low leakage-current, drain-current stability, and pinch-off voltage stability at the high operating temperatures and at elevated electric-fields. Among these techniques, fluoride-based plasma treatment is the most widely accepted. As an alternative to this mainstream technique, polarization-engineering of AlGaN/GaN HFETs through exploring the impacts of the mesa geometry is studied as a possible avenue for selective transformation of the D-mode nature of AlGaN/GaN HFETs to an E-mode character. Whereas limited experimental studies on the pinch-off voltage of HFETs realized on different isolation-feature geometries have indicated the presence of a certain correlation between the two, such observations lack the required depth to accurately identify the true culprit. This technique is expected to be ultimately capable of producing enhancement-/depletion-mode pairs without adding any extra steps to the microfabrication process.
In light of this requirement, microfabrication of AlGaN/GaN HFETs using a number of alternative isolation-feature geometries is explored in this study. In addition to developing an in-house microfabrication process, transistors designed according to these novel isolation-feature geometries have been fabricated through the services offered by Canadian Microelectronics Corporation (CMC). Investigation of the variation of pinch-off voltage among the devices fabricated through this latter means has conclusively indicated that the pinch-off voltage shift, rather than exclusively being caused by the surrounding-field effect, is also correlated to the perimeter-to-area ratio of the isolation-features.
In addition, through characterization and thermal modeling of these groups of devices, in this study a new approach is unveiled for reducing self-heating in AlGaN/GaN HFETs. According to finite element analysis (FEA) and electrical measurement of average channel temperature, an improved heat-dissipation was observed in HFETs enjoying a more distributed nature of the two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) channel. This is observed to be the case especially for isolation features which offered the center of the channel a smaller distance to the side walls. Observations also indicate a more distinct gain in thermal management with reduction of the gate-length and also the surface area of the isolation pattern. Results suggest that self-heating in AlGaN/GaN HFETs can be substantially nullified by reducing the island-width below a certain threshold value, while maintaining the total width of the transistor constant.
In addition to exploring these alternatives on AlGaN/GaN HFET structures, in-house microfabrication of AlN/GaN MISFETs is also studied. The results of DC characterization of these novel transistors are also presented.


identifier: Hebert, Elizabeth A.  (2015) Facing the Unknown: Behavioural Experiments for Intolerance of Uncertainty.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Intolerance of uncertainty (IU) is a dispositional characteristic that arises from negative beliefs about uncertainty and its implications (Koerner & Dugas, 2006). IU is an important factor in both the development and maintenance of generalized anxiety disorder (GAD; APA, 2013). A cognitive-behavioural treatment (CBT) for GAD that targets IU and additional factors has shown robust efficacy across five randomized controlled trials. IU is a key cognitive mechanism in this treatment, as reductions in IU precede (Dugas & Ladouceur, 2000; Goldman, Dugas, Sexton, & Gervais, 2007) and mediate reductions in GAD symptoms (Donegan et al., 2010). Despite these encouraging results, approximately 20-30% of individuals do not achieve full GAD remission by posttreatment. Non-remitted individuals continue to endorse elevated IU. Moreover, established CBT protocols for GAD are often lengthy and complex, involving multiple therapeutic techniques. Thus, GAD treatment development and evaluation must consider parsimony and efficiency in addition to efficacy. To that end, we developed a novel, focused CBT protocol that targets IU exclusively via behavioural experiments. This cognitive-behavioural technique is an experiential method of testing idiosyncratic beliefs (here, beliefs about uncertainty). Participants with a primary diagnosis of GAD (N = 7) completed 12 sessions of this CBT protocol with a licensed clinical psychologist at a local Montreal hospital. Treatment consisted of three components: (1) psychoeducation and uncertainty awareness training; (2) behavioural experiments targeting beliefs about uncertainty, and (3) relapse prevention. Our results suggest that this CBT protocol produces substantial reductions in GAD symptomatology, IU, and general psychopathology by posttreatment. These changes were generally maintained across a 6-month follow-up period, with some deterioration in safety behaviours, general anxiety, and depression. The majority of participants (6/7) demonstrated moderate to high end-state functioning from posttreatment to 6-month follow-up. Additionally, we examined rapid, non-linear changes in IU, worry, and safety behaviours between treatment sessions. Results indicated that sudden gains in IU tended to occur first and that sudden gains occurring early in treatment were associated with improved long-term treatment outcomes. Overall, our findings suggest that the systematic application of behavioural experiments alone may provide substantial reductions in GAD symptoms and IU.


identifier: Patel, Akash  (2016) Design of an Auto-generated Quote and Engineering Method of Procedure System.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: To be more competitive in the market, many companies are trying to speed up the quotation process,produce quote with more attractive prices, and have identified a need for support in the quotation process. The goal is to reduce the quotation lead-time, and ensure a higher level of accuracy in the estimation of the operation hours. In the case of Ciena, a first investment has been made for an automated quotation system with respect to the equipment/products that are sold by the company (currently under development). However, Ciena is also interested in including the price quotation for customer projects as well, and this is a far more challenging enterprise as it not only includes equipment/products, but services (e.g., circuit, node or ring updating or replacement) and highly specialized manpower. In addition, the execution of the services depends on the quality of the customer network and the experience and expertise of its technical support and type of equipment. The objective of the research project is to design and develop a web-based quote management application in order to semi-automate the quoting process for CIENA internal and external sales or technical engineer personnel.


identifier: Xiong, Wen  (2016) Manufacturing and Fatigue Behavior of Thick Glass/Epoxy Composite Beams.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Fiber-reinforced composite materials have been widely used for manufacturing load-bearing dynamic components in aerospace. One example is the helicopter’s main rotor yoke. Yokes need to be rigid and sufficiently flexible to survive many blade flexing and revolutions. To understand and improve the fatigue life of rotor yoke, a flexural fatigue behavior study was done on the thick glass/epoxy laminate with bolted holes through the thickness. 80 plies unidirectional and cross-ply specimens were manufactured by hand lay-up. The effect of debulking process was discussed. A suitable bagging and curing procedure was used to achieve uniform and acceptable thick glass/epoxy laminates for mechanical tests. The unidirectional and cross-ply specimens were tested on a clamped-clamped fatigue bending fixture. For each of the stacking sequences, test specimens were subjected to four deflection levels. All flexural fatigue tests were conducted under displacement control at 3Hz, with an R-ratio of 0.1 (single sided bending). Thermography was used to record the surface temperature increase, focusing on the crack initiation area. A crack was detected by four ways: sound, visual observation, load drop and thermography. Thermography was found to be an effective in-situ delamination detection method. A 20% reduction of initial load was taken as failure. The cross-ply specimens initiated delaminations more easily than unidirectional specimens. However, the cross-ply specimens had slower crack propagation rate. The unidirectional specimens did not initiate delaminations (at same thickness position) but had shear-out cracks (at different thickness positions) at displacements lower than 20mm. The fatigue lives were up to 1E6 cycles. When subjected to the displacement lower than 21mm, the cross-ply specimens had fatigue life up to 1E6 cycles. For both stacking sequences, the delamination initiated around the second bolted hole area.


identifier: Virk, Ritu Raj Kaur  (2016) Dynamic Evolution of Airline Industry – A Social Network Analysis of Airline Entry into Multipartner Alliances (MPA), Evolution of MPA and Airline Industry Network Structure.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Alliances in the airline industry have existed a long time, but it is only in the 1990s that airlines have entered into partnerships that are broader in scope in the sense that they involve more than two member airlines. These so-called “Multipartner Alliances (MPA)” are the topic of inquiry in this thesis, which aims to better understand the process of airline entry into MPAs, the development of MPA alliance network structure, and the evolution of the entire airline industry network from 1994 to 2007. Accordingly, the thesis undertakes analysis at three levels. At the firm level, I test how involvement in the industry alliance network structure predicts an airline’s entry as a formal member in an MPA. The results indicate that prior direct, indirect ties and position of non-member airline play a crucial role in their MPA entry in the subsequent year. The findings also suggest that beyond exerting individual effects, the independent variables interact and exert a combined effect on the non-member airline MPA entry. At the MPA level of analysis, I explore changes in the structure of alliances that link the members of a given MPA. The results show that over time, on average, MPAs have become substantially larger in size, and their network structures have become less dense and more centralized. Finally, I explore the evolution of small world characteristics in the alliance network structure of the airline industry as a whole. The results of this macro-level analysis suggest that as MPAs have grown in size and changed their internal structural characteristics over time, the small worldliness of the industry network has declined. Finally, the thesis discusses the implications of entry and exit of airlines in MPA on the MPA and airline network structure and vice versa. The exploratory inter-level network analysis suggests that as airlines enter and exit the MPAs, they seem to modify the structural dimensions of MPA and airline network structure, which in turn, might impact the tie formation process among member and non-member airlines. Together, three levels of analysis, provide a holistic picture of the evolution of network structure of airline industry.


identifier: Scott, Braden  (2016) Up and Coming: The Media Mix, Pornoarchaeology, and Architecting of Kent Monkman’s Cinematic World.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Canadian Indigenous multidisciplinary artist Kent Monkman’s work has inspired many scholars to write on contemporary art as an indicator of socio-historical politics pertaining to Indigenous identities, postcolonial atrocities, and queer sexualities. Despite this rather large and emerging field of what I like to call “Monkman studies,” there is a constant avoidance among scholars to discuss how the works themselves instigate conversations around sexuality and race, how their chosen forms of media play a part in this process, and what it means that they exist in and as a network. Up and Coming is a necessary inclusion within Monkman studies that moves with the works as a way to understand how their specific forms of media play a part in the process of politics. This is not an intervention or rerouting of what should be said on Monkman’s work, but rather, a thesis that contributes to the socio-historical complexities of the world he has designed for his artist avatar Miss Chief Eagle Testickle. This is achieved by first closely examining the media used to fabricate Miss Chief’s universe. After establishing Miss Chief as a transmedia figure, I consult media archaeology (through porno-archaeology) in the formation of Monkman’s aesthetic—opening Miss Chief’s world beyond the artist’s oeuvre and into a much larger matrix of relationality and meaning. Monkman screens his films inside museum installations, structures that remix traditional nomadic Indigenous shelters with spaces of cinematic exhibition. Since Miss Chief is part of these films, and the installations double as her boudoirs, I argue that they are architectural nodes that allow viewers to enter the space of her network. Through theories of architectural space, erotic desire as a process of creation, and media archaeology, I place Monkman’s work within a system of knowledge that understands the network as spatialised and necessary in the mediation of Indigenous traditions of storytelling and healing.


identifier: da Estrela, Chelsea  (2016) Daily Parenting Stress and Mood Reactivity: The Role of Sleep Quality.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Parents of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) experience more stress and depressive symptoms than other parents. These parents are also at risk for sleep disturbances. Given that experimental studies indicate that sleep deprivation impairs emotion regulation, poor sleep may increase the risk for mood disturbances in the context of chronic parenting stress. To better understand the role of sleep quality in the relationship between parenting stress and negative mood, 66 parents of children with ASDs completed self-report measures of daily parenting stress, negative mood, and sleep quality (e.g., sleep efficiency, sleep satisfaction) for six consecutive days. Participants also completed a questionnaire assessing depressive symptoms over the previous two weeks. Hierarchical linear modeling revealed that daily negative mood was predicted by between-subject differences in parenting stress, between-subject differences in sleep efficiency, and within-subject differences in sleep satisfaction. Further, sleep quality moderated the impact of parenting stress on mood. Parents who experienced more parenting stress and reported poorer sleep efficiency than other parents experienced more negative mood. Further, parents who experienced more parenting stress reported more negative mood following a night where they had poorer sleep satisfaction than usual, compared to parents exposed to less parenting stress. Sleep satisfaction also fully mediated the relationship between parenting stress and depressive symptoms. Consistent with theories of the emotion regulation function of sleep, sleep disturbances may diminish parents’ ability to cope with the daily challenges of living with a child with ASD, thereby exacerbating the association between daily stress and negative mood.
Further, high parenting stress may increase the impact of transient sleep disturbances on mood.


identifier: Zhao, Pengfei  (2016) Digital Image Correlation to Evaluate Plastic Shrinkage Cracking in Cement-Based Materials.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Fresh concrete exposed to a drying environment is susceptible to plastic shrinkage cracking, which could result in negative impacts on concrete durability. In the current ASTM standard, plastic shrinkage cracking is evaluated by the average crack width measured at 24 hours after concrete placement, considering that the traditional crack measurement tools cannot be used on fresh concrete. In this project, a non-contact strain measurement technique based on digital image correlation (DIC) was applied to study the behavior of plastic shrinkage cracking. In the experimental program, the effects of air temperature, wind velocity, water to cement ratio (w/c), and substrate roughness on plastic shrinkage cracking were investigated. Several cement paste specimens were tested separately in a controlled environmental chamber. A series of digital images was taken above the specimen surface throughout each experiment. DIC analysis was then performed on these images. The crack areas were also determined based on the images using MATLAB functions. It was found that DIC can provide a series of strain contour maps that helped to understand the process of plastic shrinkage cracking. The accumulations of tensile and compressive strains can be used to illustrate the cracking intensity and the overall shrinkage, respectively. The evolutions of the maximum tensile and compressive strains can be used to indicate the time to first crack and the shrinkage capacity, respectively. The effects of air temperature, wind velocity, w/c, and substrate roughness were well explained by both the DIC analysis results and crack areas computed in MATLAB.


identifier: Bahrami, Sahar  (2016) The Higgs Triplet Model: mixing in the neutral sector, vector-like fermions, and dark matter.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

format: text text

abstract:
The inability to predict neutrino masses and the existence of Dark Matter (DM) are two essential shortcomings of the Standard Model. This thesis is a phenomenological study of a Beyond the Standard Model (BSM) scenario, Higgs Triplet Model (HTM) and effects of introducing vector-like leptons and quarks on the Higgs sector in the model. The HiggsTriplet Model provides an elegant resolution to the first problem via the seesaw mechanism. Introducing a full representation of vector-like leptons can solve the DM problem of the HTM by assigning a vector-like neutrino to be the DM candidate. As a result, two important problems in SM will be resolved.

Within this context, after a review of the main concepts, we first revisit the neutral Higgs sector of the Higgs Triplet Model. We show that, under general considerations, an unmixed neutral Higgs boson cannot have an enhanced decay branching ratio into γγ with respect to the Standard Model one, while an enhancement is possible for the mixed case, but only for the heavier of the two neutral Higgs bosons. We then analyze the implications of introducing
vector-like leptons in the Higgs Triplet Model. We show that, if the vector-like leptons are allowed to be relatively light, they enhance or suppress the decay rates of loop-dominated neutral Higgs bosons decays H → γγ and H → Zγ, as well as alter the decay patterns of the doubly-charged Higgs bosons, modifying the restrictions on their masses. We also look at the effects of vector-like quarks (singlets, doublets or triplets) in the Higgs Triplet Model.
Though the new Higgs in the model couple to leptons only, some vector-like quarks help improve electroweak precision measurements and thus lift the mass of the doubly charged Higgs boson to within experimental limits. We also study the effects of introducing the vector-like quarks on the loop-dominated neutral Higgs decays.

We show that introducing vector-like leptons in the model also provides a resolution to the problem of Dark Matter. We investigate the invisible decay width of the Higgs boson and the electroweak precision variables, and impose restrictions on model parameters. We analyze the relic density constraint and calculate the cross sections for indirect and direct dark matter detection. With appropriate parameter restrictions, the Higgs Triplet Model with vector-like
fermions is rendered completely consistent with the data.


identifier: Ebrahimi, Mohammadreza  (2016) Automatic Identification of Online Predators in Chat Logs by Anomaly Detection and Deep Learning.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Providing a safe environment for juveniles and children in online social networks is considered as a major factor in improving public safety. Due to the prevalence of the online conversations, mitigating the undesirable effects of juvenile abuse in cyberspace has become inevitable. Using automatic ways to address this kind of crime is challenging and demands efficient and scalable data mining techniques. The problem can be casted as a combination of textual preprocessing in data/text mining and binary classification in machine learning. This thesis proposes two machine learning approaches to deal with the following two issues in the domain of online predator identification: 1) The first problem is gathering a comprehensive set of negative training samples which is unrealistic due to the nature of the problem. This problem is addressed by applying an existing method for semi-supervised anomaly detection that allows the training process based on only one class label. The method was tested on two datasets; 2) The second issue is improving the performance of current binary classification methods in terms of classification accuracy and F1-score. In this regard, we have customized a deep learning approach called Convolutional Neural Network to be used in this domain. Using this approach, we show that the classification performance (F1-score) is improved by almost 1.7% compared to the classification method (Support Vector Machine). Two different datasets were used in the empirical experiments: PAN-2012 and SQ (Sûreté du Québec). The former is a large public dataset that has been used extensively in the literature and the latter is a small dataset collected from the Sûreté du Québec.


identifier: Cardoso, Christopher  (2016) The role of oxytocin in distress-motivated social support seeking.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Oxytocin is a hormone and neuropeptide that is traditionally known for its role in parturition and lactation in women. In the last few decades, researchers have theorized that oxytocin is involved in the human stress response. This theory, known as tend-and-befriend, posits that oxytocin promotes social support seeking in humans during stressful situations by inhibiting the traditional fight-or-flight response, promoting attention to socio-emotional stimuli, and enhancing feelings of trust. This theoretical framework, however, has received little attention by way of supporting evidence in human experimental research. In this dissertation, four studies are presented that investigate the role of oxytocin in (1) regulating the cortisol response to stress, (2) enhancing the perception of emotion in human faces, and (3) promoting trust and social-support seeking in distressed people, particularly women. Across these studies, oxytocin is experimentally manipulated using a nasal spray to examine its effects in humans in a double blind, placebo-controlled fashion. In the first study, a 24IU dose of intranasal oxytocin was shown to inhibit cortisol rise during physical stress. In the second study, oxytocin enhanced the perception of emotion in human faces. In the third study, oxytocin selectively improved dispositional trust in distressed participants following a stress induction, but not in those whose mood was euthymic in response to stress. In the final study, oxytocin increased perceived support in women during negative memory recall in the company of an experimenter, and decreased perceived support while recalling such memories in social isolation. Taken together, the results of this thesis support the role of oxytocin in stress-regulation and social cognition in humans. These results also suggest that the effect of oxytocin on social bonding (i.e. trust) may be dependent on the experience of distress, and that oxytocin-motivated social support seeking may have positive and negative consequences in both sexes, particularly in women, depending on the availability of social contact. This oxytocin-induced facilitation of social support seeking might explain why humans, particularly women, are more susceptible to stress-related mental illnesses such as major depressive disorder in the face of social conflict or in the absence of supportive social relationships.


identifier: Bin Alam, Ahmad Ferdous  (2016) A Cloud Platform-as-a-Service for Multimedia Conferencing Service Provisioning.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Multimedia Conferencing is the real-time exchange of media content (e.g. voice, video and text) between multiple participants. It is the basis of a wide range of conferencing applications such as massively multi-player online games and distance learning applications. For faster development as well as cost efficiency, developers of such conferencing applications can use conferencing services (e.g. dial-in audio conference) provided by third-parties. However, the third-party service providers face several challenges with respect to conferencing service provisioning (i.e. service development, deployment and management). One challenge is mastering complex low-level details of conferencing technologies, protocols and their interactions. Another challenge is resource elasticity. Number of conference participants varies during runtime. So resource utilization in an elastic manner is a critical factor to achieve cost efficiency.

Cloud Computing can help tackle these challenges. It is a paradigm for swiftly provisioning a shared pool of configurable resources (e.g. services, applications, network and storage) on demand. It has three main service models: Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS). Using a PaaS, service providers can provision conferencing services easily and offer them as SaaS. Nonetheless, cloud-based provisioning of conferencing services still remains a big challenge due to the shortcomings of existing PaaS.

In this thesis, a PaaS architecture for conferencing service provisioning is proposed. It is based on a business model from the state of the art. It relies on conferencing IaaSs that, instead of VMs, offer conferencing substrates (e.g. dial-in signaling, video mixer and audio mixer). The conferencing PaaS enables composition of new conferences from substrates on the fly. Moreover, it provides conferencing service providers, who are experienced in programming, with high-level interfaces to abstract the internal complexities of conferencing. In order for PaaS to scale ongoing conferences elastically, an algorithm is also presented in this thesis. The conferencing PaaS is prototyped and performance measurements are made. The proposed algorithm’s performance is also evaluated.


identifier: El Khoury, Samia  (2016) Dynamic Hedging Strategies Based on Changing the Pricing Parameters for Compound Ratchets.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Equity-Indexed Annuity products (EIAs) are becoming increasingly popular as they are tax-deferred accumulation vehicles that offer participation in the equity market growth while keeping the initial capital protected. This thesis focuses in particular on a special type of EIAs; the Compound Ratchet (CR). Sellers of this product, such as insurance companies and banks, retain the right to change one of the pricing parameters on each contract anniversary date, while promising not to cross a certain predetermined threshold. Changing these parameters can sometimes have an impact on the value of the EIA, which makes them interesting to study, especially when the issuer's changing policy is not clear. In order to reproduce the pattern of these changing parameters, a new approach of dynamically hedging the CR EIA and simultaneously protecting the issuer from hedging risk is proposed and tested.

Assuming the Black-Scholes Financial framework and in the absence of mortality risk, closed-form solutions for the price and value of the CR EIA at any time throughout the contract term are obtained and then used to find the Greeks, which are in turn used build the hedging strategies. In reality, trading can only be done in discrete time, which produces hedging errors. A detailed numerical example shows that the Gamma-hedging strategy outperforms the Delta-hedging strategy by reducing the magnitude of these errors. However hedging risk still exists, therefore, the new approach is applied to transfer the errors from the issuer to the buyer by dynamically changing the pricing parameters. Additionally in the numerical example, the distribution of these parameters is extracted and analyzed, as well as the resulting reduction in the hedging errors, which represent the reduced cost for the issuer.


identifier: Saboori, Ehsan  (2016) Hybrid prototyping of multicore embedded systems.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Multicore platforms are becoming increasingly pervasive in modern embedded systems. System level modeling techniques have enabled creation of fast software models of multicore platforms, commonly known as Virtual Prototypes, for early functional validation of embedded software, before the hardware is available. On the other hand, for accurate performance validation, the complete multicore platform can be implemented as a physical prototype on FPGA. Both virtual platforms and FPGA prototypes have their respective pros and cons. Virtual platforms have the advantage of high speed functional simulation and, typically, scale well with the number of cores. However, the accuracy of performance estimation is sacrificed. FPGA prototypes provide cycle-accurate performance estimation, because the software executes directly on an FPGA implementation of the target cores. However, it takes a significant amount of time to design, implement and test the inter-core communication architecture on the FPGA.
In this thesis we propose to design a novel system-level modeling framework, called Hybrid Prototyping. Our goal is to provide the benefits of both virtual platforms and FPGA prototypes. It aims to provide early, fast, and scalable models, similar to virtual platforms, along with the cycle-accuracy of FPGA prototypes. Using hybrid prototyping, embedded software designers will be able to create concurrent applications and accurately analyze the performance implication of their optimizations before the chip is delivered. At the same time, multicore architects will be able to modify the platform model without having to do full system prototyping. Therefore, hybrid prototyping will enable early and reliable multicore embedded system design, resulting in huge productivity gains for both embedded software designers and multicore chip architects.


identifier: Ding, Yao  (2016) Quality of Real Estate Crowdfunding.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

title: Quality of Real Estate Crowdfunding

abstract: Crowdfunding has prospered in recent years because of regulation adjustments. It provides new opportunities for entrepreneurs and investors. This thesis presents the first-ever empirical examination of the quality of real estate crowdfunding projects and primarily addresses two questions. First, due to relatively less sophisticated small investors, herd effect, group cognitive bias, and the non-tradability of crowdfunding, real estate crowdfunding properties could be worse than other real estate properties in terms of property characteristics, leasing, and sales transactions. Empirical results indicate that real estate crowdfunding properties are not evidently worse within the metropolitan statistical area (MSA) and neighborhood, but they do fare more poorly than their comparables in sales transactions. Second, this thesis suggests that failed real estate crowdfunding projects are riskier, are managed by less qualified sponsors, and are located in less attractive areas.


identifier: Shlaifer, Irina  (2016) Biochemical and biophysical characterization of TyrA enzymes from symbiotic hyperthermophilic archaea Nanoarchaeum equitans and Ignicoccus hospitalis.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
The biosynthesis of L-tyrosine (L-Tyr) and L-phenylalanine (L-Phe) is directed by the interplay of three enzymes. Chorismate mutase (CM) catalyzes the rearrangement of chorismate to prephenate, which can be either converted to hydroxyphenylpyruvate by prephenate dehydrogenase (PD) or to phenylpyruvate by prephenate dehydratase (PDT). This work reports the first characterization of both the trifunctional PD-CM-PDT from the smallest hyperthermophilc archaeon (Nanoarchaeum equitans) and the bifunctional CM-PD from its host (the crenarchaeon Ignicoccus hospitalis). Hexa histidine-tagged proteins were expressed in Escherichia coli and purified by chromatography on Ni-NTA affinity resin. Both enzymes were highly thermally stable and exhibited maximal activity at 90°C. CM, PD and PDT activities were detected at temperatures consistent with enzymes from extreme thermophiles. Kinetic analysis revealed that unlike most PDs, the two archaeal enzymes were insensitive to regulation by L-Tyr and preferred NADP+ to NAD+ as a cofactor in the dehydrogenase reaction. N. equitans PDT was feedback inhibited by L-Phe (Ki = 0.8 μM) in a non-competitive fashion consistent with L-Phe’s combination at a site separate from that of prephenate. Gel filtration and analytical ultracentrifugation analysis of bifunctional CM-PD from I. hospitalis suggested that the enzyme is a native dimer. Limited proteolysis studies revealed that the enzyme is highly resistant to proteolysis but could be cleaved to yield a stable C-terminal PD domain. Mass spectrometry and mutagenesis studies confirmed that the PD domain of bifunctional I. hospitalis CM-PD could be independently isolated and expressed. Biochemical and biophysical characterization of this active truncated variant was performed and the results of solution studies were compared to those of the full-length protein and to information available from other PD enzymes. Guided by amino acid sequence alignment predictions and
by models based on the available crystal structures of bacterial homologues, eight variants containing site-specific replacements were generated in I. hospitalis CM-PD as attempts to alter cofactor selectivity and substrate and end-product binding. Those variant proteins were kinetically characterized in order to help define the role of active site residues in substrate/ inhibitor interactions. These are the first studies exploring the aromatic amino acid biosynthetic pathway from the two archaeal organisms, which provide efficient and stable catalysts as excellent candidates for applications in biotechnology.


identifier: Randhawa Glory, Amandeep K  (2016) Characterization of the polo-like kinase Cdc5p and its influence on mitosis and morphogenesis in Candida albicans.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Candida albicans is a commensal fungus in humans, but can cause infections with high mortality rates.  Cell proliferation and differentiation between yeast and hyphae are important for virulence and survival in the host.  An understanding of their regulation may reveal new targets for therapeutic strategies.  My work aimed to elucidate the regulation of mitosis in C. albicans, a poorly understood process, and focussed on characterizing the roles of a Polo-like kinase (Plk), Cdc5p.  Plks are critical regulators of many aspects of mitosis in diverse organisms.  Previous work demonstrated that depleting Cdc5p in C. albicans yeast resulted in a block in spindle elongation and mitosis, followed by formation of filaments and expression of hyphal-specific virulence genes, under yeast growth conditions.  However, the mechanisms underlying Cdc5p function, mitotic progression, formation of novel filaments and expression of virulence genes, remained unclear.

In order to address these questions, I first investigated a putative Cdc5p target, the Anaphase-Promoting Complex/Cyclosome (APC/C).  In Chapter 2, I showed that APC/C co-activators Cdc20p and Cdh1p had some conservation in mitotic function, and may lie downstream of Cdc5p.  However, additional novel features suggest variations in the mitotic circuitry.

I next investigated the identity of the Cdc5p-depleted filaments, since this was controversial.  We hypothesized that the cells were elongated yeast buds that failed to switch from polar to isometric growth, but adapted a hyphal fate over time due to maintenance of polarized growth.  In Chapter 3, time course assays demonstrated that hyphal-diagnostic features emerged in Cdc5p-depleted filaments at only later growth stages, in agreement with our hypothesis.  Our results expand on the strategies that C. albicans can utilize to modulate growth and virulence determinants.

I further addressed the mechanisms of Cdc5p function during mitosis and morphogenesis in Chapter 4 by screening for interacting factors.  I discovered a novel, Candida-specific factor, CPI1 (C. albicans Plk-interacting protein), which was not essential for growth but required to maintain mitotic arrest and may interact with the splicesome.  Collectively, the work enhances our knowledge of mitotic regulation in C. albicans, and underscores variations in the regulatory circuitry that have important implications for controlling growth.


identifier: Morteza Pouraghdam, Rasoul  (2016) Numerical Analysis and Experiments on the Acoustics of Conch Shells Modelled as Spiral Cavities.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
The wave propagation behavior in spiral cavity of a conch shell is studied. A conch shell consists of a spiral inner cavity where if excited by lip-vibration, a highly resonating sound with harmonic modes is produced. In order to understand how sound is generated in a conch shell, we used X-ray tomography scans to model the shell’s unwrapped inner cavity and measured how well the model matches the experimental data. Experiments were carried out in a semi-anechoic chamber where the conch shell was played using: (i). Lip-excitation (ii). Loudspeaker sine-sweep excitation and (iii). Excitation using an electro-pneumatic
transducer. The recorded sounds were analyzed in terms of their frequency components and directivity of the emanating sound. Moreover, we approximated a shell’s inner spiral cavity to a straight tube based on the X-ray data
measurements, and to affirm its validity, we compare the resonance modes of the approximated straight tube to the modes recorded from the lip-excited conch shell. Finally, we study wave propagation in conical and exponential spiral strings and tubes in more general cases, where numerical simulation is carried out whenever the theoretical solutions are hard to find. In the case of the strings, we also computed the resonance modes as well as the time dependent behaviour.


identifier: Ernewein, Gabriel  (2016) Émergence d’un féminisme africain dans la littérature africaine féminine postcoloniale. Étude diachronique du féminisme dans trois romans sénégalais.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: La littérature féminine africaine propose un reflet de la situation du féminisme africain. Dans cette étude diachronique de trois romans sénégalais, nous tentons d’explorer l’évolution de l’expression de ce féminisme. Ainsi, nous proposons la lecture analytique d’Une si longue lettre de Mariama Bâ (1981), du Baobab fou de Ken Bugul (1984) et enfin de Celles qui attendent par Fatou Diome (2010). Nous montrons comment la maturation du féminisme africain passe par la complexité de la reconstruction identitaire et nécessite de dépasser une angoisse. Cette angoisse de la femme africaine, nous nous proposons de l’analyser sur trois décennies, dans des contextes politico-sociaux différents. Ceux-ci régissent la réaction des femmes africaines à ce que nous définissons comme étant la seconde vague de colonisation. Ce double combat, entre reconstruction identitaire et dépassement de l’angoisse, se mène différemment selon la situation des auteures. Ainsi, tandis que la Ramatoulaye de Mariama Bâ tient bon face aux assauts des mœurs polygames qui transforment son mariage en cauchemar, la protagoniste de Ken Bugul s’égare dans la marginalité pour mieux comprendre son ennemi dans l’absence d’identité. Enfin, Fatou Diome expose un tableau complet de la femme rurale contemporaine sénégalaise à travers la voix de quatre femmes d’âge et de tempéraments différents. On y redécouvre la nécessaire complémentarité homme-femme sur un ton poétique qui réconcilie les Africains avec leur terre natale.


identifier: Halawi, Ali  (2016) Policy Transfer in a Politicized Public Administration The Case of Abu Dhabi’s Preventive Public Health Policy: WEQAYA.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: This dissertation seeks to answer the following question: Why do governments forge ahead and import policies, from remote and very culturally dissimilar areas at times, when these policies have low chances of success? This question is explored by analyzing a preventive public health initiative for diabetes mellitus and cardiovascular diseases that was imported from Finland and adopted by policy actors in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi. Despite the cultural, contextual, geographical, and environmental dissimilarities between the two countries, officials chose a program from a rural Finnish province (North Karelia) to combat the high rate of diabetes mellitus and cardiovascular diseases among Abu Dhabi’s population. However, the policy that was successful in North Karelia did not achieve the desired results in Abu Dhabi. This dissertation offers a bi-partite investigation of the policy transfer process and the implementation outcome. The first section states that specific policy transfer agents, namely expatriate civil servants who were not born, raised, or trained in the importing country, influence ‘what’ and ‘where from’ policies are imported. It argues that the highly politicized structure of Abu Dhabi’s public administration institutions, coupled with the demand for quick results and the lack of local policy-making capacity, leave these expatriate civil servants with little choice but to tackle local problems with foreign solutions with which they are more familiar. The second section addresses some of the reasons behind the perceived failure of transferred policies in Abu Dhabi. On the one hand, it argues that, being unempowered and unchallenged, expatriate civil servants face obstacles that hinder their ability to tackle issues that may arise during implementation or to address sensitive topics that may underlie policy challenges. On the other hand, the culture of competition, rather than cooperation, in public policy-making among governmental organizations substantially decreases transferred policies’ chances of success. The evaluation of the outcome of the implementation is used as point of departure to analyze the entire process. This matters in that it highlights the influence of a politicized public administration on policy transfer in particular and public policy in general. It is also significant because it demonstrates how to better recognize problematic policy transfer by evaluating a combination of factors: the process of transfer, the structure of the importing institution, and the motives of the agent of transfer. By ensuring that receiving institutions can properly incorporate and implement imported solutions, importing countries can increase policy transfers’ chances of success. This contributes to understanding a specific type of policy transfer agent and transfer process in the Gulf Cooperation Council region, where the proportion of expatriate civil servants is large. This may also be applicable in other countries that recruit expatriate civil servants or individual consultants to play a role in the policy-making process.


identifier: Badihi, Hamed  (2016) Monitoring, Diagnosis, and Fault-Tolerant Control of Wind Turbines.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Governments across the globe are funding renewable energy initiatives like wind energy to diversify energy resources and promote a greater environmental responsibility. Such an opportunity requires state-of-the-art technologies to realize the required levels of efficiency, reliability, and availability in modern wind turbines. The key enabling technologies for ensuring reliable and efficient operation of modern wind turbines include advanced condition monitoring and diagnosis together with fault-tolerant and efficiency/optimal control. Application of the mentioned technologies in wind turbines constitutes a quite active and, in many aspects, interdisciplinary investigation area that ensures a guaranteed increasing future market for wind energy. In particular, this thesis aims to design and develop novel condition monitoring, diagnosis and fault-tolerant control schemes with application to wind turbines at both individual wind turbine and entire wind farm (i.e., a group of wind turbines) levels. Therefore, the research of the thesis provides advanced levels of monitoring, diagnosis and fault tolerance capabilities to wind turbines in order to ensure their efficient and reliable performance under both fault-free and faulty conditions. Finally, the proposed schemes and strategies are verified by a series of simulations on well-known wind turbine and wind farm benchmark models in the presence of wind turbulences, measurement noises, and different realistic fault scenarios.