identifier: DeLeskie, Robert  (2000) The Underwood stereograph travel system : a historical and cultural analysis.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: This study considers the implications of the "stereoscopic tours" and Travel System produced by the American photographic concern Underwood & Underwood, c. 1897-1912 from the perspective of social and cultural history. After providing an account of the history of the European and American stereo industries, a cultural-contextual reading of stereoscopic tourism is offered. This reading focuses on two main aspects of late 19 th century American society: middle-class tourism, and burgeoning U.S. expansionism. A conclusion points the way to further study by considering the stereograph's role in the shift towards the visual bias of knowledge.


identifier: Assem, Ihab  (2000) Estimating productivity losses due to change orders.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

type: Thesis NonPeerReviewed

abstract: This thesis presents a computer model for quantifying the adverse impact of change orders on construction productivity. In order to provide an in-depth analysis of change orders and develop a reliable model, a comprehensive field study was carried out. The field study was conducted at a Montreal based firm, specialized in project management and construction claims. A total of 117 actual projects, constructed in Canada and the USA between 1990 and 1998, were initially analyzed for possible use in the developments made in this thesis. Only 33 work-packages from these projects were utilized in the development of the present model. These work packages have an original total value of more than $110M, planned direct hours of 1,023,583 for the original scope of work and a total of change orders direct hours of 166,002. Additional cases, obtained from the literature, were used to supplement the collected data in order to improve the reliability of the developed model.  The analyzed cases are used to model the timing effect of change orders as well as the work type on productivity losses. The data collected was used in the development of ten neural network models for predicting percent productivity loss. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)


identifier: Li, Jianguo  (2001) A framework of individual consumer's acceptance of online shopping.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: The main purpose of this research is to identify what determinants influence an individual consumer's intention to adopt online shopping.  One of the main branches of Internet business is online shopping. In academic literature, online shopping is often studied as a new retailing channel in marketing literature. By viewing online shopping as a new kind of IT, this paper attempted to explain and predict customers' intention of adopting online shopping. Ten proposed hypotheses were then empirically tested by using data collected from survey.  The results indicate that the relative advantage of online shopping, the compatibility of online shopping, the voluntariness of individual consumer's doing online shopping, customers' prior experience, and consumer innovativeness are positively correlated with individual consumer's intention of adopting online shopping. On contrary, both the transaction cost involved in purchasing goods online and a customer's sensitivity to risk have negative correlation relationship with his/her adoption intention. Two topics--adoption process and post sale service of online shopping were suggested for future research.


identifier: Woodford, Gillian  (2000) 'Poore broaken propertyes' : Rochester and the crisis of aristocratic authority.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: This study is an exploration of the socio-economic implications of John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester's libertine poetic expression in the context of his function as a Restoration court poet at the junction of the incipient economic revolution and the final decline of the political and ideological influence of the aristocracy. This is achieved by locating his place in literary history through comparison with earlier Renaissance writers and his interpretation of established literary forms, especially those traditionally associated with court literature. The specific topics explored are Rochester's use of Augustan wit as a function of aristocratic authority, and his transformation of the pastoral idiom in light of the changing perception of property in the late seventeenth century.


identifier: Trumbach, Monica  (2000) Rethinking the female body : gender and nation in Zee Edgell's Belize.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: This study explores Zee Edgell's literary representations of women who challenge destructive gender ideologies in Belize, Central America. My analysis focusses on the roles women's bodies play in their oppression, resistance and transformations of consciousness. The aim is to discover where sexual and political issues intersect, parallel or reinforce each other in the novels. My findings are contextualized in the conclusions of recent empirical studies on women's conditions in Belize. Considering how knowledge is constructed in Belize's material reality exposes a mutual articulation of Edgell's textual issues and the prime socio-political concerns facing women in the country today. Furthermore, it yields the understanding that the nation's political history as a British colony and its nationalist movement in the late-twentieth century were visible forces in shaping both the social conscience and the private consciousness in modern-day Belize.


identifier: Kernohan, Susan  (2000) This all works well up to a point.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

title: This all works well up to a point

abstract: This All Works Well Up to a Point is a long poem about the accidental death of a brother and the experience of grief. The poem examines how family relationships are complicated by the accident and how the speaker initially retreats from and then confronts the changes death brings to her family. The poem's five sections explore the untrustworthy nature of memory, a family's history of accidental deaths, and the rich geological history of the landscape the speaker's family has inhabited for several generations. It is her meditation upon these subjects that provides a broad context in which to understand and accept the death. The long poem consists of lyric poems, prose blocks, lists, song lyrics, and dialogue presented in a non-chronological sequence.


identifier: Gaetz, Lynne  (2000) Wicked widows, crazy spinsters, and competent heroines : the single woman in sentimental fiction.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Since the 1970s, a number of critics have given critical attention to sentimental fiction. In 1977 and 1985 respectively, Ann Douglas and Jane Tompkins set the terms for almost all subsequent arguments about antebellum female authors. What critics have not done is given particular attention to the models of single women that appear in sentimental fiction.  This study aims to examine such models: the aggressive, evil mother-surrogate, the eccentric fool, and the innocent girl who grows up to be an independent single woman. The evil single woman who torments the heroine and the eccentric spinster appear in such traditional sentimental novels Catharine Maria Sedgwick's A New England Tale , Susan Warner's The Wide, Wide World and Maria Susanna Cummins' The Lamplighter . Fanny Fern's Ruth Hall , Harriet Wilson's Our Nig and Harriet Jacobs's Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl borrow narrative strategies from the sentimental genre, but they also subvert that genre by redefining and radicalizing the virtuous heroine. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)


identifier: Goodwin, Kara  (2000) Narrating silences : silence, voice and history in the prose of Dionne Brand, M. Nourbese Philip, and Joy Kogawa.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Joy Kogawa's Obasan , M. Nourbese Philip's Looking for Livingstone: An Odyssey of Silence and Dionne Brand's Sans Souci and Other Stories are compared to examine how these fictions explicate the relationship between silence, voice, and language through their revisions of history. Language is problematic to these writers because it is ideologically charged with their non-belonging on the basis of their race and gender. Contradictions in language divide concepts such as silence/voice and past/present and privilege certain ideas over others. The texts studied undertake to resolve their issues with language as part of the process of coming into voice. In various degrees, these texts acknowledge and revalue silence as a defense against a totalizing history and as a means of explicating the condition of language. In addition, the thesis compares how the revisionary projects that these fictions undertake map back to the material reality of the Canadian nation within which they were created.


identifier: D'Antoni, Leanne  (2000) Loon : a novel.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

title: Loon : a novel

abstract: Loon is a novel that investigates familial relationships within a framework of biblical parallels. Like many seventeen-year-olds, the narrator questions her identity and her role within society--which in this instance have been shaped by her mother's insistence that she is the Second Coming.  Her mother's mental dysfunction and religious idolatry determine April's place in society and within her own family as a misfit, ultimately preventing a relationship between mother and daughter. Coloured by insanity and Christianity, Loon is about an adolescent attempting to establish her own identity beyond that which her mother has assigned her. In that sense, this novel investigates the familiar pattern of mother-daughter relationships through an ironic parallel with the Christian notion of God as the Father and God as the Son.


identifier: O'Brien, Waltraud Trudy  (2000) The acceptability of writing by second language engineering students : acculturating to a profession.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Acculturation to a specialized field such as engineering is difficult for any novice, but especially so for writers who must achieve competency in the linguistic, cultural, academic, and professional norms of their second language. Technical reports written by both native English-speaking students (NES) and students who use English as a second language (ESL) for a university undergraduate engineering course are analyzed in terms of their respective performance levels as well as in relation to demographic information. This is done to ascertain whether differences between the NES and ESL students' results are due to variables beyond the obvious language-related factors. Analysis of the findings reveal that although NES and ESL students attained similar means on their writing task, ESL students had compensated for conceptual or linguistic weaknesses through mastery of structural (organization and format) aspects of the report. Demographic and other non-linguistic factors are also found to have a complex influence on the writing proficiency levels of the ESL students.  A subset of twenty reports is submitted for further blind assessment by professional engineers in order to discover whether the acceptability of the reports to professionals in the field is language-dependent or whether factors relating to levels of acculturation to the writing demands of the discipline of engineering are at play. The assessors' responses reveal common assumptions about professional technical writing requirements, thus invoking membership in a rhetorical discourse community for engineering. However, they are also shown to be diverse in their applications of its rules, both in assessing the quality of each report and in deciding whether to hire the student writer as a junior engineer. The specific features of acceptability and acculturation to engineering writing lend themselves not simply to analysis and description, but also to explicit instruction in English for specific purposes, with concomitant benefits to the profession as a whole.


identifier: Millington, Darren  (2000) Integrating a writing component into a collegiate-level drawing course.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: This study describes the integration of writing exercises into a college-level drawing course. The written exercises encouraged students to think metaphorically about and reflect on the technical processes of drawing, as well as the personal meanings which underlie the expressive side to their drawing. Through participant observation, this study describes how novice drawers' use of this written component enhanced students' understanding of the drawing process within the art studio classroom. This study attempts to prove that a teaching approach which consciously links both visual and verbal languages can be helpful to some students in the art studio. What is important is that by bringing the written word into the drawing classroom, students were given a means of expanding their thinking about the products and the process of their drawing activities. By making students more aware of the visual and verbal processes involved in the drawing studio, by helping to illuminate the possible meanings underlying their work, and by allowing them to understand the story of their drawing experiences, the written word became a vital tool in this drawing curriculum. For these students, drawing became not only a means of capturing the students' perceptions of the observed world, but also a means of furthering their reflection of, and creating meaning out of those perceptions.


identifier: Girard, Gabriel  (2000) Views and consistencies in distributed shared memory.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: paradigm in parallel and distributed environments. However, DSM often suffers from performance problems as consistency requirements often incur long access latencies that cannot be overlapped with other operations in a process. Sequential consistency is the most general consistency requirement for DSM systems.  This thesis explores two different avenues to solve the performance problem for DSM systems. First, for sequentially consistent DSM, we introduce a new strategy to minimize synchronization cost and maximize the hiding of synchronization delays in a process. The strategy is based on the knowledge of spatial locality in the sharing of memory objects. An access graph is used to capture the sharing relationship among processes via the shared objects. We show that if accesses in all cycles are 'properly' synchronized, then the execution is guaranteed to be sequentially consistent. We develop two distinct solution strategies to ensure proper synchronization. (i) Neighbor protocol: conflicting accesses between two neighbors in an access cycle must be synchronized, and (ii) flush protocol: asynchronous accesses in an access cycle must be eventually synchronized by a special flush-access in the cycle. Simulation experiments have shown significant improvements in performance in our protocols, especially in the case of the flush protocol.  Another strategy to improve performance of DSM systems is to adopt a weaker consistency model so that blocking among some memory operations can be removed. In this thesis, we use the primitive notion of program-order and value-order to define global view. Using this as a seed, various consistency models evolve and form multiple hierarchies of models. The creation of these models and hierarchies comes via one of the following means: (i) a global view is augmented with additional ordering among its operations whenever some orderings exist, or (ii) besides linearizability of a global view, certain orderings must not co-exist in it. The former involves augmentation rules, and the latter involves causality requirements. The creation of these hierarchies leads to several novel consequences: the notion of exact implementation is introduced, new protocols are discovered and the precise analysis of access behaviors of an application is now possible.


identifier: Alata, Mohanad  (2001) Control of nonlinear systems using Sugeno fuzzy approximators.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: This thesis deals with the issue of controlling nonlinear systems by integrating available classical as well as modern tools such as fuzzy logic and neural networks. The proposed approaches throughout this thesis are based on the well known first-order Sugeno fuzzy system. To achieve a better understanding of the approximation and interpolation capabilities of Sugeno fuzzy system, the influence of the fuzzy set parameters and the reasoning method on the interpolation function of the fuzzy system is investigated. Control of nonlinear system based on known dynamic is considered first. A fuzzy gain scheduling approach is developed. The proposed approach is based on quasi-linear dynamic models of the plant. Classical optimal controllers for each set of operating conditions were developed. These controllers are used to construct a single fuzzy-logic gain scheduling-like controller. Adaptive-neuro-fuzzy inference system was used to construct the rules for the fuzzy gain schedule. This will guarantee the continuous change in the gains as the system parameters change in time or space. This procedure is systematic and can be used to design controllers for many nonlinear systems. Also, a modeling approach of some known types of static nonlinearities is proposed. Control of nonlinear system with unknown dynamic is also considered. An adaptive feedback control scheme for the tracking of a class of continuous-time plants is presented. A parameterized Sugeno fuzzy approximator is used to adaptively compensate for the plant nonlinearities. All parameters in the fuzzy approximator are tuned using a Luapunov-based design. In the fuzzy approximator, a first-order Sugeno consequent is used in the IF-THEN rules of the fuzzy system, which has a better approximation capability compared with that of a constant consequent. Global boundedness of the adaptive system is established. Finally, simulation and experimentation are used to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed controllers.


identifier: Morcous, George  (2000) Case-based reasoning for modeling bridge deterioration.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Transportation infrastructure, especially highway bridges, is characterized by their growing deterioration rate. Increased traffic loads, severity of environmental conditions, and deferred maintenance decisions are the main reasons for this rapid deterioration. Transportation agencies have developed Bridge Management Systems (BMS's) to select optimal maintenance actions and to predict future funding needs. BMS's require bridge deterioration models to predict the future condition of bridges and to estimate their remaining service life. Most of the state-of-the-art BMS's employ Markov Decision Process (MDP) in modeling bridge deterioration. The main shortcomings of Markovian models are that they assume state independence, neglect improvement actions taken in the past, and overlook the interaction of bridge components. Moreover, these models are difficult to update when new data are obtained or a different rating system is used.  In this research, a Case-Based Reasoning (CBR) approach was introduced to provide BMS's with a realistic, accurate, and generic deterioration model that eliminates the previous shortcomings. This approach predicts the future condition of a query bridge case by retrieving bridge cases stored in the BMS database that are similar to the query case in their physical features, environmental and operating conditions, and previous inspection and maintenance records.  To implement this approach, a CBR shell called CBRMID was developed to be used in modeling the deterioration of any infrastructure facility. This shell was designed to meet a set of requirements, such as hierarchical decomposition of cases, representation of time-dependent data, data accumulation, case adaptation, data derivation, system modularity, versatility, and extensibility. CBRMID consists of three main modules: (i) Case Based Reasoner, for case retrieval and adaptation; (ii) System Maintainer, for case and knowledge accumulation and modification; and (iii) Database, for case and knowledge representation. CBRMID was implemented using the object-oriented programming language C++, the object-oriented database management system ObjectStore 6.0, and the expert system programming language CLIPS 6.10.  Cases obtained from the Ministry of Transportation of Quebec (MTQ) database were employed in developing a "proof of concept" CBR application for modeling the deterioration of concrete bridge decks. Comparison between the solutions provided by the developed application and the actual solutions of real-world cases indicated that the CBR approach has a great potential in modeling bridge deterioration and, consequently, may have a serious impact on our transportation system.


identifier: Abdelaziz, Gamal  (2000) An axisymmetrical model for a single vertical pile in sand.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: This study presents numerical and theoretical investigations on the bearing capacity of a single pile in sand under axisymmetrical loading conditions. An extensive literature review for the existing theories is presented. The published reports showed a wide range of discrepancies exists among previous theories developed to predict bearing capacity of a single pile in sand. A numerical pile load-testing program was carried out using finite element technique to cover a wide rang of pile geometry and sand states. Mohr-Coulomb criteria were used to model the sand behavior. Linear strain quadrilateral elements were employed to model soil and pile. A chain of slip elements was placed around the pile to model the slippage between sand and pile. The numerical model was validated against field load tests data. The numerical model was then used to analyze stresses influencing the pile behavior in sand and to establish the pile failure mechanism. The stresses and coefficient of earth pressure acting on the pile shaft were reported. A new failure mechanism was developed which varies with: pile geometry, coefficient of earth pressure, shaft roughness and angle of shearing resistance of sand.  A theoretical model was developed to predict the ultimate bearing capacity of a single pile in sand, utilizing the proposed failure mechanism. A data analysis procedure was employed to develop the new model parameters predictive formulas. An approximate method to predict the coefficient of earth pressure acting on the pile shaft was developed and used extensively in the theoretical model. A sensitivity analysis was conducted on the varying parameters of the theoretical model. The theoretical model incorporates salient features previously omitted in conventional bearing capacity theories: treating the bearing capacity of a single pile in sand under axisymmetrical conditions, adopting the punching shear failure as a principle failure mode, and accounting for the interdependence between skin friction and tip resistances. The theoretical model showed that the average unit skin and tip resistances increase, but at a lower rate below the critical depth. These findings concur with the recent research conclusions, which indicate that the average skin resistance tends to increase with depth. A computer program "G-Pile" was developed to facilitate the massive mathematical calculations of the theoretical model. The computer program "G-Pile" was used to produce data for charts of the factors needed to predict the bearing capacity of a single pile in sand. A design procedure is proposed and verified against field test results, good agreement was achieved. Recommendations are given for future research.


identifier: Iliescu, Serban  (2000) A case-based reasoning approach to the designing of building envelopes.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Building-envelope design is an information-intensive process that requires experiential knowledge. Confronted with such a process, a human expert adds to well-known domain knowledge his own experience, or the experience of others, to support his reasoning process and guide him in typical situations.  The problem-solving paradigm where reasoning is supported by reusing past experiences is called Case-Based Reasoning ( CBR ), and it was added to the Artificial Intelligence ( AI ) methodology following research in cognitive psychology. Instead of relying solely on general knowledge of a problem domain, or making associations along generalized relationships between problem descriptors and conclusions, CBR is able to utilize the specific knowledge of previous experienced problem situations called cases. CBR is a technology that solves problem by storing, retrieving, and adapting past cases. CBR systems have been proposed as an alternative to rule-based systems whenever the knowledge engineering process of eliciting rules is difficult or unmanageable. Instead, many experiences (or cases) with solutions, warnings, plans, and so forth are collected and new situations are related to a stored recollection of these past cases. New solutions are adapted from the old ones.  Research in Knowledge-Based Expert Systems ( KBES ) for building-envelope design has shown a similar trend. While computerized assistance was imposed by the large amount of data to be processed, domain knowledge. Such fields where most of the knowledge is based on experience are often labeled as "weak theory domains," and they are prime candidates for adopting a CBR approach.  This thesis proposes a CBR framework for selecting the construction alternatives during the preliminary stage of the building-envelope design process. The methodology presented aims to find the most suitable design for a new building envelope from a library of prototypical building cases and adapts it to meet the requirements of ASHRAE Standard 90.1/1989 for energy efficient building design. The study outlines the potential benefits of using CBR technology and the key issues encountered while attempting to define the CBR model for building-envelope design. Developing a hierarchy of building-envelope components identifies cases and features for design. The envelope design problem is solved through decomposition, and by combining case-based and rule-based reasoning methods. In searching for a best match to achieve a higher degree of case filtering, a connection between case-based reasoning and Artificial Neural Networks ( ANN ) is proposed. An ANN-based filtering mechanism is designed to improve the quality of case-matching outcome while enforcing the economy of case representation.  The framework proposed by this research has been implemented into the CRED software system demonstrating the feasibility and advantages of using CBR methodology for building envelope design. CRED blends several Al techniques (such as ANN, CBR and KBES) while aiming to offer expert assistance to building design professionals for browsing and selecting building-envelope alternatives.


identifier: Sajedi, Abolfazl  (2000) A critical analysis of William Alston's view of religious language, with a comparison with classical and modern Islamic theories.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: The Twentieth century is considered to be the century of the linguistic turn. Because of the close relation between philosophy and religion, this recent philosophical interest in language has had a great effect on the understanding of religious language. The present work concentrates on two controversial questions regarding religious language: (1) What are the characteristics of religious discourse? Is there a language peculiar to religion? (2) How should we interpret religious statements? Should we conceive them symbolically, analogically, literally, or in other ways? I critically analyze the treatment of these questions by William Alston (1921- ), a distinguished American philosopher of religion. Alston developed new approaches to the topic. Unlike most of the theories proposed regarding religious language, Alston's theory expounded, in his recent works, defends a moderate traditional position regarding religious language. Alston accomplishes this by employing current approaches, including analytical philosophy and functionalism. Alston's answer to the first question lies in his realism, while he answers the second with a theory of 'partial literalism.'  I also compare Alston's view with other contemporary theologians, including D. Z. Phillips, Paul Tillich, John Hick, and finally, Muh[dotbelow]ammad H[dotbelow]usayn T[dotbelow]abât[dotbelow]abâi, a contemporary Iranian Muslim theologian and philosopher. In the light of the last comparison, we can see what kinds of common or different elements are found in the analysis of religious language of two different belief systems, Islam and Christianity.


identifier: Ellenbogen, Mark A  (2000) Stress and selective attention : the impact of a stressful challenge on mood, cortisol, and the processing of emotional information.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: The studies presented in this thesis were designed to examine the unfolding of events when an individual is faced with a stressful challenge, by monitoring subjective mood, attention to emotional stimuli, and the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) response to stress. It was hypothesized that participants would selectively attend to negative words (study 1) and pictures (study 2) following an aversive stressful experience, and that the attentional response to stress would mediate mood and HPA reactivity. Stress induction was achieved by means of a competitive Stroop task with monetary rewards where participants either repeatedly lost (negative stressor) or won (positive stressor) against a confederate. Participants then performed a spatial cueing task assessing attentional shifts towards and away from emotional and neutral stimuli. The results of these studies can be summarized by three major findings. Contrary to predictions, participants selectively avoided negatively-valenced pictures and words. This attentional avoidance response was associated with effective emotional and HPA regulation, suggesting that avoidance in this context may be adaptive as a coping response to stress. Second, stress-induced changes in processing efficiency or alertness, resulting in a wide-scope and flexible attentional style, were also observed, and this too may facilitate adaptive coping. Finally, participants with mild symptoms of depression and anxiety exhibited different patterns of response to stress than euthymic subjects, several characteristics of which may indicate a vulnerability to psychopathology. In effect, the results of these studies provide a possible model of how healthy participants cope with mild stress, and point to an attentional mechanism of emotion regulation that facilitates the maintenance of goal-directed behaviour.


identifier: Levira, Modest A  (2000) Instructional resources as a factor in educational performance : a case study in Tanzania.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: In recent years, there has been an increasing discontent in the Tanzanian community regarding what has been described as 'educational decline'. Although the causes have been, almost entirely, reported to be associated with the absence of instructional resources, the current education literature suggests the presence of other important variables that also affect educational performance.  This study set out to investigate two hypotheses: (1) There is a declining trend in educational performance that varies with school types and locations in Tanzania; (2) There are factors other than instructional resources that affect educational performance in Tanzania. To test these hypotheses the researcher selected data by using sampling methods. A sample of Sixteen Secondary Schools, accounting for 414 teachers and 480 students, were selected. A variety of instruments were used to collect the data: questionnaires, group discussions, interviews and school records. Records of the performance of students in the National Examinations were also an important source of information for the study.


identifier: Dehler, Christina M  (2000) The effects of group membership and task experience on asynchronous computer-mediated group performance, group competencies and group member reactions.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Organizations that use computer-mediated communication (CMC) to communicate and coordinate work are ubiquitous and highly dependent on the permeation of virtual work groups throughout the organizational structure. In this era of distributed work, it is imperative to determine which factors affect the efficiency and effectiveness of asynchronous computer-mediated groupwork. Two factors are identified in the literature to potentially mediate effects on asynchronous computer-mediated groupwork: group membership and task experience. The purpose of this study is to investigate the extent to which these factors affect group performance, competencies and group members' social experiences.  A 2 x 2 between-subjects factorial design was used to carry out this study. Three-person groups (n = 56) performed tasks corresponding to task types 2 and 4 of McGrath's (1984) circumplex: an idea generation task and a judgment task. The study ran over a period of three weeks via the CMC system FirstClass® . Four treatment conditions were constructed using FirstClass whereby group membership and task experience conditions were created by varying participants' experiences during weeks 1 and 2, prior to the performance of the criterion judgment task at week 3.  Results indicated that groups acquiring task experience as stable groups during weeks 1 and 2 performed better on the judgment task at week 3 than groups in other treatment conditions. Analyses also confirmed that membership and task experience had a substantial effect on group competencies and member reactions. Groups with changing membership exchanged a greater amount of communication, with those groups not having acquired judgment task experience during weeks 1 and 2 producing the highest number of process-specific remarks. Participants in stable groups reported higher levels of shared knowledge and awareness of group members' ability. Members of stable groups reported higher levels of group cohesion and collective orientation while those who were in stable groups and acquiring task experience expressed the highest amount of member interdependence. Subjects in stable groups were more satisfied with the task and the process of completing it while those who also acquired task experience were more satisfied and confident in the final task solution. Results are discussed in terms of the implications of structuring asynchronous computer-mediated collaborative work environments in organizations.


identifier: Agostino, Andrew  (2001) Qualitative analysis of mindful interaction and cognitive residue in pre-tertiary media education.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: While many researchers have advanced constructivism as the dominant learning theory and have presented compelling arguments for curriculum reform, which include such notions as cognitive apprenticeship models, and the need for agent-environment interaction, little has been said about the type or level of interaction needed to produce potent learning effects. Practical work in pre-tertiary, media education sets up an engaging model descriptive of the learner-media relationship and offers possibilities to measure such occurrences. This qualitative analysis is an attempt to describe and classify classroom exchanges and their residual effects. During a 15-week period, an independent observer followed the progress of 25 media education students from a local high school. The students were grouped to form five production teams and were assigned a variety of media production tasks. An equal number of students not attending a media studies course were assigned to a control group. Interactions in the treatment group were videotaped and transcribed. Unique behavior and verbal expression of any one student were interpreted as a possible instance of cognitive construction. Following this procedure, and open-ended interviews, students were classified in terms of their level of involvement with the media task, that is, 'mindfully engaged', 'mindlessly engaged' or 'non-engaged'. To determine the effects of this interaction, subjects were asked to submit journals responding to personal media consumption. Salient, residual, critical viewing skills were identified in these writings but were not evident in the control group or in the writings of subjects classified at lower levels of engagement. Moreover, posttest scores on media competencies showed significant differences between treatment and control groups.


identifier: Larose, Roger  (2000) La crise d'Oka à la télévision : l'éloge du barbare.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: This thesis offers an analysis of the rhetoric of television news reports on Canada's public network Société Radio-Canada/CBC) during the 1990 Oka Amerindian crisis. Television offers a rhetoric inflected by postmodernism, which is to say with unconventional features that depart from common sense. Television develops a rhetoric of disproportion where, through the inversion of represented roles, the audience comes to witness the triumph of barbarism over civilization. This role reversal negates the belief in a harmony or consensus that would have existed before the crisis. The power of this rhetoric of disproportion creates the illusion of the victory of marginality, poverty and underdevelopment over the forces that represent social and political order. Furthermore, television accounts of the Oka crisis are not instances of production and reproduction of a "dominant ideology". Postmodernism implies the renunciation of all claims to universality, for the televised discourse produces roles for the various agents in accordance with the news context. This implies that television produces a narrative knowledge that generates, through paradox, its own language games, rules of legitimacy, hierarchies of credibility, and hierarchies of values. As such, television constructs an implicit rationality, a local knowledge , that is incompatible with modern rationality. Finally, this narrative of disproportion constructs the political community through an ambiguity that suggests the "downfall of civilization" and is expressed in and through a strange fascination with an aesthetic of primitivism.


identifier: Mohamed, Farida Y  (2000) The mechanism(s) of post-transcriptional regulation of the human constitutive endothelial nitric oxide synthase gene by tumor necrosis factor-alpha.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) is an enzyme that catalyzes the formation of nitric oxide (NO) from the amino acid L-arginine and molecular oxygen, with the help of cofactors and a heme iron. It is one of three isoforms discovered as yet, and was first identified in endothelial cells lining the blood vessels. Its product, NO, plays a crucial role in the maintenance of vascular tone and homeostasis. Being a gas, NO can diffuse out of the endothelial cells into the underlying smooth muscle cells to cause vasodilation and into the lumen to prevent the blood platelets and leukocytes from clumping and adhering to the vessel wall.  Since eNOS plays a vital role in cell biology, it needs to be tightly regulated. It is expressed constitutively in normal physiological conditions, but may be deregulated in pathophysiological conditions. The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the role of the inflammatory cytokine, tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNFÌ), in the down-regulation of eNOS expression. It demonstrates that this process occurs at the post-transcriptional level, where TNFÌ is shown to affect the stability of the eNOS transcript, in that it reduces the half-life of the other-wise stable eNOS mRNA. Mechanisms of down-regulation by TNFÌ are explored, involving proteins that bind to the 3 ' untranslated region of the eNOS message.


identifier: Le, Si Tuan  (2000) Development of zeolite based acid catalysts for the synthesis of methyl tertiary butyl ether.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE) an antiknock additive presently used in gasoline blends as a safer alternative to lead compounds, is currently synthesized industrially from methanol and isobutene over an acidic ion-exchange resin Amberlyst-15. This commercial catalyst, although very active, still suffers from several drawbacks such as thermal instability, acid leaching, and need of a high methanol over isobutene ratio. Zeolites for their higher thermal stability and shape selectivity, were thus proposed to remedy to such disadvantages. However, they did not show a surface acidity which is as high as that of the organic resin.  In gas phase synthesis of MTBE, the incorporation of an organic superacid trifluoromethanesulfonic acid onto the zeolite surface have shown an important enhancement in catalytic activity and product selectivity for the large pore sized Y-type zeolite. However this method did not increase significantly the catalytic activity of the medium pore sized ZSM-5 zeolite, because of limited diffusion phenomena.  ZSM-5 zeolite, when doped with fluorine species in relatively low concentration using ammonium fluoride as precursor, and subsequently activated stepwise at high temperatures, showed two maxima for the MTBE yield. The first maximum occurring at the final activation temperature 325C̕, corresponded to the positive effect of chemisorbed HF acidic species onto the zeolite surface. The second maximum occurring at 450C̕, provided the highest MTBE yield and is attributed to the increased Brønsted acid sites density and strength resulting from the reaction of zeolite surface with the proton from the ±proton-fluoride» ions pair. Data obtained from different characterization techniques such as FTIR, 27 Al MAS-NMR, XRD, NH 3 -TPD, BET, MeOH adsorption tests, Fluoride-SIE and Pyridine adsorption tests supported the proposed mechanism for the modification of the fluorine treated ZSM-5 surface as a function of final activation temperatures.  Controlled desilication of ZSM-5 zeolite by treatment with an aqueous solution of sodium carbonate under mild conditions has provided materials having much lower Si/Al ratio with an unchanged zeolite structure. The desilicated ZSMS zeolite exhibited a higher Bronsted acid sites density compared to the parent zeolite and showed a significant increase of MTBE conversion.  The combination of these two modification techniques, i.e. desilication followed by incorporation of fluorine/thermal treatment produced a highly efficient catalyst: the yield of MTBE obtained was higher than that of the commercial catalyst and no isobutene dimer by-products were formed owing to the shape selectivity of ZSM-5 structure. With respect to the parent zeolite, the total acid density increased by almost 80% and the formation of some stronger acid sites were observed. This new inorganic catalyst can be advantageously applied to a wide range of acido-catalysed reactions up to 450C̕ which require a high surface acidity, a pronounced shape-selectivity and a strong chemical resistance.


identifier: Shen, Wei  (2000) Esi47, a stress-inducible protein kinase gene from Lophopyrum elongatum is involved in plant hormone signaling.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: The cDNA and genomic DNA clones for the salt stress and abscisic acid (ABA) inducible gene Esi47 were isolated from the salt-tolerant tall wheatgrass species Lophopyrum elongatum . The Esi47 gene encodes a protein kinase with highest amino acid sequence similarity to the NAK group of protein serine/threonine kinases. Esi47 and the NAK group protein kinases have a central catalytic domain flanked by short amino and carboxyl terminal non-catalytic domains. The NAK group was named after the first gene isolated in this group, the Arabidopsis thaliana NAK gene (Hardie, 1999; Moran and Walker, 1993). However, none of the genes in this group has been implicated to be involved in plant signaling pathways except for the Arabidopsis gene ARSK1 , which has only been shown to be inducible by salt stress and ABA in plant roots (Hwang and Goodman, 1995). The protein phosphorylation activity of the Esi47 gene product was demonstrated in Escherichia coli . Arabidopsis plants transformed with Esi47 did not show any enhanced salt stress tolerance. Approximately 60 Arabidopsis genes previously shown to be regulated by salt stress or ABA were evaluated for altered expression in the transgenic plants by northern analysis, but none were found to be affected by Esi47 overexpression. However, transient expression of Esi47 in barley aleurone suppressed the induction of the barley gene for Ì-amylase by the plant hormone gibberellin, which is an ABA antagonist. This indicates that the Esi47 gene is involved in plant hormone signaling. Analysis of the primary structure of the Esi47 gene revealed that it contains in the 5 ' -untranslated region of its mRNA a small upstream open reading frame that has been demonstrated to mediate the ABA regulation of Esi47 expression in an independent study. Three Arabidopsis homologs of Esi47 were identified and different members of this clade of genes showed differential patterns of regulation by salt stress and ABA in Arabidopsis roots and leaves. At least one of the Arabidopsis homologs, F8A24.12 , contains a small open reading frame in its 5 ' -untranslated region, indicating that the unusual regulatory mechanism identified in Esi47 may be widely conserved. The identification of the Arabidopsis genes homologous to Esi47 would facilitate further functional characterization of this type of gene in plant stress and hormone signaling pathways in a model plant species.


identifier: Marsolais, Frédéric  (2000) Molecular and biochemical characterization of steroid sulfotransferases from Brassica napus and Arabidopsis thaliana.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: We describe the characterization of four genes designated BNST1 to - 4 encoding steroid sulfotransferases from Brassica napus . Recombinant BNST3 catalyzes the sulfonation of brassinosteroids and of mammalian estrogenic steroids. The enzyme is stereospecific for 24-epibrassinosteroids, with a substrate preference for 24-epicathasterone, a metabolic precursor of 24-epibrassinolide. The bean second internode bioassay was used to demonstrate that enzymatic sulfonation of 24-epibrassinolide abolishes its biological activity. This mechanism of hormone inactivation is similar to the modulation of estrogen biological activity observed in mammals. The sulfonation of an intermediate in the biosynthesis of 24-epibrassinolide may prevent the formation of biologically active end products. BNST genes are inducible by salicylic acid, a signal molecule in the defense response, suggesting that plants respond to pathogen infection by modulating steroid-dependent growth and developmental processes.  BNST genes along with alcohol dehydrogenase ( ADH ) and xyloglucan endotransglycosylases ( XET ) genes are also inducible by ethanol. BNST4 displays the fastest response among BNST genes, with peak mRNA levels within one hour after treatment. Plants respond to low oxygen stress by a switch to ethanolic fermentation and the induction of anaerobic proteins, including ADH and XET. BNST proteins are induced under low oxygen stress, suggesting that endogenous ethanol may act as a chemical signal regulating gene expression.  The localization of BNST2 and - 3 expression was studied in transgenic A. thaliana expressing promoter fusions with the Ý-glucoronidase reporter gene. Expression was observed at the apex of leaf organs, including cotyledons, rosette and cauline leaves. Expression was also observed in the transition zone of seedlings. The tissue distribution of expression is compatible with a function of the sulfotransferases in brassinosteroid inactivation. We tested this hypothesis in transgenic A. thaliana expressing BNST3 under the control of the constitutive CaMV35S promoter. No effect of the transgene was observed on plant growth and development, and the response of transgenic lines to exogenous 24-epiteasterone or 24-epibrassinolide was similar to that of the wild-type. Alternative experimental approaches will be required in order to determine the function of the sulfotransferases. The results of preliminary experiments performed in order to purify endogenous substrates of the BNST enzymes are discussed.


identifier: Wang, Xiaohong  (2001) Data mining with bilattices.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

title: Data mining with bilattices

abstract: Data mining has become a key research area in database after Agrawal and Sirkant introduced association rules in data mining and proposed Apriori for mining association. However, most of the works focuses on finding patterns on itemsets, especially associations between items. With the fast development of high technologies and large scale of information collection tools, the need for data mining has gone far beyond association mining. In this thesis, a new framework is established that largely extends the current existing data mining field. While the traditional data mining problems can be viewed as computing itemset lattice, vet another equal important data mining problem is mining circumstance which forms a second lattice: circumstance lattice. In itemset lattice, extensive work is done to introduce constraints in correlations mining and algorithms for computing different useful correlation queries are provided. For the new concept of circumstance mining, a close relationship is set up between computing circumstance lattice and data cube. Several algorithms, including new algorithms and modification of existing data cube algorithms, are given to answer circumstance mining queries. Finally, algorithms for the dual mining on bilattices--from itemset lattice to circumstance lattice and back, or vise versa are presented to compute the Armstrong Basis for a given transaction database.


identifier: Thomo, Alex-Imir  (2000) Query processing using views in semistructured databases.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Since its introduction, XML, the eXtensible Markup Language, has quickly emerged as the universal format for publishing and exchanging data in the World Wide Web. As a result, data sources, including object-relational databases, are now faced with a new class of users: clients and customers who would like to deal directly with XML data rather than being forced to deal with the data source particular schema and query languages. XML is also rapidly becoming popular for representing web data as it brings a finely granulated structure to the web information and exposes the semantics of the web content. In all these web applications including electronic commerce and intelligent agents, view mechanisms are recognized as critical and are being widely employed to represent, users' specific interests. Rewriting the user queries using views is a powerful technique in the above described applications, which can be categorized as data integration, data warehousing and query optimization. In this study we identify some difficulties with currently known methods for using rewritings in XML-like "semistructured" databases. We study the problem in two realistic scenarios. The first one is related to information integration systems such as the Information Manifold, in which the data sources are modelled as sound views over a global schema. The second scenario, is query optimization using cached views. In this setting we propose two kinds of algebraic rewritings that focus on extracting as much information as possible from the views for the purpose of optimizing regular path queries, which are the building block of all the query languages for semistructured data.


identifier: Haydar, May  (2001) Parameterized events for designing real-time reactive systems.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: The goal of the thesis is the introduction of parameterized events in TROM methodology, an object-oriented formalism for the development of real-time reactive systems. Without parameterization, a large number of events representing similar stimuli or responses are required for modeling large systems, especially in telephony and protocol application domains. The syntax and semantics for parameterized events are conservative extensions of the syntax and semantics of events in TROM formalism. The thesis addresses the impact of parameterization on existing tools of TROMLAB, a framework for practicing TROM formalism, and discusses the reengineering of some of the tools in TROMLAB. The expressive power of the extended formalism is illustrated using the ATM-ABR protocol. The ATM model is validated in SDL, by mapping its TROM model into SDL and executing the SDL model.


identifier: Gwozd, Ryszard  (2000) Security of information systems : what technical solutions exist and what is needed.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: The objective of this thesis is to review the need for information system security, evaluate the technical solutions commonly used today, make recommendations on where extra research is needed, and to overview the technologies, algorithms, standards, and security policies used in providing computer and communications security.  The information-security issue is equally important to the users of the Internet (e.g., businesses engaged in e-commerce) and to users of stand-alone ("air-gapped") systems. The problems that these two groups of users face are both different and have a different scale. However, there is no question that the urgent security problems are driven by the increasing demand for all-to-all connectivity; security is a top issue primarily because of the Net. Internet security is the most urgent and the most challenging field in computer security.  Moreover, cyber security involves issues that go beyond technological solutions, algorithms and hardware. Often ignored or not stressed enough are user education and prudent engineering.  Today, we are more alert about security, but still lack a complete understanding of what it means, bow far it should go and bow to accomplish it. Nevertheless, people are starting to feel that they should accept it, or at least try to understand it. Many users have an impression that they ought to know more about computer security, but few make the effort to learn about it. This thesis explains why the user has to be educated about security, what are different security levels, trusted systems, encryption, mandatory access control, and legislation. It helps the readers to understand the basics of computer security that will persuade them to practice safe computing


identifier: Bernier, Roger  (2000) Design of a zooming viewer for statecharts.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Traditional state-transition diagrams have been inherently flat in nature. With the advent of hierarchical state diagrams, known as statecharts [HAR87], there has been a marked improvement in the way the dynamics of a system can be modelled. As systems become larger and more complex, statecharts been used successfully to reduce the complexity. However, the current lack of tools that take advantage of this notion of hierarchy have hindered the development process. It is sometimes desirable to hide or display certain portions of a statechart. For example, a composite state may be collapsed or expanded depending on the zooming level. Thus, the aim of this thesis is to design and implement a 'zooming' viewer for statecharts. This goal is to provide the architect or system analyst with an easy and intuitive way to navigate a large statechart diagram. In so doing, the system should be easier to view and understand.


identifier: Abd El-Maksoud, Mohamed A  (2000) Dynamic analysis and buckling of variable thickness laminated composite beams using conventional and advanced finite element formulations.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: The behavior of variable thickness laminated composite beams has not so far been fully understood. In the present thesis, a finite element formulation is established for uniform and variable thickness composite beams (externally and mid-plane tapered composite beams). First the conventional formulation is used to establish the stiffness, geometric stiffness (for constant axial load, uniformly distributed axial load, and non-uniformly distributed axial load), and mass matrices. Second a new formulation (advanced formulation) is established, which considers not only the geometric boundary conditions, but also the natural boundary conditions. This means that at each node there will be four degrees of freedom, that are deflection, slope, bending moment, and shear force, such that all physical parameters that can be encountered in any practical situation can be included in the element formulation. The new stiffness, geometric stiffness, and mass matrices corresponding to the new formulation are set up. These matrices are provided into the MATLAB ® environment to obtain the natural frequencies and the critical buckling load.


identifier: Vilaipornsawai, Usa  (2001) Trellis-based iterative decoding of block codes for satellite ATM.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: In power-limited channels such as satellite links, error control codes are needed to provide high performance at very low Signal-to-Noise Ratios (SNRs). Turbo Codes or concatenated codes with iterative decoding, can achieve a performance very close to the Shannon limit. They are the most powerful codes known so far and are considered for use in various applications.  In this thesis, we present the turbo codes using Reed-Muller (RM) codes as their component codes, and where the decoding method used is the trellis-based iterative Maximum A posteriori Probability (MAP) algorithm which provides an optimal performance. We aim to apply our turbo coding scheme to Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) applications in Digital Video Broadcast - Return Channel via Satellite (DVB-RCS). Therefore, the shortened versions of ordinary RM-turbo codes are proposed.  As well, we investigate the effect of phase offset on the shortened RM-turbo code performance with Quadrature Phase Shift Keying (QPSK) modulation scheme and the effect of preamble size used to recover carrier phase due to the problem of synchronization which is usually raised in practical systems


identifier: Shah, Syed Yawar Ali  (2000) On synthesis and optimization of floating point units.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: This work describes the effect of architectural/system level design decisions on the performance, of floating point arithmetic units. By modeling with VHDL and using design synthesis techniques, different architectures of floating point adders, multipliers and multiply-accumulate fused units, are compared using different technologies and cell libraries. Some modifications to recent published works have been proposed to minimize the energy delay product with special emphasis on power reduction. A new low power, high performance, transition activity scaled, double data path floating point multiplier has been proposed and its validity is proved by comparing it to a single data path floating point multiplier. A transition activity scaled, triple data path floating point adder has been compared with a high speed, single data path floating point adder using an optimized Leading Zero Anticipatory logic. Three different architectures of floating point multiply-accumulate fused units are evaluated for their desirability for high speed, low power and minimum area. The findings of this work validate different higher level design methodologies of floating point arithmetic units irrespective of the rapidly changing underneath technology.


identifier: Pai, Cheng-Yu  (2000) Design and evaluation of a data-dependent low-power 8x8 DCT/IDCT.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Traditional fast Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT)/ Inverse DCT (IDCT) algorithms have focused on reducing arithmetic complexity and have fixed run-time complexities regardless of the input. Recently, data-dependent signal processing has been applied to the DCT/IDCT. These algorithms have variable run-time complexities.  A new two-dimensional 8 x 8 low-power DCT/IDCT design is implemented using VHDL by applying the data-dependent signal-processing concept onto the traditional fixed-complexity fast DCT/IDCT algorithm. To reduce power, the design is based on Loeffler's fast algorithm, which uses a low number of multiplications. On top of that, zero bypassing, data segmentation, input truncation, and hardwired canonical sign-digit (CSD) multipliers are used to reduce the run-time computation, hence reduce the switching activities and the power.  When synthesized using Canadian Microelectronic Corporation 3-V 0.35 om CMOSP technology, this FDCT/IDCT design consumes 122.7/124.9 mW with clock frequency of 40MHz and processing rate of 320M sample/sec. With technology scaling to 0.35 om technology, the proposed design features lower switching capacitance per sample, i.e. more power-efficient, than other previously reported high-performance FDCT/IDCT designs.*  *This work is supported by National Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) post-graduate scholarship, and NSERC research grants.


identifier: Kang, Wen  (2000) A line and load independent zero voltage switching DC/DC full bridge converter topology.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Full bridge dc/de converter topology is extensively applied in medium to high power conversion. In a power level up to 3 kW, the full bridge converter now employs MOSFET switches. High efficiency, high power density, high reliability and low EMI are some of the most desirable features in these applications, particularly for computer and telecom systems.  To achieve these features, soft switching techniques are normally employed. However, the conventional soft switching full bridge converter topologies would either lose the soft switching at some operating conditions, or become rather complex in design and implementation for a few kilo watts applications.  This thesis presents and analyzes an improved zero voltage switching dc/dc full bridge converter topology. The proposed topology employs asymmetrical auxiliary circuits that consist of only a few passive components. However, the advantage of the proposed topology is significant: it achieves soft switching independent of line and load conditions.  Detailed steady state and dynamic analyses are performed to understand the operating principle of the proposed topology and its performance. A dc blocking capacitor is essential to prevent the current sense transformer from saturation, and the study of this thesis shows that contrary to the conventional pulse width modulated full bridge converter, the peak current mode control can still be used along with the blocking capacitor in a phase shift full bridge converter. Design procedure for industrial application is presented. Experimental and simulation results of a prototype 500 W 350-400 Vdc to 55 Vdc converter operating at 100 kHz verify the analysis and design, and show an overall efficiency of greater than 97% at full load.


identifier: Jain, Nikhil  (2000) A zero voltage switching boost converter using a soft switching auxiliary circuit with reduced conduction losses.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Modern AC-DC power supplies utilize power factor correction in order to minimize the harmonics in the input current drawn from the utility. The Boost topology is the most popular topology for power factor correction today but it has some disadvantages like very high EMI due to reverse recovery of the boost diode and high switching losses caused by hard switching of the boost switch.  Many variations of the original boost topology have been suggested to overcome these problems. The Zero Voltage Transition Boost converter is one such solution. In such a converter an auxiliary resonant circuit is employed which is activated only when the boost switch is turning on or off. This auxiliary circuit allows the boost switch to turn on and off under zero voltage conditions thus reducing the switching losses. However the auxiliary circuit might be very complex and conduction losses in it might offset the expected rise in efficiency.  In this thesis a soft-switching boost power converter is proposed and analyzed. This converter reduces the EMI and increases the efficiency because the auxiliary circuit is itself soft-switching and has low conduction losses due to creative placement of the resonant capacitors. Characteristic curves are generated for the proposed converter which not only give valuable insight on the behavior of the converter but also aid in designing the converter. The feasibility of the proposed converter is examined by means of results obtained from an experimental prototype.


identifier: Zahnan, Lena  (2001) Computer-aided design-based project management model.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: The construction industry is one that is fragmented by nature. In current practice, information is exchanged between the designers and contractors in the form of paper documents such as drawings, bills of material and specifications. Information is lost and errors are made during the forward and backward exchange of the design-construction information and constructability knowledge between the design professionals, cost estimators and contractors. Despite the technological developments in IT, the industry has been slow in adopting change in its processes. Computer Integrated Construction (CIC) strives to bridge the gaps of information by integrating the tools and processes within the Architecture, Engineering and Construction industries. This thesis proposes an integrated methodology across the design and construction functions supported by available CAD technologies. The proposed methodology has been implemented in a prototype software application named "CAD-B PM" that allows the user to integrate the CAD design with a central database that is a repository of project information. Productivity and cost estimates are generated within the database and are further integrated to a scheduling application for project planning and control. The prototype system provides a unique solution where the project information is openly shared between the applications in a dynamic environment through the use of Open Database Connectivity (ODBC)


identifier: Gerbasi, Dino  (2000) The energy performance of the NOVTEC advanced house.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: In keeping with its vision to develop sustainable, energy efficient housing, in 1992, Canada launched the Advanced Houses Program, a program to showcase Canadian Innovation and affirm our commitment to fostering a greener environment. Presented herein is an analysis of the energy performance of one of the ten houses built as part of this federal initiative, the NOVTEC Advanced House. Through the use of a house-as-a-system design philosophy and innovations such as an EIFS (exterior insulation and finish system) wall assembly, and an integrated home comfort system consisting of two ground source heat pumps, the NOVTEC Advanced House is one of the world's top energy performers. The implementation of a comprehensive monitoring plan which included the installation of over 100 sensors and an automated data acquisition system, allowed the authour to collect more than 21 months of data. This data showed that the house consumed 42% less energy than a typical R-2000 house (60 kWh/m 2 /yr vs. 104 kWh/m 2 /yr), and 72% less energy than a typical house built in the late 1970s. A detailed end-use energy analysis as well as an analysis of the seasonal efficiencies of the ground source heat pumps (GSHP) is presented herein. GSHPs can play an important role in improving the energy performance of our residential building stock and in helping Canada reduce its green gas emissions. However, in order for GSHPs to gain widespread acceptance, further R&D efforts are required to optimise their life cycle costs, namely the costs required to install, maintain, repair, and retrofit/replace them.


identifier: El-Gafy, Hany  (2001) Framework for smart card use in the construction industry.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: The use of Smart Card Technology in the construction industry is untested. This thesis presents the study of framework for using smart card technology as a new means to reduce cost and improve productivity for construction companies. The purpose of this research is to investigate the applicability of smart card in construction sector and explore the potential applications of smart card for timesheet, labor payment, schedule update and job site access control. A smart card questionnaire was conducted to obtain input from construction senior managers and executives regarding the prospect of employing smart card in the industry. In addition, this research identified the potential applications of smart card with the most suitable infrastructure to the construction environment and the capability of card technology to mechanize the current paper-based timesheet and manual labor payment practice. This thesis presents also a proposed implementation process of the Construction Labor Smart Card (CLSC) and its labor payment application along with a cost comparison analysis between paper-based and smart card-based timesheets.


identifier: Al-Hussein, Maria  (2000) An information model to support maintenance and operation management of building mechanical systems.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: This thesis presents an information model developed to represent, organize, and link information essential to maintenance and operation management, a facility management function. It first describes the facility management domain and identifies facility information as a primary element to sustain the decision-making process. Then it discusses the need for open communication channels to allow information exchange throughout facility's life-cycle phases, reviews several models addressing information integration, and introduces a framework, which ensures interoperability within different facility management functions. The proposed information model focuses on the information describing building mechanical systems and utilizes object-oriented modeling language. To validate the information model, a prototype is implemented and a real case-study is investigated to provide data and to demonstrate how the research relates to practice.


identifier: Vieru, Dragos  (2000) A model for telemedicine adoption : a survey of physicians in the provinces of Québec and Nova Scotia.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: The primary goal of this study is to evaluate and predict factors that could affect physicians' adoption behavior of Telemedicine technology. Based on the theoretical foundations of some of the most recognized technology acceptance models in the academic world, a model is proposed and then empirically tested. A sample of 390 physicians that were, at the time of the survey, either already using or about to use Telemedicine technology were selected to test a number of hypotheses. The Partial Least Square (PLS) method of structural equation modeling was used to assess the relationships between perceptions and behavioral intention to adopt Telemedicine. The outcomes of the study revealed that Perceived Usefulness has a strong and positive impact on physicians' adoption behavior and that Perceived Ease of Use is significantly related to Perceived Usefulness.


identifier: Pelletier, Èveline  (2000) The transfer of catastrophe event risk to the capital markets over the 1990s : an analysis of the process.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: In 1992, hurricane Andrew was responsible for insured losses of US$19 billion in Florida. In 1994, the Northridge earthquake caused damages amounting to US$14 billion in California. At that time, a shortage of capital available from the insurance and reinsurance industries to sustain catastrophe losses was both anticipated and feared. The capital markets readily offered alternative vehicles through which catastrophe risk began to be transferred, thus initiating a convergence with the insurance market. This paper aims at gathering information relevant to the understanding of the process of the transfer of catastrophe event risk to the capital markets. First, it reviews the events that brought about emphasis on catastrophe risk management. Then, it dedicates attention to the peculiarities of catastrophe risk, before examining the design and evolution of the catastrophe derivatives themselves. Finally, a proposition for empirical research on the relationship between catastrophes and capital market returns is made. Furthermore, it is suggested that the theory of contagion in international finance would constitute an interesting framework for the analysis the relationship between catastrophe risk derivatives and other assets within a portfolio.


identifier: Noel, Emmanuel Alister  (2000) An empirical examination of Bloomberg's macroeconomic forecasts of the G-7 nations.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Market participants expend considerable resources on forecasting services to improve their decision-making processes. One of the more popular sources of these services is that of Bloomberg. In recent years Bloomberg has regularly polled reputable experts on macroeconomic forecasts in many countries. This study aims to test the accuracy of Bloomberg's forecasts. Specifically we test whether the surveyed experts' median opinions are statistically similar to the announced figures from U.S.A., Japan, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, France and Italy. The results provide an indirect test of the Rational expectation hypothesis. The forecasts and announced figures are first analyzed to discern unit roots and cointegration before inferences are made from the accuracy regression. This research shows that for the most part Bloomberg's forecasts surveys are unbiased and rational predictors of macro economic indicators for most countries. A somewhat longer time series of forecasts is available for the U.S. The earlier part of the sample indicates that forecasters of most of the macroeconomic variables appeared to be biased/not consistent with rational expectations. However over the latter part of the sample, forecasts accuracy for the U.S. seems to have improved significantly and compares favorably with forecasts produced for the other G7 countries.


identifier: Liu, Ping  (2001) Market thinness and the potential benefits of domestic-only portfolio diversification in Canadian equity markets.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: This study examines the benefits of diversification for stocks that are subject to varying degrees of market thinness for domestic-only investment in Canadian equities. The study also determines if the benefits of diversification are best examined using time-varying or static estimates of volatility.  This thesis has four major findings. First, about 30 securities are required, on average, to obtain most of the risk-reduction (variance-reduction) benefits from diversification for all-domestic divrsification for Canadian equities. Second, the same level of diversification is achieved with less securities for the less stringent trading infrequency index. Third, both size and trading infrequency effects exist in the variances of the monthly returns and in the risk-adjusted performance ratios for the simulated portfolios. Fourth, the monthly total returns for the simulated portfolios do not exhibit heteroscedasticity based on the Portmanteau Q and Lagrange Multiplier tests for the time periods examined in this thesis. However, some evidence exists that thin trading induces some heteroscedasticity into the monthly returns of Canadian stocks.


identifier: Close, Tamara Gray  (2000) Volatility swaps and their use in currency risk management.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: The paradox of international investing is that, although foreign investments deliver diversification benefits that help to decrease the asset risk of a portfolio, they also introduce foreign exchange risk. Classic hedging instruments used to hedge this risk have the drawback of hedging not only the risk but the foreign exchange returns as well. Volatility swaps are financial instruments that allow the user pure exposure to the volatility of an asset. While most of the published works on volatility swaps have focused on their use as a speculative instrument, this thesis will attempt to show how portfolio managers can use foreign exchange volatility swaps to manage the currency risk from international equity investments.


identifier: Venditti, Mario J  (2000) Magnetotransport along non parabolically confined quasi-one-dimensional channels.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: The one-electron spectrum, pertinent to a quantum wire in the presence of a magnetic field, is obtained for parabolic and weakly nonparabolic confining potentials. Different orientations of the magnetic field are considered and the corresponding ac and do responses of the wire are evaluated, for electron scattering by impurities and/or phonons. The height of the power spectrum peak decreases as the magnetic field is tilted from the normal direction to that along the wire.


identifier: Lu, Yi  (2001) Periodicity and ruin probabilities for compound non-homogeneous poisson processes.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Compound non-homogenous Poisson processes with periodic claim intensity rates are studied in this work. A risk process related to a short term periodic environment and the periodicity for its compound claim counting process are discussed. The ruin probabilities of compound non-homogenous Poisson processes with periodic intensity function are also discussed, in which the embedded discrete risk model and the average arrival rate risk model are presented and bounds for the ruin probability of the continuous-time risk model are derived.  We introduce a more general Poisson process model with double periodicity. Here the periodic environment does not repeat the exact same pattern every year but varies the short term peak over a relatively long period, with different levels in each year.  Illustrations of periodicity for short and long term Poisson models and numerical examples for ruin probabilities are also given.


identifier: Cheuk, Wai Lun  (2001) Value at risk and the distortion operator.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: VaR is a popular measure for benchmarking market risk based on price or return fluctuations of instruments among institutions. Calculation of VaR depends very much on the model explaining the price changes and volatility of the underlying assets. However, theoretical models can be very unrealistic in comparison to actual historical data. Modifications are required in order for the models to better fit the actual market conditions.  If finding a mathematical tool to bridge to theoretical model with reality were possible, we could expect a better or less expensive estimation of the VaR. Calculation of the actual VaR for an asset can be started by first finding the risk adjusted return under the assumption of a theoretical return model covered by the risk neutral measure, where a new mathematical tool could link the risk adjusted models back to the actual measure.  We propose a distortion operator to serve as such a bridge between the actual and risk neutral distributions.


identifier: Anderson, Sarah  (2000) Second-harmonic generation as a probe of chemically modified Si(111) surfaces and the initial oxidation of hydrogen terminated Si(111).  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Optical second-harmonic generation (SHG) is used to probe Si(111) surfaces with covalently attached monolayers. The surfaces are prepared using wet chemical modification to form -H, -C 10 H 21 (decyl) and -O-C 10 H 21 (decyloxy) monolayers. The SHG efficiency for these surfaces as well as a Si(111) surface with a native oxide film is reported. The signal's intensity and modulation through a 360 ̕rotation, or rotational anisotropy, can be correlated with the substrate's chemical modification. The potential for SHG to be used as a probe for monitoring the initial oxidation of Si(111)-H in situ is investigated. The mechanism by which this reaction occurs over time is not well understood. Three environments have been studied: N 2 purge to inhibit oxidation, oxidation in ambient air, and photo-oxidation in ambient air using UV irradiation. Possible processes by which water and molecular oxygen initiate the surface oxidation are identified.


identifier: Reich, Jennifer G  (2000) Functional overlap in gene duplications of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: The Saccharomyces cerevisiae genome contains many duplicated regions of DNA. The presence of extra copies of some genes can result in certain genes performing similar or identical functions as their duplicated counterparts. This study reveals phenotypes for functionally overlapping genes and classifies selected duplicated genes as functionally overlapping or divergent.  A region of DNA on chromosomes I and XV containing 12 duplicated genes was examined. Mutants were created containing deletions of one or both members of every gene pair and subjected to several functional tests. Gene pairs were classified as functionally overlapping when both members had to be deleted to observe a "synthetic" phenotype. Gene pairs were considered to be functionally divergent when the removal of one member of a gene pair revealed a mutant phenotype, as the remaining member was unable to "rescue" the phenotype.


identifier: Gebauer, Pamela  (2000) The notion of spiritual discernment found in the writings of Origen, Antony of Egypt and Ignatius of Loyola : a comparative study.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: This study compares the notion of spiritual discernment found in Origen's Peri Archôn , in Antony of Egypt's Seven Letters and in Ignatius of Loyola's Spiritual Exercises . The goal of the study is to examine some of the foundations and important contributions that each of these writers has made to the Christian Church's understanding of spiritual discernment. Some of the concepts discussed include: free will, self-knowledge, inner movements of the soul, the Holy Spirit, grace and spiritual battle. The conclusion briefly discusses the implications of these writers' contributions to our current understanding of spiritual discernment.


identifier: Perzow, Jennifer Ann  (2000) "As they trickle in, they trickle out" : recruiting physicians in rural Ontario.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: This exploratory study examines the recruitment of rural physicians in Ontario, Canada. Emphasis is on the social context in which practice location decisions are made, with four Spheres of Consideration playing a dominant role: financial, personal and social, professional, and educational. Eleven physicians and medical students were interviewed regarding the basis for their decisions to practice in rural areas. Their responses were compared to the major issues regarding recruitment found in the research literature. From a financial point of view, respondents mentioned the importance of student debt loads and government incentive programs for rural placement. Personal and social considerations include the special relations between physicians, their rural clients and neighbours, as well as their partners/spouse and children. Professional concerns included the legitimation of rural practice and more specifically, making rural medicine a specialty. Educational concerns referred to the need for exposure to rural issues and conditions in medical school. The thesis underscores the special characteristics of rural practice and the importance of specific training directed to its support. Recommendations for rural communities, governments, and the medical community are included.


identifier: Matthews, Kim C  (2000) Shiftings of the self : towards a deterritorialized view of identity and belonging : the case of East and Central African-Asians in Canada.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Who am I? The question of identity is formulated with particular intensity by the fifteen respondents of this study, members of the East and Central African-Asian diaspora residing in Canada. The respondents are Ismaili by faith, a spiritual identity that underpins all other aspects of their identity construction. They may identify as Indian by origins, African by place of birth or upbringing, and recently as Canadian by citizenship. Some have multiple identities, they may select one or more as prime or dominant; they may change their identities depending on the circumstances. At times, the representation of their identity may be contested. Negotiating identity and identities is therefore the theme of this thesis: How people negotiate and maintain their identities, why, with what consequences, also what conflicts this may cause, both internally, and with the earlier and later generations--parents and children. They have from the very start of their existence faced challenges to their identity and sense of belonging. Born in Africa of Indian origins, they faced opposition from African governments who in some cases refused to provide citizenship. The ability of social agents to forge a sense of belonging despite resistance at the local level speaks to the value of spiritual and cultural spaces in which the construction of identity goes beyond specific localities in the effort to shape shared meanings and understanding.


identifier: Delisle, Sylvain  (2000) Un essai sur la pertinence de l'intervention gouvernementale : les politiques publiques en matière de transport urbain des personnes.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Les dernières années, au Québec et au Canada, ont été caractérisées par une lutte acharnée contre les déficits publics. De nombreuses réformes ont été mises en place afin d'atteindre cet objectif. Des arguments comme l'inefficacité, la rigidités et la non-productivité, des interventions gouvernementales, ont été largement utilisés pour justifier ces réformes qui, plus souvent qu'autrement, se sont traduites par un désengagement de l'État. Ces arguments sont mis de l'avant par des idéologues économiques néo-classiques et par plusieurs partis politiques. Même ceux qui ont contribué à l'essor de l'État-providence dans ce pays, de sorte que, la promotion dune présence gouvernementale active semble aujourd'hui être reléguée à la marginalité. Dans ce mémoire, nous arguons que les principes économiques développés par John Maynard Keynes, demeurent ceux qui permettent de résoudre les différentes problématiques contemporaines comme le chômage et l'exclusion sociale.  Les théories keynésiennes permettent également d'apprécier de façon globale l'étude d'un secteur qui génère plusieurs problématiques complexes, comme celui du transport urbain des personnes. Qu'il s'agisse de l'expansion du réseau routier ou de celui des transports en commun, les décisions prises affecteront inévitablement la collectivité. Qu'il soit question de la qualité de l'environnement, de la perte de temps causée par la congestion routière ou de l'importance du développement économique des villes, l'État demeure l'institution appropriée pour prendre les décisions en ces matières. Ces dernières doivent s'inscrire dans une analyse de biens publics, qui confère un rôle actif à l'État.  C'est par l'entremise d'une méthodologie descriptive et analytique, que nous croyons être en mesure de justifier les interventions gouvernementales, nous permettant ainsi, de s'éloigner du discours habituelle de la droite.


identifier: Salerno, Frank  (2000) Personality resources and stress reactivity : potential mechanisms in stress-related psychopathology.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: The aim of the present study was to explore processes potentially implicated in the formation of symptoms of psychopathology. It was hypothesized that the "adaptiveness" of the individual is reflected in stress-related patterns of mood change, cardiac activity, and selective attention. Cognitive adaptiveness to stress was defined by a profile of five personality traits: locus of control, self-efficacy, self-esteem, optimism, and anxiety. The sample consisted of 38 normally functioning university students who were assigned the stress-inducing task of preparing and presenting a speech for evaluation by a panel of "judges". Stress was assessed via a mood questionnaire and heart rate. Selective attention was evaluated using a reaction time computer task in which participants responded to a dot appearing in the spatial location formerly occupied by either a threat or neutral cue (dot probe task). Faster latencies to dot probes replacing threat cues indicate attentional bias to threat. In general, the results supported the hypothesis that individual differences in adaptiveness affect stress reactions in ways that could increase the risk of psychopathology. Specifically, it was found that: (a) individuals low in adaptiveness reported more stress-related mood lowering than those high in adaptiveness, even after differences prior to stress were statistically controlled; (b) low adaptives avoided threat cues more than high adaptives in anticipation of an imminent threat; (c) low adaptives showed more instability in selective attention patterns than high adaptives; and (d) the greater the stress-related physiological arousal, the better the mood in high adaptives. The implications of these findings are discussed in the context of risk and psychopathology.


identifier: Gaudet, Pascale  (2001) Regulation of the ribonucleotide reductase small subunit gene in Dictyostelium discoideum.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Ribonucleotide reductase catalyzes the reduction of ribonucleotides to deoxyribonucleotides, providing precursors for the synthesis of DNA. Expression of ribonucleotide reductase is correlated with DNA synthesis: it is up-regulated during the DNA synthesis phase of the cell cycle and in the course of DNA repair.  We have examined the regulation of expression of the ribonucleotide reductase small subunit gene of Dictyostelium discoideum, rnrB , during the cell cycle, in response to DNA-damaging agents and during development. Our results suggest that rnrB is expressed during two periods of the cell cycle in Dictyostelium , with one expression peak in mid-G2 and one in late G2. A cis -acting element referred to as box A appears to be able to confer cell-cycle-regulated expression.  We have shown that the level of rnrB transcript increases when cells are treated with mutagens and with hydroxyurea, an inhibitor of ribonucleotide reductase. The response is rapid, transient and independent of protein synthesis. A DNA fragment consisting of the 450 bp upstream of the start codon of rnrB has been shown to be sufficient to confer DNA-damage inducibility on heterologous genes. We have used deletion analysis to define the cis -acting elements of the rnrB promoter required for the response to two different DNA-damaging agents, methyl methane sulfonate and 4-nitroquinoline-1-oxide. Our results indicate that box C can confer response to both drugs, while box A and box D confer response to methyl methane sulfonate and 4-nitroquinoline-1-oxide, respectively. We have studied the phenotype of a mutant in which part of the rnrB promoter has been deleted by gene replacement. The mutant strain fails to up-regulate the rnrB gene in response to DNA-damaging agents. This mutant displays increased sensitivity to mutagens as well as prolonged cell cycle arrest upon exposure to mutagens.  Our laboratory has shown by histochemical staining that the rnrB gene is expressed only in the posterior, prespore zone during development. We have identified by deletion analysis and site-directed mutagenesis cis-acting elements responsible for cell-type-specific expression of rnrB during development. Preventing the expression of rnrB does not appear to cause morphological defects in Dictyostelium development. Using electrophoretic mobility shift assays, we have detected cellular factors that may regulate the expression of the rnrB gene


identifier: Harvey, Michael D  (2001) Nanoscale protein analysis utilizing capillary electrophoresis and laser-induced fluorescence detection.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: The trend towards high throughput applications and miniaturization necessitates approaches capable of microlitre volume sampling and low protein concentration detection. Furthermore, one of the major trends in high throughput screening is the growing replacement of technologies that depend on radioactivity to generate a signal with those that rely on fluorescence. This trend towards non-radioactive detection in general can be understood by some of the advantages inherent to these methods over radioactive modes. These include a significant reduction in safety concerns leading to a relaxation of strict laboratory procedures, elimination of expensive waste disposal, extended shelf-life of labeled reagents, and the possibility of acquiring multiplexed data through the spectral isolation of different wavelength signals. A variety of capillary electrophoretic (CE) approaches utilizing laser-induced fluorescence (LIF) have thus been developed, providing researchers with valuable tools in protein analysis.  Various covalent and non-covalent fluorescent derivatization approaches have been investigated, with emphasis on biochemical and/or clinical applications. The non-covalent dye, NanoOrange, is used as a clinical diagnostic tool for early disease diagnosis, quantitating nanomolar concentrations of human serum albumin in solution, and obtaining fluorescence-based biofluid profiles. An alternate non-covalent labeling approach utilizing the fluorescent probe, Sypro Red, and capillary gel electrophoresis allows for rapid, sensitive analysis of protein sample purity as well as molecular weight determination. These two non-covalent approaches are complemented by the development of a fluorescent Insulin-Like Growth Factor-I (IGF-I) analog for use in bioanalytical applications.  Specific derivatization reaction conditions were developed to selectively label the N-terminus of the analog hence preserve biological activity. High-performance liquid chromatography and electrospray mass spectrometry were used to confirm the extent of labeling and modification site. Antibody recognition of this fluorescent analog was evaluated using CE-LIF, illustrating the clinical utility of this diagnostic reagent.  In addition to the above CE-LIF approaches, a fourth capillary electrophoretic tool is provided for the clinical chemist. Rapid analysis of biofluids is of significant importance in early disease diagnosis. As such, an extensive CE-based analysis of human seminal plasma is presented. Separation conditions, sample stability, and protein/non-protein zone identification issues are addressed. This study and the CE-LIF methodologies discussed above represent original approaches to nanoscale protein analysis.


identifier: Aaron, Mandie  (2001) An exploration of the applicability and utility of fault tree analysis to the diffusion of technological innovation in educational systems.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: An operations technique used to analyze safety on aerospace projects and a descendant of the systems safety approach developed in the late 1950s and early 1960s, Fault Tree Analysis [FTA] examines systems in terms of potential failure. The purpose of the technique is to improve the likelihood of successful attainment of a specified goal. In this study, qualitative research methods were used to examine the process of FTA in order to determine its practical value as an applicable and useful tool in the diffusion of technological innovation in educational systems. The innovation in question concerned a large, urban college interested in developing and implementing web-based courses and in increasing faculty awareness and use of teaching technologies. Since diffusion of innovation literature suggests that involvement of the intended users in the diffusion process will increase use, this study relied heavily upon the participation of a team of administrators, faculty and technology experts as well as the 543 faculty members of the College. The FTA team identified 228 potential impediments, or failure events [FEs], to the successful accomplishment of their goal. Surveys were distributed to the 543 faculty members for validation of these failure events. The respondents identified the specific impediments they felt were most likely to occur and negatively impact the attainment of the goal. These FEs fit into the following categories identified in the literature as impediments to the implementation of technology: support; perceived interest; expertise; communication; time; resources; and access. Based on answers to questions pertaining to applicability and utility by the FTA team, members of the focal system, and a study of the information gathered as a participant-observer, recommendations are made as to the applicability and utility of Fault Tree Analysis in the diffusion of innovation in educational settings. Preliminary results indicate that FTA can be an effective information gathering and disseminating tool. Feedback from respondents indicates the process was applicable and useful and provided them with a more systemic view of the college and the challenges they face in attaining the goal. Limitations included time constraints which, in some steps, prevented full team participation and, in others, slowed down the process. The specific context of the findings may also limit their generalizability. Suggestions are therefore offered to address these issues in order to improve the FTA process.