identifier: Laurin, Stephanie  (2010) The effect of story drama on children's writing skills.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: The present study examined the effects of two kinds of interventions on children's written texts in a grade three classroom. Using a mixed method design, the two interventions were (a) discussion and (b) story drama. Before and after the interventions, 26 children in the experimental group class, as well as 19 children in the control group class, were asked to write a short text to determine their level of writing. Then, for a period of eight weeks, the 26 children from the experimental group were split into two equivalent groups and received alternating discussion and story drama sessions, with each session followed by a writing activity. The 203 texts produced by the 26 children were coded for the number of words, the quality of the descriptions, and the organization and structure of the children's written texts. The study revealed a significant difference in the number of words written, specifically, children produced texts with more words following the drama sessions than following the discussion sessions. A gender effect was also found in the texts written after the discussion interventions: Girls wrote more adjectives overall and more different adjectives than boys. Finally, through the exploration of field notes, other aspects of the interventions were examined qualitatively for information regarding ways in which both discussion and creative drama can enhance children's experience of writing activities.


identifier: Curtis, Benjamin  (2010) Baudrillard and Gadamer are dead : exploring play and the virtual through hermeneutic conversation.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

type: Thesis NonPeerReviewed

abstract: The work of Jean Baudrillard propounds a dilemma for social theory and research concerning digital games. On the one hand, the influence of what Baudrillard terms the Virtual threatens traditional social forms and modes of understanding. It insinuates its systematic logic into everyday life through the ubiquity of digital technology. On the other hand, playfulness and game-playing are held forth as a critical alternative comportment against this totalizing system of the Virtual . Research into digital games must address the paradox of virtual play in order to answer Baudrillard's challenge. Seeking an alternative reading of the situation surrounding digital games, this investigation employs the work of Hans-Georg Gadamer on hermeneutics, play and understanding. Against the horizon of massive online digital games as a novel social circumstance in which character-play is expressly possible, players of the World of Warcraft were enjoined in conversation. Through the situated hermeneutic interpretation of these conversations, play emerges as a dynamic negotiation of circumstance, society, mechanical resolution and tradition. The situation of playing a character in a digital game is revealed as containing the possibility of a critical alternative consciousness.


identifier: Dolezsar, Cynthia M  (2010) Predictors of participation after stroke : influence of depressive symptomatology, gender and functional independence.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Stroke can lead to impairments that restrict participation in social roles. Despite being recognized as an important outcome in rehabilitation, little is known about the predictors of participation. The aim of this study was to estimate the independent contributions of depressive symptomatology, gender and functional independence and the interaction between gender and depressive symptomatology in predicting participation among stroke survivors 6 months post-stroke beyond those afforded by age, co-morbid conditions and a history of depression. Participants ( n =66) were patients admitted for stroke to a regional hospital, did not have a co-morbid condition which was expected to lead to death and were able to provide consent. Two weeks post-stroke, the following variables were assessed: Depressive symtomatology, as measured by the Stroke-Specific Geriatric Depression Scale; gender; functional independence, as measured by the Barthel Index; age and co-morbid conditions, as measured by a checklist. Three months post-stroke, history of depression was measured by the Structured Clinical Interview for the Diagnosis of DSM-IV Axis I Disorders. Six months post-stroke, participation was measured by the Stroke Impact Scale. Multiple regression analyses generated a significant model ( F (5,60) = 5.74, R 2 =37%, p <0.01), where greater functional independence predicted greater levels of participation. No other study variables were identified as independent predictors. These results are in line with other evidence that functional limitation is a risk factor for restricted participation. Screening and targeting functional independence during hospitalization for stroke will allow for rehabilitation programs to identify those at risk for restricted participation once stroke survivors return to the community.


identifier: Zhang, Wenyuan  (2010) Predicting the level of use of underground routes in a multi-level urban environment.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Movement in dedicated pedestrian networks in urban environments is an important area for study in the field of urban planning. Researchers have investigated various related factors in path choice with regard to these settings. However, the preference of pedestrians for underground and surface routes in a multi-level urban system is still relatively unknown, making it difficult to model pedestrian dynamics in such complex spatial systems. The purpose of this thesis project is firstly to investigate the factors affecting pedestrian path choice in a multi-level urban environment and secondly, to propose an assignment model for pedestrian circulation in a multi-level system, with parameters from the first study. The results obtained from three operating tunnels in downtown Montreal show that seasonal change has an effect on pedestrian preference for path choices, suggesting that weather conditions are a major factor related to the use of underground routes. Although there is no statistically significant relationship between personal or systematic factors and preference for routes, the influence of systematic factors can be observed in the three cases. The assignment model is applied in a case study of Concordia tunnel system under construction. This study contributes to the investigation of factors affecting path choices, surface or underground routes, and proposes a new model to project pedestrian flow.


identifier: Zadeh, Robert  (2010) EMI investigation and suppression filter design for wireless robotic control application.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: This research work contributes to the practical issues of radiated Electromagnetic Interference (EMI) measurements, analysis, and filter design for wireless robotic control. Detailed procedures and hardware setup used for the EMI measurements conducted at the NRC-AMTC factory floor have been presented. Then, the measured radiated EMI levels have been compared to the regulated limits on radiated EMI for Class A industrial equipment. The mentioned radiated EMI level measurements determined the problematic frequencies where the USA Federal Communications Committee (FCC) radiated EMI levels have been exceeded. The second phase involved band stop filter (BSF) design at the problematic frequencies. Initial filter models were designed using Ansoft Designer, where the characteristic impedance of series and shunt stubs were proposed and calculated by the software. Next, the BSF models were realized using microstrip technology. The dimensions of transmission lines were calculated based on the substrate thickness and the cutoff frequency of interest. BSFs were designed to maximize frequency-selectivity at the cutoff frequencies. Finally, the built BSF prototypes were built for higher-than-680 MHz models on Rogers RT/duroid® 5880 high-frequency substrates. The S-parameters and phase responses of the BSF prototypes were measured using a network analyzer. The measured results were close to the simulated ones, with an emphasis on selectivity at the cutoff frequencies. BSFs designed at cutoff frequencies of 840 MHz or higher are used while the robot performs arc-welding and peen-forming, while BSFs with cutoff frequencies lower than 840 MHz will be used near the moving-gantry, and while friction stir-welding processes.


identifier: Zhao, Junhong  (2010) Design of low-phase-noise and low-power current-controlled oscillators.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Oscillators are widely employed in many electronic systems for signal generations, conversions, and detections. There are two categories of oscillators, voltage-controlled oscillators (VCOs) and current-controlled oscillators (ICOs). The development of device technology and the sensor systems lead to more and more applications of ICOs. Moreover, many of applications require ICOs to operate under very restricted conditions. The objective of the work presented in this thesis is to design ICO circuits that meet the requirements of wide frequency range, high sensitivity to the control signal, low phase noise, low power dissipation, and small circuit space. To this end, the work of the design starts with a latch-based oscillator that has a simple structure and wide frequency range, but very modest performance of phase accuracy. A method to reduce the phase noise by introducing a Slope-Enhancement-Block (SEB) is proposed. The SEB is used to make the voltage variation at the critical node in the circuit enhanced so that the short-circuits currents are reduced. This method can hence help not only to reduce the phase noise, but also the power dissipation. With this method, two ICO circuits have been designed. By means of Spectre simulations, the performances of the two ICOs have been evaluated. The results show that by introducing the SEB each consisting of two cascaded inverters into the minimum-sized latch-based ICO, the phase noise can be reduced by at lest 5dBc/Hz. Such a simple SEB also helps to reduce significantly the power dissipation, in particular, at the lower part of the frequency range. Compared with the existing oscillators having a similar frequency range, the designed ICOs have a better performance in terms of phase noise and the comparable power dissipation when they are made to operate at the same current level. The phase noise of the first designed ICO circuit, ICO_NA, is -114.7 dBc/Hz at the offset frequency of 1 MHz from the carrier of 916 MHz with the power dissipation of 26.05 mW. The phase noise of the second designed ICO circuit, ICO_NB, is -113.9 dBc/Hz at the offset of 1 MHz from 913 MHz with the power dissipation of 19.64 mW. Moreover, they require much smaller silicon space of only 3933 om 2


identifier: Moazin, Ahmad  (2010) Incentive-based reputation of WEB services communities.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: There have been always motivations to introduce clustering of entities with similar functionality into groups of redundant services or agents. Communities of Web services are composed by aggregating a number of functionally identical Web services. Many communities with the same type of service can be formed and all aim to increase their reputation level in order to obtain more requests. The problem, however, is that there are no incentives for these communities to act truthfully and not providing fake feedback in support of themselves or against others. In this thesis we propose an incentive and game-theoretic-based mechanism dealing with reputation assessment for communities of Web services. The proposed reputation mechanism is based on after-service feedback provided by the users to a logging system. Given that the communities are free to decide about their actions, the proposed method defines the evaluation metrics involved in reputation assessment of the communities and supervises the logging system by means of controller agent in order to verify the validity and soundness of the feedback. We also define incentives so that the best game-theoretical strategy for communities is to act truthfully. Theoretical analysis of the framework along with empirical results are provided.


identifier: De Lima, Vitor Nunes  (2010) Framework for automatic verification of UML design models : application to UML 2.0 interactions.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Software-intensive systems have become extremely complex and susceptible to defects and vulnerabilities. At the same time, the consequences of software errors have also become much more severe. In order to reduce the overall development cost and assure the security and reliability of the final product, it is of critical importance to investigate techniques able to detect defects as early as possible in the software development process, where the costs of repairing a software flaw are much lower than at the maintenance phase. In this research work, we propose an approach for detecting flaw at the design phase by combining two highly successful techniques in the information technology (IT) industry in the field of modeling languages and verification technologies. The first one is the Unified Modeling Language (UML). It has become the de facto language for software specification and design. UML is now used by a wide range of professionals with very different background. The second one is Model Checking , which is a formal verification technique that allows the desired properties to be verified through the inspection of all possible states of the model under consideration. Despite the fact that Model Checking gives significant capabilities to developers in order to create a secure design of the system, they are still not very popular in the UML community. There are many challenges faced by UML developers when it comes to combine UML with model checking (e.g., developer are not familiar with formal logics, the verification result is not in the UML notation, and the generation of the model checkers code from UML models is a problematic task). The proposed approach addresses these problems by implementing a new verification framework with support to property specification without using the complexity of formal languages, UML-like notation for the verification results, and a fully automatic verification process


identifier: Moubayed, Anna-Maria  (2010) Saint-Antoine-de-Padoue co-Cathedral : Christianity, Victorian Gothic revival and Quebec's colonial hybrid culture.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Built between 1884 and 1887, Saint-Antoine-de-Padoue is a Roman Catholic Victorian Neo-Gothic church situated in the heart of Vieux-Longueuil, on the south-shore of Montreal. Saint-Antoine-de-Padoue co-Cathedral has never been studied in depth and no significant research explaining the church's architectural importance in terms of style, decoration, liturgical functions and cultural identity has ever been published until this date. The thesis will demonstrate that Saint-Antoine-de-Padoue co-Cathedral's architectural style evokes its cultural history, illustrates Catholic ideals, beliefs and hopes, and forms its cultural identity. I will argue that the choice of the church's architectural style is not only appropriate to the main artistic trends of the period, but that it also reflects the church's historical reality composed of both French and English cultures. Furthermore, I will assert that Saint-Antoine-de-Padoue co-Cathedral's Neo-Gothic architecture suits perfectly a Catholic church's liturgical functions and allows a prayerful and meditative atmosphere. I intend to answer my thesis question by considering the relationship between Longueuil's co-cathedral and the theories on religious architecture offered by Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin (1812.1852) and the Cambridge Camden Society (founded in 1839), thereby placing the structure in an aesthetic, historical and theoretical context


identifier: Yanchak, Tamara  (2010) The role of recurrent multi-word utterances in the acquisition of past tense morphology by adult ESL learners.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Frequency effects are powerful mechanisms of human cognition and learning, including language acquisition. The study explores the possible contribution of frequency effects on the acquisition of the simple past in English. The focus of the study was the distribution of simple past in recurrent multi-word utterances (RMUs) in both native speaker and second language learner speech. The objective was to determine whether there is an association between RMUs and the semantic categories of verbs in NS speech, and if so, whether this association would in turn predict the accuracy rate of simple past in L2 speech. The prediction, informed by the Aspect Hypothesis, was the association between RMUs and telic predicates, and, hence, their greater accuracy in L2 speech. The study examined the distributional frequency of semantic categories of verbs in descriptions of past weekend produced by 29 native speakers and 33 ESL learners, as well as the accuracy of past morphological markers for the learners. The findings suggest that telics are significantly more predominant in L1 RMUs than in non-RMUs. Telics also prevail in L2 speech, and they received most accurate markings in all past multi-word utterances produced by learners. As to the prediction of more accurate morphological markers for telic predicates in RMUs versus those in non-RMUs, only advanced proficiency learners showed significant advantage of RMUs. The findings are interpreted in relation to the research in formulaic sequences and the AH. The issues of verb type frequency and L2 proficiency need to be further investigated. Pedagogical implications for instruction are suggested in conclusions.


identifier: Sánchez Lozano, Juan Carlos  (2010) Distributed information resources and embodied cognition in software application training : interaction patterns in online environments and digital games.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Research on software application training has been predominantly based on the premise that the user builds an internal functional model of the system. This view of cognition as purely internal has been challenged by studies showing that experts do not remember the exact commands required to complete a task if they are not in front of the computer. Display-based competence suggests that a flow of information takes place between the display and the user, who only holds the necessary information to understand the visual cues and act accordingly. Distributed cognition, however, does not address the perceptual and motor actions necessary to acquire the information from the world and act on it. Embodied cognition attends to this gap. The Soft Constraints Hypothesis suggests that at the 'embodiment level', users will choose between cognitive, perceptual, and motor operators based on a cost-benefit analysis, the cost of the resources measured in milliseconds. It was hypothesized that resources in different environments with various access costs would influence use patterns, and learning strategies and performance. For the purpose of this study, participants completed a 5-lesson course in Flash animation concepts. 50 participants were then assigned to two practice environments that contained a software simulator built based on visual cues and salient task features displayed by the real software. The two practice spaces manipulated the nature of, and access to, information resources, with one featuring game-like task completion. Every action taken during the study was tracked and time-stamped, producing a log file containing around 20,000 records for subsequent analysis. The results showed that information access cost in online environments for software training has a clear impact on the strategies employed, the learning processes engaged, and learning outcomes. Traditional statistical analysis showed significant differences in declarative knowledge of rules, efficiency, and accuracy between groups. These results were complemented with data mining techniques to analyze user sequences as departures from an optimum path. The idea of a dual-learning process taking place when users are learning interactive behaviors, for example command sequences, was supported. A declarative-to-procedural process takes place in low-cost single-task environments whereas in the specific case of educational games, information access cost and concurrent game tasks can trigger a non-attentional cue-based behavior that results in higher task efficiency and accuracy, but has a negative impact on rule verbalization. A design framework for instructional environments mapping instruction-specific resources and their access cost to specific learning processes and outcomes is presented based on findings.


identifier: Qayyum, Adnan A  (2010) Exploring students' course-related communication behaviour outside of postsecondary classrooms.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Students interact with peers and instructors for course purposes both within and outside of class spaces. This study explored how post-secondary students communicate outside of class for course purposes, and how they use information and communication technologies (ICTs) to do so. Sixty-nine students were interviewed during a qualitative pilot study to explore their communication and study patterns outside of class. Pilot results were used to create a survey. Survey results (N=438) indicated six factors motivated students to communicate with peers and instructors outside of class for course purposes: students' perceived usefulness of their peers; trust of peers; their perception of instructors; preference to work independently; overall perception of the course; and, perceived threat (i.e. sense of vulnerability about their ability). Perceived threat, perception of instructors, and students' preference to work independently were significant in predicting whether students turned to instructors outside of class. These findings reinforce and advance existing research on students' formal help-seeking behaviour. Students communicated with peers and instructors both in person and via ICTs. However, it was difficult to associate ICT preference with generation. There was no significant difference between the Net Generation and non-Net Generation in their use of email to communicate with peers for course purposes. There were significant differences between generations in how often they used instant messaging, text message, Facebook and WebCT when communicating with peers for course purposes. There were also significant differences between how often the two groups talked with peers in person and via phone for course purposes. The uneven results and small effect sizes suggest generation may not be a strong nor consistent variable for understanding students' ICT use in education. Finally, results indicated students used institutionally provided ICTs, such email and WebCT, far less than commonly available ICTs, such as personal email accounts, instant messaging and text messaging when communicating with peers of their own volition. The findings suggest that educators need to better understand the social dynamics by which students communicate and use ICTs, in order to inform policies and decisions.


identifier: Haj-zamani, Sohrab  (2010) Effect of curing temperature on hydraulic backfill performance with consideration of a new type of binder.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Mine backfilling has multiple purposes in underground mining operations, such as, improving ground support, increasing production rate and environmental issues. Optimization of such material is of importance to the industry. In order to give appropriate stiffness to the mine tailing to be used as mine backfill, different type of binders have been introduced and investigated in the past. Development of cost-effective mine waste management, including mine backfilling, is a priority for today's mining industry. Mine backfilling has progressively been integrated into underground mining operations. The high stresses and temperature associated with mining at depth in the Canadian Shield, also requires innovative approaches to mine backfilling to withstand the loading both during and after mining operations. Not only new or modified mine fill systems are required, but also new techniques are needed to increase the speed of the . mining cycle for optimizing the mining operation. The backfill must also remain stable chemically to ensure the required long term behaviour. The major objective is the determination of the role played by sodium silicate with different binders as a new additive in strength acquisition of mixtures. Extensive laboratory testing program has been conducted to investigate the parameters affecting both the long and the short term physical, mechanical properties of such mixtures with special reference to the curing temperatures. It was found that a higher percentage of sodium silicate in binder mixture reduces final setting time as well as a warmer curing condition. A sodium silicate mixture improves strength of samples in both short and long period and also decreases the porosity of the samples. Strength of samples is not always improved by increasing curing temperature and there is an optimum curing temperature.


identifier: Daneshvar, Poulad  (2010) Modeling of tailings flow following a dam breach using smoothed particles hydrodynamics.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Choosing impoundments as the method of tailings disposal for mining processes necessitates the construction of tailings dams. As various types of chemicals remaining from the mining processes are retained in the pond behind a tailings dam, a dam failure may result in environmental damages in addition to threatening lives. Therefore, the distribution and distance to which tailings would travel in the case of a dam failure is important to determine the amount of potential damage. The aim of this research was to study the feasibility of modeling tailings following a dam breach based on the available data in the literature and reach the same distribution and travelling distance of the tailings as in the physical incidents. The numerical tool chosen for this research would simulate tailings as a Non-Newtonian fluid using a Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) method. To calibrate the simulation tool a series of flume tests on two different tailings pastes from two different operation stages of Bulyanhulu gold mine (Tanzania) was modeled. The flume was created in the simulation tool and more than so simulations were run to calibrate the simulation tool. Through these tests the effects of changes in the values assigned to parameters related to tailings and their environment on the model were studied. Practical application of the model was performed by using a digital elevation model (DEM) of the areas of two reported tailings dam failures in the simulation tool and repeatedly running tests with changes in the values for the terrain and tailings parameters to compare the results with the literature reported distribution of tailings outflow.


identifier: Zhu, Ben Wen  (2010) Privacy-preserving alert correlation and report retrieval.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Intrusion Detection Systems (IDSs) have been widely deployed on both hosts and networks and serve as a second line of defense. Generally, an IDS flags malicious activates as IDS alerts and forwards them to security officers for further responses. The core issue of IDSs is to minimize both false positives and false negatives. Previous research shows that alert correlation is an effective solution. Moreover, alert correlation (in particular, under the cross-domain setting) can fuse distributed information together and thus be able to detect large-scale attacks that local analysis fails to handle. However, in practice the wide usage of alert correlation is hindered by the privacy concern. In this thesis, we propose the TEIRESIAS protocol, which can ensure the privacy-preserving property during the whole process of sharing and correlating alerts, when incorporated with anonymous communication systems. Furthermore, we also take the fairness issue into consideration when designing the procedure of retrieving the results of correlation. More specifically, a contributor can privately retrieve correlated reports in which she involved. The TEIRESIAS protocol is based mainly on searchable encryption, including both symmetric-key encryption with keyword search (SEKS) and public-key encryption with keyword search (PEKS). While designing TEIRESIAS, we identify a new statistical guessing attack against PEKS. To address this problem, we propose the PEKSrand scheme, which is an extension of PEKS and can mitigate both brute-force guessing attacks and statistical guessing attacks. The PEKSrand scheme can either be used independently or be combined with TEIRESIAS to further improve its privacy protection.


identifier: Aghasafari, Mohammad Ali  (2010) Calculation of the droop parameters for microgrids with different inverters' ratings and feeders' lengths.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: A microgrid is a local electricity network with several distributed energy systems. Different strategies of power sharing in distributed generation are reviewed and the droop control approach for inverter based distributed generators is selected for further investigation due to its low cost and potential for performance enhancement. The inverters in a microgrid with droop control use a wireless control system which doesn't have any intercommunication cost and is not distorted by electromagnetic interferences. The control system is extendable to any number of distributed sources. Proper power sharing, which enables the energy sources (with energy storage units) to provide powers proportional to their apparent rated powers, is a very important property of the system. Hence, the collection of the distributed sources can deliver their maximum powers when there is full load demand, without overloading some and underutilizing others. The conventional droop control doesn't result in proper power sharing; especially when the sources have different rated powers or the feeders are unbalanced (have different impedances). This drawback has not been fixed in the other publications; either by using the power sources with equal apparent power or by ignoring the improper power sharing ratio. Also in some publications, there have been some poor load voltage regulations. In this thesis, a modified droop system has been used which will result in appropriate power sharing and load voltage regulation. Furthermore, the effects of the sources' voltages' magnitude, phase angle, and frequency on the system power sharing are considered. Moreover, the influences of the droop system's parameters on system's behaviour were evaluated in different cases of sources' apparent powers ratio and feeders' lengths ratio and a general rule is presented which shows how to choose the droop parameters for any isolated microgrid's control system.


identifier: Ranjbaranhesarmaskan, Mina  (2010) Fault recovery of an under-actuated quadrotor aerial vehicle.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: The research on autonomous flying robots has intensified considerably due to recent growth of civilian and military interests in Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV). Miniature UAVs with the ability to vertically take off and land such as quadrotor aerial vehicles exhibit further advantages and features in maneuverability that have recently gained interest among the research community. Reliability of control systems require robustness and fault tolerance in presence of anomalies and unexpected failures in actuators, sensors or subsystems. Autonomy of dynamical systems that are vulnerable to the above failures has been an important topic of research during the past several years. Particularly, in small aerial vehicles due to hardware redundancy limitations design of a reliable control system plays an important role in ensuring acceptable and efficient performance. In view of the above, an autonomous recovery from actuators faults in under-actuated quadrotor aerial vehicles constitutes the main focus of the research investigated in this dissertation. A self-recovery mechanism, which extends the capabilities of the quadrotor system to operate under the presence of actuator faults is developed. The solution proposed takes into account the management of the control authority in the system by taking advantage of the post-fault model of an actuator. The first step in accomplishing this task is achieved by developing a controller under healthy condition that guarantees the stability of the quadrotor system in response to the commanded trajectories. This controller is then extended to incorporate the effects of a certain type of actuators fault by estimating the post-fault model of the system and then by properly commanding the faulty actuators accordingly. The performance of the proposed fault recovery scheme in presence of noise in the input and output channels and under different fault severities is evaluated through numerical simulations. It is shown that a significant reduction in the average tracking steady state errors are obtained through the application of the proposed recovery mechanism. The proposed scheme is applicable to rotorcraft systems even in presence of multiple faults in actuators.


identifier: Wang, Wei Yong  (2010) An optimization model for composite wind turbine blade production planning.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Composite wind turbine blades are major components of wind towers and they constitute a significant proportion of the cost of building wind towers. It has been a common practice that wind turbine blade manufacturing companies extend production to multiple sites. This thesis will apply an integrated production planning model to multi-site composite wind turbine blade manufacturing for improved operations performance and minimized supply chain cost. The model is formulated by mixed integer linear programming (MILP) and contains three modules: raw material inventory module, production module and finished product distribution module. It covers the operations of a whole supply chain including raw materials procurement and inventory control, production planning, manpower planning, finished products warehousing and transportation. A numerical example is given to illustrate the model and to examine computational efficiency of it. Sensitivity analysis is conducted to identify important cost factors and to provide directions for managerial operations in cost reduction. Key words: composite, wind turbine blades, multi-site, production planning, supply chain cost, MILP, cost reduction


identifier: Gutiérrez Contreras, Miguel Alejandro  (2010) Numerical investigation of model combustors for efficiency improvement and miniature applications.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Non-premixed combustion process is an important subject in most applications of combustion. Understanding of this phenomenon is crucial in the design of reliable, efficient, economical power generation systems. Microfabrication technologies in the development of power micro electro-mechanical systems is also becoming an increasing trend nowadays and the complete understanding of microfluid dynamics and non-premixed micro-combustion phenomena will lead the success in this field. In recent years numerical simulations have become an essential tool to understand combustion process to overcome experimental problems without losing accuracy. In this study, two numerical simulations were performed on the analysis of the effect of injection on the turbulent mixing quality in a simple combustor and on the dynamics non-premixed flame street in a mesoscale channel using the commercial software Fluent®. The effect of inlet geometries were first investigated for a Lockwood-type combustor in terms of combustion and energy efficiency and an efficient design configuration is deduced. The effect of wall temperature and flow velocities on the dynamics of non-premixed flame in a scaled combustion channel was investigated in the second part of this study. The results suggest that the two main parameters affecting the development of a non-premixed flame street in a mesoscale channel are the heat transfer to and from the wall and the diffusion time of the flow. The analysis of numerical details such as grid resolution, turbulent and chemistry models is emphasized throughout the study to understand the influence of these numerical parameters on the simulated phenomenon by comparing with experimental observations.


identifier: Nayebpanah, Nastaran  (2010) Fault tolerant control for bimodal piecewise affine systems.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: This thesis addresses the design of fault-tolerant controllers and a fault identification technique for bimodal piecewise affine systems. A new fault-tolerant control methodology is presented. Fault-tolerant, state feedback controllers are synthesized for piecewise-affine (PWA) systems while minimizing an upper bound on the expected value of a quadratic cost function. The controllers are designed to deal with partial loss of control authority in the closed loop PWA system. The proposed controller design technique stabilizes and satisfies performance bounds for both the nominal and faulty systems. Another contribution is the development of a fault identification technique for bimodal piecewise affine (PWA) systems. A Luenberger-based observer structure is applied to estimate partial loss of control authority in PWA systems. More specifically, the unknown value of the fault parameter is estimated by an observer equation obtained from a Lyapunov function. The design procedure is formulated as a set of linear matrix inequalities (LMIs) and guarantees asymptotic stability of the estimation error, provided the norm of the input is upper and lower bounded by positive constants. The new PWA identification method is illustrated in a numerical example. Asa third contribution, an active fault-tolerant controller structure is proposed for bimodal PWA systems. The new active fault-tolerant controller structure is illustrated in a numerical example.


identifier: Dahl, Audrey  (2010) Savoir lire les médias sans savoir lire.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Cette recherche-action tente de documenter le développement de la pensée critique face aux médias chez les faibles lecteurs en étudiant le processus de création et d'animation d'un atelier média selon une approche pédagogique d'éducation populaire. Comment se manifeste le développement d'un sens critique, que l'on dit partie intégrante de ce qu'on définit comme les nouvelles formes de littératie, chez une population qui ne possède pas les habiletés de littératie opérationnelle? Pendant dix semaines, un atelier d'éducation aux médias par et pour un groupe de 12 participants d'un centre d'éducation populaire du sud-ouest de Montréal a été intégré à une démarche d'alphabétisation. Les résultats font ressortir des recommandations pour la création d'un environnement propice à la manifestation d'une littératie médiatique chez des analphabètes et soulèvent des questionnements sur l'idée que l'on peut se faire du lecteur critique


identifier: Ghomeshi, Shahin  (2010) Asymptotic bounds to outputs of the exact weak solution of the three-dimensional Helmholtz equation.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: In engineering practice, the design is based on certain design quantities or "outputs of interest" which are functionals of field variables such as displacement, velocity field, or pressure. In order to gain confidence in the numerical approximation of "outputs," a method of obtaining sharp, rigorous upper and lower bounds to outputs of the exact solution have been developed for symmetric and coercive problems (the Poisson equation and the elasticity equation), for non-symmetric coercive problems (advection-diffusion-reaction equation), and more recently for certain constrained problems (Stokes equation). In this thesis we develop the method for the Helmholtz equation. The common approach relies on decomposing the global problem into independent local elemental sub-problems by relaxing the continuity along the edges of a partitioning of the entire domain, using approximate Lagrange multipliers. The method exploits the Lagrangian saddle point property by recasting the output problem as a constrained minimization problem. The upper and lower computed bounds then hold for all levels of refinement and are shown to approach the exact solution at the same rate as its underlying finite element approach. The certificate of precision can then determine the best as well as the worst case scenario in an engineering design problem. This thesis addresses bounds to outputs of interest for the complex Helmholtz equation. The Helmholtz equation is in general non-coercive for high wave numbers and therefore, the previous approaches that relied on duality theory of convex minimization do not directly apply. Only in the asymptotic regime does the Helmholtz equation become coercive, and reliable (guaranteed) bounds can thus be obtained. Therefore, in order to achieve good bounds, several new ingredients have been introduced. The bounds procedure is firstly formulated with appropriate extension to complex-valued equations. Secondly, in the computation of the inter-subdomain continuity multipliers we follow the FETI-H approach and regularize the system matrix with a complex term to make the system non-singular. Finally, in order to obtain sharper output bounds in the presence of pollution errors, higher order nodal spectral element method is employed which has several computational advantages over the traditional finite element approach. We performed verification of our results and demonstrate the bounding properties for the Helmholtz problem.


identifier: Fallah, Mohammad Saber  (2010) New dynamic modeling and pratical control design for MacPherson suspension system.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: The ride quality, handling, and stability are three main issues in vehicle suspension design. Different suspension systems have been designed in the past to fulfil these conflicting requirements. One of the popular suspension systems integrated in small and midsize passenger cars is MacPherson suspension system. A suspension system is either passive if a conventional damper is incorporated or is semi-active with a variable damper. A new control oriented dynamic model of the MacPherson suspension system is developed in this thesis to consider the effects of the suspension structure on the dynamic response and a new kinematic model is proposed to investigate those suspension kinematic parameters affecting both handling performance and stability of the vehicle. The performance of MacPherson suspension system under alternative hybrid semi-active controls is evaluated. It is shown that the contribution of different control strategies on the ride quality enhancement of the vehicle could be similar whereas their effectiveness on the performance of suspension kinematc parameters is completely different. Using the H {592} robust control theory, a full state feedback controller is designed to improve MacPherson suspension specifications. The gain of the controller is optimized so that the trade-off between the requirements is achieved. To be more practical and to reduce the design cost, H, output feedback control theory is employed to design a controller with the minimal cost design. To optimize the controller gain, the LMI and Genetic Algorithm optimization tools are used. It is shown that the output controller can improve the suspension performance close to that of a full state feedback controller. A magnetorheological damper with continuously variable damping is considered as the actuator to the system. In order to tune the current signal of the damper so as to track the desired force calculated from the controller unit, a mathematical dynamic model of the damper is required. For modelling the damper, the MR damper is characterized by a piece-wise polynomial model which is identified by using the data acquired from various tests in the laboratory. The dynamic behaviour of the MR damper on control performance is investigated. The Hardware-in-the-Loop Simulation is made and the effectiveness of the controllers is evaluated through experiments.


identifier: Jifroodian-Haghighi, Puntis  (2010) A discrete hidden Markov model for the recognition of handwritten Farsi words.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Handwriting recognition systems (HRS) have been researched for more than 50 years. Designing a system to recognize specific words in a handwritten clean document is still a difficult task and the challenge is to achieve a high recognition rate. Previously, most of the research in the handwriting recognition domain was conducted on Chinese and Latin languages, while recently more people have shown an interest in the Indo-Iranian script recognition systems. In this thesis, we present an automatic handwriting recognition system for Farsi words. The system was trained, validated and tested on the CENPARMI Farsi Dataset, which was gathered during this research. CENPARMI's Farsi Dataset is unique in terms of its huge number of images (432,357 combined grayscale and binary), inclusion of all possible handwriting types (Dates, Words, Isolated Characters, Isolated Digits, Numeral Strings, Special Symbols, Documents), the variety of cursive styles, the number of writers (400) and the exclusive participation of Native Farsi speakers in the gathering of data. The words were first preprocessed. Concavity and Distribution features were extracted and the codebook was calculated by the vector quantization method. A Discrete Hidden Markov Model was chosen as the classifier because of the cursive nature of the Farsi script. Finally, encouraging recognition rates of98.76% and 96.02% have been obtained for the Training and Testing sets, respectively


identifier: Wei, Zunce  (2010) Locality-driven checkpoint and recovery.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

title: Locality-driven checkpoint and recovery

abstract: Checkpoint and recovery are important fault-tolerance techniques for distributed systems. The two categories of existing strategies incur unacceptable performance cost either at run time or upon failure recovery, when applied to large-scale distributed systems. In particular, the large number of messages and processes in these systems causes either considerable checkpoint as well as logging overhead, or catastrophic global-wise recovery effect. This thesis proposes a locality-driven strategy for efficiently checkpointing and recovering such systems with both affordable runtime cost and controllable failure recoverability. Messages establish dependencies between distributed processes, which can be either preserved by coordinated checkpoints or removed via logging. Existing strategies enforce a uniform handling policy for all message dependencies, and hence gains advantage at one end but bears disadvantage at the other. In this thesis, a generic theory of Quasi-Atomic Recovery has been formulated to accommodate message handling requirements of both kinds, and to allow using different message handling methods together. Quasi-atomicity of recovery blocks implies proper confinement of recoveries, and thus enables localization of checkpointing and recovery around such a block and consequently a hybrid strategy with combined advantages from both ends. A strategy of group checkpointing with selective logging has been proposed, based on the observation of message localization around 'locality regions' in distributed systems. In essence, a group-wise coordinated checkpoint is created around such a region and only the few inter-region messages are logged subsequently. Runtime overhead is optimized due to largely reduced logging efforts, and recovery spread is as localized as region-wise. Various protocols have been developed to provide trade-offs between flexibility and performance. Also proposed is the idea of process clone that can be used to effectively remove program-order recovery dependencies among successive group checkpoints and thus to stop inter-group recovery spread. Distributed executions exhibit locality of message interactions. Such locality originates from resolving distributed dependency localization via message passing, and appears as a hierarchical 'region-transition' pattern. A bottom-up approach has been proposed to identify those regions, by detecting popular recurrence patterns from individual processes as 'locality intervals', and then composing them into 'locality regions' based on their tight message coupling relations between each other. Experiments conducted on real-life applications have shown the existence of hierarchical locality regions and have justified the feasibility of this approach. Performance optimization of group checkpoint strategies has to do with their uses of locality. An abstract performance measure has been-proposed to properly integrate both runtime overhead and failure recoverability in a region-wise marner. Taking this measure as the optimization objective, a greedy heuristic has been introduced to decompose a given distributed execution into optimized regions. Analysis implies that an execution pattern with good locality leads to good optimized performance, and the locality pattern itself can serve as a good candidate for the optimal decomposition. Consequently, checkpoint protocols have been developed to efficiently identify optimized regions in such an execution, with assistance of either design-time or runtime knowledge.


identifier: Thiel, Stuart  (2010) Enterprise application design patterns : improved and applied.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Providing developers with proper tools is of ever increasing importance as software integrates itself further into all aspects of our lives. Aside from conventional hardware and software tools, architectural and design patterns have been identified over the years as a means to communicate knowledge of known problems and their solutions. In this thesis, we present several refinements and additions to these patterns, building primarily on Martin Fowler's Patterns of Enterprise Application Architecture (2003). We present a practical implementation approach to using these patterns and discuss a framework that we have developed to aid practitioners in following this methodology. We also incorporate several of Martin Fowler's existing patterns into an iterative design example to better demonstrate progressively improving combinations of their use in existing systems.


identifier: Izadi Nia, Sara  (2010) Incorporation of relational information in feature representation for online handwriting recognition of Arabic characters.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Interest in online handwriting recognition is increasing due to market demand for both improved performance and for extended supporting scripts for digital devices. Robust handwriting recognition of complex patterns of arbitrary scale, orientation and location is elusive to date because reaching a target recognition rate is not trivial for most of the applications in this field. Cursive scripts such as Arabic and Persian with complex character shapes make the recognition task even more difficult. Challenges in the discrimination capability of handwriting recognition systems depend heavily on the effectiveness of the features used to represent the data, the types of classifiers deployed and inclusive databases used for learning and recognition which cover variations in writing styles that introduce natural deformations in character shapes. This thesis aims to improve the efficiency of online recognition systems for Persian and Arabic characters by presenting new formal feature representations, algorithms, and a comprehensive database for online Arabic characters. The thesis contains the development of the first public collection of online handwritten data for the Arabic complete-shape character set. New ideas for incorporating relational information in a feature representation for this type of data are presented. The proposed techniques are computationally efficient and provide compact, yet representative, feature vectors. For the first time, a hybrid classifier is used for recognition of online Arabic complete-shape characters based on the idea of decomposing the input data into variables representing factors of the complete-shape characters and the combined use of the Bayesian network inference and support vector machines. We advocate the usefulness and practicality of the features and recognition methods with respect to the recognition of conventional metrics, such as accuracy and timeliness, as well as unconventional metrics. In particular, we evaluate a feature representation for different character class instances by its level of separation in the feature space. Our evaluation results for the available databases and for our own database of the characters' main shapes confirm a higher efficiency than previously reported techniques with respect to all metrics analyzed. For the complete-shape characters, our techniques resulted in a unique recognition efficiency comparable with the state-of-the-art results for main shape characters.


identifier: SabetghadamHaghighi, Noushin  (2010) On Larcher subgroups and Fourier Coefficients of modular forms.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: The Theory of Moonshine was initiated more than three decades ago to explore the interaction between the sporadic simple groups and the Fourier coefficients of modular functions on Moonshine-type groups. Even though this theory now involves a larger variety of diverse concepts and structures, the interplay between these two subjects remains the central theme of this theory. The purpose of this thesis was motivated by Moonshine, but it is within the second domain. This work is two-fold, covering the structure of a class of congruence subgroups and the computation of the Fourier coefficients of modular forms defined on genus-zero moonshine-type subgroups. The purpose of the first part of this thesis is to compute some invariants of a family of congruence subgroups containing Larcher subgroups. These subgroups initially were defined by Larcher to prove his result on the cusp widths of congruence subgroups. However it later turned out that these subgroups have an interesting role in the classification of genus-zero and genus-one torsion-free congruence subgroups. The second part of this thesis is a generalization of the recurrence formulae which were first established by Bruinier, Kohnen and Ono for the Fourier coefficients of the modular forms of the full modular group. Shortly after, similar recurrences were found by some other authors for some genus-zero congruence subgroups of the full modular group. Using a different technique, this work finds the universal recursive formulae satisfied by the Fourier coefficients of any meromorphic modular form on any genus-zero subgroup of SL(2, [Special characters omitted.] ) commensurable with SL(2, [Special characters omitted.] )


identifier: Rajgopalan, Vaishnavi  (2010) Automatic non-linear video editing for home video collections.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: The video editing process consists of deciding what elements to retain, delete, or combine from various video sources so that they come together in an organized, logical, and visually pleasing manner. Before the digital era, non-linear editing involved the arduous process of physically cutting and splicing video tapes, and was restricted to the movie industry and a few video enthusiasts. Today, when digital cameras and camcorders have made large personal video collections commonplace, non-linear video editing has gained renewed importance and relevance. Almost all available video editing systems today are dependent on considerable user interaction to produce coherent edited videos. In this work, we describe an automatic non-linear video editing system for generating coherent movies from a collection of unedited personal videos. Our thesis is that computing image-level visual similarity in an appropriate manner forms a good basis for automatic non-linear video editing. To our knowledge, this is a novel approach to solving this problem. The generation of output video from the system is guided by one or more input keyframes from the user, which guide the content of the output video. The output video is generated in a manner such that it is non-repetitive and follows the dynamics of the input videos. When no input keyframes are provided, our system generates "video textures" with the content of the output chosen at random. Our system demonstrates promising results on large video collections and is a first step towards increased automation in non-linear video editing


identifier: Tarmissi, Khaled  (2010) Topological approaches for 3D object processing and applications.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: The great challenge in 3D object processing is to devise computationally efficient algorithms for recovering 3D models contaminated by noise and preserving their geometrical structure. The first problem addressed in this thesis is object denoising formulated in the discrete variational framework. We introduce a 3D mesh denoising method based on kernel density estimation. The proposed approach is able to reduce the over-smoothing effect and effectively remove undesirable noise while preserving prominent geometric features of a 3D mesh such as sharp features and fine details. The feasibility of the approach is demonstrated through extensive experiments. The rest of the thesis is devoted to a joint exploitation of geometry and topology of 3D objects for as parsimonious as possible representation of models and its subsequent application in object modeling, compression, and hashing problems. We introduce a 3D mesh compression technique using the centroidal mesh neighborhood information. The key idea is to apply eigen-decomposition to the mesh umbrella matrix, and then discard the smallest eigenvalues/eigenvectors in order to reduce the dimensionality of the new spectral basis so that most of the energy is concentrated in the low frequency coefficients. We also present a hashing technique for 3D models using spectral graph theory and entropic spanning trees by partitioning a 3D triangle mesh into an ensemble of submeshes, and then applying eigen-decomposition to the Laplace-Beltrami matrix of each sub-mesh, followed by computing the hash value of each sub-mesh. Moreover, we introduce several statistical distributions to analyze the topological properties of 3D objects. These probabilistic distributions provide useful information about the way 3D mesh models are connected. Illustrating experiments with synthetic and real data are provided to demonstrate the feasibility and the much improved performance of the proposed approaches in 3D object compression, hashing, and modeling.


identifier: Alazzam, Anas  (2010) Hybrid flow through microchannels for blood cell separation.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Cancer is considered to be the second cause of death in the Canada and other parts of the world. Separation of cancer cells from blood for early detection of cancer improves prognostics of survivals for most of types of cancer. In this thesis, design and fabrication of microdevices for living cell separation based on dielectrophoresis phenomena is presented. A novel microfluidic device for continuous separation of malignant cells from blood is fabricated and experimentally tested. The separation of breast cancer cells from blood using the microdevice is performed experimentally and reached close to 100% accuracy with a flow rate 01 mL/hr. Parallel configuration of the presented microdevice is recommended to increase the separation speed which will enable point-of-care tests. The effects of dielectrophoretic manipulation and carbon nanotubes on living cells are also investigated in the present work. The changes in genes expression due to the exposure to AC field of 10 kHz and 100 kHz and carbon nanotubes treatment are studied using microarray analysis. Results show that 75% of the studied genes were altered by the exposure to 10 KHz field and only 25% of the genes were slightly altered by the 100 kHz exposure. As a result, higher AC frequency in range of 100 kHz is recommended for dielectrophoretic applications. Moreover, important genes are reported to be altered by carbon nanotubes. Due to the fact that dielectrophoretic separation of living cells requires knowledge of the strength and distribution of electric field, analytical solutions for dielectrophoretic force over non-uniform interdigitated electrodes and for moving dielectrophoretic phenomenon are derived. Novel method to approximate the function that describes the potential profile between adjacent electrodes is reported. Excellent agreement is found by comparing the analytical solution with numerical and experimental results. A number of designs for the microfluidic chip were completed and experimental work carried out with living cells form cell lines being separated from blood. The experimental results suit the analytical findings and the method could be used in clinical studies.


identifier: El-Najjar, Jad  (2010) Efficient design of WIMAX/802.16 mesh networks.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Broadband wireless networks are becoming increasingly popular due to their fast and inexpensive deployment and their capabilities of providing flexible and ubiquitous Internet access. While the majority of existing broadband wireless networks are still exclusively limited to single hop access, it is the ability of these networks to forward data frames over multi-hop wireless routes which enabled them to easily extend the network coverage area. Unfortunately, achieving good multi- hop throughput has been challenging due to several factors, such as lossy wireless links caused by interference from concurrent transmissions, and intra-path interference caused by transmissions on successive hops along a single path. A wireless mesh network WMN consists of a number of stationary wireless mesh routers, forming a wireless backbone. The wireless mesh routers serve as access points (APs) for wireless mobile devices, and some of them also act as gateways to the Internet via high speed wireless links. Several technologies are currently being considered for mesh (multi-hop) networks, including, IEEE 802.11 (both single channel and multi-channel), IEEE 802.16/WiMAX, and next generation cellular networks (LTE). In this work, we focus on the IEEE 802.16. To maximize the network performance of mesh networks (e.g., throughput), it is essential to consider a cross-layer design, exploiting the dependency between protocol layers such as the routing network layer and the scheduling resource allocation MAC layer. Therefore this PhD thesis considers a cross-layer design approach for designing efficient wireless mesh networks; we first develop mathematical models (link-based and path-based) for the problem of joint routing tree construction and link scheduling in WiMAX-based mesh networks with the objective of minimizing the schedule length to satisfy a set of uplink and downlink demands. This is achieved by maximizing the number of concurrent active transmissions in the network by efficiently reusing the spectrum spatially. Second, we exploit the broadcasts nature of the wireless medium and enhance our design models by incorporating opportunistic network coding into the joint routing tree construction and link scheduling problem. Identifying coding-aware routing structures and utilizing the broadcasting feature of the wireless medium play an important role in realizing the achievable gain of network coding. Last, the uprising mobile WiMAX (802.16e amendment) has introduced more difficulties and challenges into the network design problem; thus, ensuring larger connection lifetime and better routing stability become of greater interest for the joint routing and scheduling problem. This is addressed by augmenting the previously designed models. Throughout this thesis, we assume centralized scheduling at the base station (BS) and we develop, for the joint problems, integer linear programming (ILP) models which require the enumeration of all feasible solutions to reach the optimal solution. Given their complexities, we rely on optimization decomposition methods using column generation for solving each model in an efficient way.


identifier: Tabara, Wael Elias  (2010) Flexible pavement condition-rating model for maintenance and rehabilitation selection.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Keeping asphalt-surfaced highways and roads in an acceptable condition is the major goal that departments of transportation and pavement engineers always strive to achieve. According to ASCE 2009 report card, an estimated spending of $186 billion is needed annually to substantially improve highways conditions. Hence, prediction models of current and future pavement condition should be rationalized and studied from cost effective perspective. In modeling the pavement condition, two major categories of models have been used: (1) deterministic and (2) stochastic. Existing models consider some factors that might be more critical than others, such as roughness measurements and distress information. They ignore other factors that could have a real effect on the accuracy of the pavement performance model(s), such as climate conditions. Therefore, the current research aims at developing a comprehensive condition-rating model that incorporates a wider range of possible factors significantly affecting flexible pavement performance. Data for this research were collected from the records of Nebraska Department of Roads (NDOR) called "Tab Files". In addition to a questionnaire that was designed and sent to pavement engineers and experts in North America. An integrated model was developed using Multi-Attribute Utility Theory (MAUT) and multiple regression analysis. Sensitivity analysis of the developed regression models is done using Monte-Carlo simulation to quickly identify the high-impact factors. Models' validation shows robust results with an average validity percent of 94% in which they can be utilized by Departments of Transportation (DOT) and/or Pavement Management Systems (PMS) as a useful tool for assessing and predicting pavement conditions


identifier: Mehran, Pejman  (2010) Fuzzy machine vision based inspection.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

title: Fuzzy machine vision based inspection

abstract: Machine vision system has been fostered to solve many realistic problems in various fields. Its role in achieving superior quality and productivity is of paramount importance. But, for such system to be attractive, it needs to be fast, accurate and cost-effective. This dissertation is based on a number of practical machine vision based inspection projects obtained from the automotive industry. It presents a collection of developed efficient fuzzy machine vision approaches endorsed with experimental results. It also covers the conceptual design, development and testing of various fuzzy machine vision based inspection approaches for different industrial applications. To assist in developing and evaluating the performance of the proposed approaches, several parts are tested under varying lighting conditions. This research deals with two important aspects of machine vision based inspection. In the first part, it concentrates on the topics of component detection and component orientation identification. The components used in this part are metal clips mounted on a dash panel frame that is installed in the door of trucks. Therefore, we propose a fuzzy machine vision based clip detection model and a fuzzy machine vision based clip orientation identification model to inspect the proper placement of clips on dash panels. Both models are efficient and fast in terms of accuracy and processing time. In the second part of the research, we are dealing with machined part defects such as broken edge, porosity and tool marks. The se defects occur on the surface of die cast aluminum automotive pump housings. As a result, an automated fuzzy machine vision based broken edge detection method, an efficient fuzzy machine vision based porosity detection technique and a neuro-fuzzy part classification model based on tool marks are developed. Computational results show that the proposed approaches are effective in yielding satisfactory results to the tested image databases. There are four main contributions to this work. The first contribution is the development of the concept of composite matrices in conjunction with XOR feature extractor using fuzzy subtractive clustering for clip detection. The second contribution is about a proposed model based on grouping and counting pixels in pre-selective areas which tracks pixel colors in separated RGB channels to determine whether the orientation of the clip is acceptable or not. The construction of three novel edge based features embedded in fuzzy C-means clustering for broken edge detection marks the third contribution. At last, the fourth contribution presents the core of porosity candidates concept and its correlation with twelve developed matrices. This, in turn, results in the development of five different features used in our fuzzy machine vision based porosity detection approach.


identifier: Al-Bahnassi, Homam  (2010) Real-time motion planning and simulation of cranes in construction.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Real-time planning the motion of heavy equipment (e.g. cranes) is an important issue in construction projects, where rapid and accurate planning directly affects the safety and productivity of operation. The work presented in this thesis is directed towards automatically generating an accurate motion plan in space and time for cranes by: (1) Investigating and utilizing motion planning algorithms to generate feasible paths with respect to all considered constraints; (2) Extending the efficiency of motion planning under complex global constraints (Le. geometrical constraints) that represent static and dynamic obstacles found in the construction site; and (3) Considering local constraints that are related to the stability of the crane itself. Local constraints include engineering constraints (e.g. workloads for cranes) in addition to kinematic and dynamic constraints for the crane joints. The methodology presented in this thesis was applied to develop a specialized motion planning system for construction equipment called Intelligent Construction Equipment motion Planner (ICE-Planner). This system was integrated into the 3D software to define, solve and visualize motion planning in real time. The proposed methodology provides: (1) A motion planning framework for supporting cranes with the ability of generalizing over different types of equipment; (2) practical equipment planning which is aware of local constraints derived from engineering and kinematics properties of the equipment itself; (3) more accurate and realistic motion planning with efficiency in re-planning dynamic cases found in actual sites; and (4) the ability of visualizing and simulating motion planning results in real-time.


identifier: Deruaz, Marie-Louise  (2010) Re-visioning and investigating portraiture : representing the immaterial and incorporeal self.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Through this artistic approach, portraiture is viewed within a broad context of influences from both contemporary art and qualitative research in the social sciences. Focusing on the human interaction between the portraitist and the person being portrayed, a method integrating concepts such as collaboration and reflexivity from visual anthropology and sociology is explored. Aspects of working in portraiture using fine art photography and digital media are also investigated. In creating three experimental portraits of Buddhist participants, I have combined digital audio, video and still photography media, discovering both advantages and limitations in working with this media. The Buddhist participants in this project added another dimension to the collaboration by providing their reflections on the concepts of self and portraiture. Creating portraits of individuals whose belief system differs from conventional notions of self as a separate and vulnerable entity allowed me to develop an experiential and transformative understanding of portraiture. This thesis suggests considerations for the integration of portraiture within art and photography education; it proposes a method that integrates reflexivity and other issues surrounding social representation, including considerations about subjectivity and the concept of self.


identifier: Ramalingaiah, Thejashree  (2010) Removal of suspended solids using in-situ filtration in surface water.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Compromised water quality impacts many surface water resources worldwide. The decline in the water quality can be attributed to various pollutants discharged into water areas such as rivers, lakes and ponds. Most of the pollutants, such as nutrients, organic compounds, bacteria, which were released into the water areas, are adsorbed onto the surface of the suspended solids (SS) and settle to the bottom. Phosphorus (P) is considered as the controlling element in the propagation of eutrophication in water bodies. Algal blooms threaten lake water quality and in order to control their growth, removal of P along with the SS is essential. The focus of this study was to improve water quality by removing SS and phosphorus through a pilot scale in-situ filtration tests. A nonwoven geotextile was used as the filter medium. The pilot-scale unit was set up at Lac Caron, located 75 km north of Montreal in Saint-Anne-des-Lacs, Quebec, Canada. Filtration tests using four different nonwoven filters were performed. A nonwoven filter with apparent opening size (AOS) of 150 om and thickness of 0.3 cm was effective in removing SS concentration by 91%. The water quality improved in terms of SS and P removal rendering in-situ filtration as an effective treatment system or remediation technology for contaminated surface water bodies such as inlets, bays, lakes, and ponds.


identifier: Torkan, Behnam  (2010) Development of a protection mechanism for fiber optic sensors in monitoring GFRP reinforced concrete beams.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) is a procedure of evaluating the in-service performance of structures, assessing the changes in the structural performance profile over a period of time, and aiding in decision making process for optimized maintenance and management of the structure during its life cycle. For strain measurement of civil infrastructure, Fiber Optic Sensors (FOS) are found to be useful for their durability and accuracy. They are known to be significantly more advantageous over conventional electrical strain gauges. However, special care and protection are needed for the installation of FOSs in reinforced concrete structures because of their delicate nature. To mitigate the difficulty in installing and embedding FOS in reinforced concrete structures, it has been proposed previously and developed in the present study that it is pre-installed in a supplemental bar which can be attached to the main reinforcement in a reinforced concrete structure in order to capture the strain in the structural elements. However a number of parameters such as the length, relative diameter of the supplemental bar as compared to the main bar, and the attachment mechanism between the main and supplemental bars can affect the performance of such systems. The purpose of the study is to characterize such bars, for their ability to transfer the strain of the main reinforcements appropriately for the use of engineering analysis. An experimental study involving tension tests of reinforcing FRP bars with FOS embedded supplemental bars attached to them is conducted to identify the appropriate size, length and attachment method of the supplementary bars in terms of the strain experienced by the supplementary bars as compared to the real strain values of the corresponding main bars. A number of specimens with different combinations of the governing parameters as mentioned earlier are utilized in the test. Some of the specimens were confined in concrete cylinders to study the effect of such confinement in the performance of the proposed system. Adequate number of specimens were built and tested to assure the reliability of the tests, and the preliminary results indicate that the proposed system is viable, cost effective and practical. The results showed that in all cases, supplementary bars with two development length had closest strain capture of the main bar while the proposed attachment method' could assure proper strain transfer. Moreover the study revealed that the less the diameter of the supplementary bar is chosen, the better results will appear. In the next step of the study a set of FRP reinforced concrete beams were constructed with the proposed FRP protected FOS systems, and the beams were tested in flexure to study the performance of the proposed protection mechanism for FOS in full scale reinforced concrete components.


identifier: Shen, Tian  (2010) Modeling the formation and vertical mixing of oil droplets and oil-mineral aggregates (OMAs) under breaking wave conditions.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Cleanup of oil spills, especially at the shoreline, is confronted with challenging problems of both technology and cost-effectiveness. Over the past decades, a new hypothesis has emerged, that the formation of Oil-Mineral Aggregates (OMAs) consisting of oil droplets and mineral fines, enhances the dispersion of oil in aquatic environments. Despite its documented role in cleaning oil spills along shorelines through reported experimental studies, the literature on the mathematical modeling of the formation and dispersion of OMAs has been limited. In the present study, the physical processes were investigated including oil slick breaking up under breaking wave, the formation of OMAs, and oil/OMAs vertical mixing. A modeling approach was developed for simulating the formation and vertical mixing of oil droplets and OMAs, namely Oil Droplet and OMAs Simulation (OMA-SIM). This method integrated modeling tools for addressing the oil vertical mixing model and density based OMAs formation model to examine the dispersion of oil droplets and OMAs. The OMA-SIM was validated using data obtained from mesoscale wave tank experiments. The concentration and size of oil droplets and OMAs generated under breaking wave condition were simulated and compared with experimental data. The main factors that affect oil droplets and OMAs formation and vertical mixing have been studied and concerned in the developed model. These factors include oil density and viscosity, oil/water interfacial tension, wave energy dispersion rate, dispersants, and environment temperature. The results of the case studies suggest that the OMA-SIM developed in this study provide effective methods for simulating and predicting the vertical dispersion of spilled oil. A computation system was then developed that couples the OMA-SIM with a user-friendly interface system, and the system was applied to real case studies based on field data. OMA-SIM results indicated that the energy dissipation rate of breaking waves is the predominant factor which affects the concentration and particle size of oil droplets and OMAs. The higher the breaking wave energy, the more oil was dispersed with time after the experimental oil spill. Oil viscosity has a significant influence on dispersed oil concentration. The mass of dispersed oil decreased with increasing oil viscosity. Increasing temperature to decrease oil viscosity and then to enhance the formation of OMAs resulted in a greater concentration of oil. The dispersants reduce oil/water interfacial tension and result in a decreased size of oil droplets and OMAs. The application of mineral fines facilitates the formation of OMAs.


identifier: Seif Eldin, Hany Mohamed  (2010) Rehabilitation of deteriorated steel bridge girders in flexure using CFRP composites.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Structural deficiencies in Railway steel bridges are usually the result of deterioration caused by ageing, corrosion, fatigue, and higher load demands. In this context, steel bridge girders are the structural members prone to corrosion which implies a substantially reduction of their flexural capacities. As a result, a large number of steel railway bridges are in need for strengthening or retrofit. In this thesis, experimental and analytical investigations are conducted to predict the reduction in the flexural capacity of existing deteriorated steel girders under static loading and several retrofitting schemes are developed in the light of strengthening the girder cross-section. The experimental study covers the use of two Carbon Fibre-Reinforced Polymer (CFRP) composite types, namely, normal modulus sheets (NM-CFRP) and high modulus strips (HM-CFRP). A total of thirteen medium-scale W-shape steel beams with a span of 1.6m were tested under four-point bending setup. The thirteen beams were divided in four groups such as: i) Group G1 consisted of four beams with different percentages of cross-sectional area reduction without any strengthening; ii) Group G2 consisted of four notched beams strengthened with bonded NM-CFRP sheets. Herein, two out of the four strengthened beams, were bonded using saturant epoxy, while the other two were strengthened using high performance adhesive; iii) Group G3 consisted of two notched beams strengthened with bonded HM-CFRP strip with and without a wrapping system; iv) Group G4 consisted of three notched beams strengthened with unbonding NM-CFRP sheets and a ductile anchoring system. The results of the experimental study underline the effectiveness of the proposed retrofitting schemes in terms of flexural capacity increase and deflection control of the existing corroded steel girders. In addition to the experimental program, an analytical model was developed to set up a numerical method that is capable of predicting the elastic and post-yield behaviour of the unstrengthened and strengthened deteriorated steel girders. This numerical method can be used by designers to calculate the losses in the moment capacity of the deteriorated steel girders to an acceptable level of accuracy. The analytical model was validated using the experimental results that were presented in the experimental program.


identifier: Rambukkana, Nathan  (2010) Non-monogamies and the space of discourse theorizing the intersections of non/monogamy and intimate privilege in the public sphere.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: This dissertation uses genealogical discourse analysis to unpack recent Western conceptions of monogamy and non-monogamy in the public sphere. Beginning from the premise that discourses surrounding monogamy and non-monogamy (taken together as a system of non/monogamy) have come into particular prominence in recent years, this dissertation deploys a thread of queer theory focused on the study of broader conceptions of "intimacy" to explore the ramifications of such a prominence in the public sphere. More specifically, drawing on theorizations of spatiality (Temporary Autonomous Zones, Mapping/Reterritorialization, Heterotopia) and the concept of "privilege", I formulate the theoretical lens of "intimate privilege" to explore how non/monogamy is distributed throughout, takes up, and creates forms of intimate space. In exploding the overly-simple notion that monogamous sexuality is societally privileged, while non-monogamies are marginalized, I show how while there is a societal meta-narrative that centres monogamy, it is really the intersectionality of non/monogamy with other forms of privilege/oppression that truly locates a subject practicing (or connected to) non-monogamous intimacy as having intimate privilege, defined as the emergent state in which one's intimacies hold societal privilege. Engaging in theoretical and discursive analyses of the contemporary public sphere presences of three major forms of non-monogamy (adultery, polygamy and polyamory) through texts such as journalistic articles, policy documents, self-help literature, television programs and Internet sites, I continue the academic discussion surrounding non-monogamies that is just beginning to come into its own in the fields of social science and humanities, as well as to complicate less-nuanced discourses on non/monogamy that are circulating more broadly in the public sphere.


identifier: Georgescu, Michaela  (2010) Hormonal, experiential and neural regulation of ventromedial hypothalamic glutamate in the female rat.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Previous experiments have shown that enhanced glutamate neurotransmission in the ventromedial hypothalamus by administration of glutamate or its selective receptor agonists kainate, N-methyl-D-aspartic acid or Ü-amino-3-hydroxyl-5-methyl-4-isoxazole-propionate (AMPA), results in a pronounced inhibition of proceptive and consummatory sexual behaviors. The five chapters encompassing this thesis were designed to expand our comprehension of the role that ventromedial hypothalamic glutamate plays in the control of sexual behavior in the female rat. The experiment presented in Chapter 1 shows that a substantial proportion of the neurons activated in the ventromedial hypothalamus by vaginocervical stimulation are glutamatergic, and that priming with estradiol benzoate and progesterone inhibits this activation. Chapter 2 investigated the effect of 6,7-Dinitroquinoxaline-2,3-dione (DNQX), a glutamate antagonist, on estrus termination, when infused in the ventromedial hypothalamus of female rats. DNQX effectively reversed the effect of vaginocervical stimulation on appetitive behaviors, lordosis quotient and lordosis magnitude, but had no effect on pacing, defensive behaviors, or male ejaculations. These results suggest that blocking glutamate transmission at the AMPA/kainate receptor delays onset of estrus termination. The experiment presented in Chapter 3 analyzed the pattern of glutamate release in the ventromedial hypothalamus during a 2-hour copulation session with a sexually vigorous male following priming with oil, estradiol benzoate or extradiol benzoate and progesterone. The results suggest that glutamate release patterns vary as a function of hormonal priming as well as stimulation received from being in proximity of a sexually mature male. Chapter 4 tested the hypothesis that glutamate release may be subject to regulation by Þ-aminobutryic acid (GABA), a neurotransmitter with cellular inhibitory properties and facilitative effects on lordosis upon infusion in the ventromedial hypothalamus. The results indicate that GABA A RÜ1 are upregulated by estradiol benzoate because the percentage of neurons that contained glutamate and expressed those receptors doubled when animals were primed with estradiol benzoate or estradiol benzoate and progesterone relative to oil. The experiment presented in Chapter 5 identified the medial preoptic area, anterior hypothalamic area, paraventricular nucleus, anterior hippocampus, and medial amygdala as the nuclei that send GABAergic projections to the ventromedial hypothalamus. These nuclei have previously been found to play important roles in the control of female sexual behavior. The function of ventromedial hypothalamic glutamate is explored in the general discussion.


identifier: Fraser, Sarah  (2010) Fine motor control and aging : a role for executive functions in sequential tapping performance?  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: The primary objective of the current thesis was to examine age differences in sequential finger tapping with concurrent cognitive tasks of varying levels of difficulty. The first study was designed to determine the point at which age equivalence would be reached on the finger tapping task. Results of Study 1 established age equivalence in sequential tapping after one block of practice. The second study was designed to assess age differences in sequential tapping when combined with a low-load semantic judgment task that had also shown age equivalence under single-task conditions. Despite age equivalences in single-task performance, age differences in fine motor performance emerged when the sequential tapping task was paired with semantic judgments. Older adults had greater dual-task costs than younger adults in both motor measures (accuracy and reaction time). Neither age group incurred cognitive costs. Study 3 was designed to examine the boundary conditions of these results using a within-subjects manipulation of cognitive load. The same sequential tapping task was paired with a mental arithmetic task that had two levels of difficulty. Age differences in motor accuracy were evident in low-load conditions and both age groups had motor and cognitive costs in the high load condition. These results suggest that older adult's resources were already taxed in the low-load condition whereas younger adults' performance only faltered when load was high. Taken together, these results demonstrate that older adults require greater executive control to tap sequentially than younger adults. These results converge with existing simple tapping and gross motor aging research in demonstrating cognitive penetration of motor task performance with age.


identifier: Issaei, Ali  (2010) Efficiency of BitTorrent-like peer-to-peer live streaming systems.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: From the past few years, peer-to-peer (P2P) applications have becoming well-liked magnificently. BitTorrent (BT) has one of the most effective mechanisms for P2P content distribution among all P2P applications. In P2P applications, each node plays a role both as a client and a server simultaneously, comparing to the traditional client-server systems, where every node has only one responsibility to act as either a client or a server. Therefore, in P2P applications, the upload bandwidth of each peer can be counted as a significant resource of the network. Although BT was created for file-sharing purposes at the beginning, which is a time-insensitive distribution, after a while, it has attracted the attentions to be use for video/audio streaming purposes too, which are time-sensitive. The importance of this capability is that peers now, can be able to watch, or listen to, their favorite live streaming content concurrently. Motivated by this fact, a stochastic model for a BT-based P2P live streaming system is proposed and numerically solved and based on what we gain, it is also shown how the performance of the system can be affected by different parameters of the system (such as the number of neighbors, delay time, size of the buffer, etc.). Moreover, we also try to apply some minor changes needed in the BitTorrent's mechanisms, in order to support the video/audio streaming more efficiently.


identifier: AlHussaini, Wissam  (2010) Corruption and the multi-national corporation : antecedents to bribery in a foreign country.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: This research aims at determining the host country-specific antecedents which prompt MNCs to break the hyper-norm of anti-corruption and pay bribes abroad. Using anomie theory conjectures, antecedents are divided into opportunities and conditions. Data on more than 1000 MNCs operating in 26 countries was obtained from the World Bank's Business Environment and Enterprise Performance Survey (BEEPS). A Multilevel model was constructed and hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) was used to determine the effect of country-level and firm-level antecedents on the MNC bribery activity. The results show that opportunities including achievement of competitive advantage, host countries' transition periods, and natural resource abundance have positive significant effects on MNCs' propensity to pay bribes. Additionally, host country conditions, such as the law's rigidity and legal system incompetence, also have a significant positive impact on an MNC's propensity to pay bribes. This study advances the literature on corruption in several directions. First, it studies the phenomenon from supply side (i.e. the bribe-payer). Second, it adopts the use of anomie theory which is still a novel approach for studying corruption. Third, it uses the MNC as the unit of analysis rather than country or local firms. Finally, it goes beyond recent studies by focusing on the host country's rather than home country's effect on a firm's bribery activity.


identifier: Morin, Audrey  (2010) The identification of novel interactions of the vesicle tethering complex TRAPP.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Membrane trafficking is an essential cellular process where tethering factors offer the first level of specificity for the proper localization of vesicles to target membranes. The localization of the tethers themselves may depend on their associations with a unique subset of lipids or activated GTPases. The TRAPP vesicle tethering complex localizes to the Golgi in an unknown manner but its localization may be mediated by the Bet3 protein. To gain insight into the mechanism of localization of TRAPP a synthetic lethal yeast screen with the bet3-4 mutant was employed. The screen is based on a plasmid-dependent assay which exploits the adenine biosynthesis pathway and red/white colony sectoring. A Saccharomyces cerevisiae bet3-4 ade2 ade3 mutant strain with a counter-selectable plasmid harbouring the BET3 and ADE3 genes was randomly mutated with ethyl methanesulfonate (EMS). Double mutants, identified as uniformly red colonies, were obtained and initially screened for the presence of a mutation in either BET3 or another gene encoding a TRAPP subunit. Mutants that were judged to be in non-TRAPP genes were then screened with a yeast library to try to identify the mutated gene. One synthetic lethal mutant was suppressed by VPS16 , a gene encoding a component of another vesicle tethering complex. Since VPS16 does not suppress bet3-4 and since sequencing failed to reveal any mutations in VPS16 , our results suggest that the defective gene in this particular mutant can be suppressed by VPS16 . The identity of the mutated gene remains unknown at present.


identifier: Tang, Hong Ying  (2010) A new approach to malware detection.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

title: A new approach to malware detection

abstract: Malware is a type of malicious programs, and is one of the most common and serious types of attacks on the Internet. Obfuscating transformations have been widely applied by attackers to malware, which makes malware detection become a more challenging issue. There has been extensive research to detect obfuscated malware. A promising research direction uses both control-flow graph and instruction classes of basic blocks as the signature of malware. This research direction is robust against certain obfuscation, such as variable substitution, instruction reordering. But only using instruction classes to detect obfuscated basic blocks will cause high false positives and false negatives. In this thesis, based on the same research direction, we proposed an improved approach to detect obfuscated malware. In addition to using CFG, our approach also uses functionalities of basic block as the signature of malware. Specifically, our contributions are presented as follows: 1) we design "signature calculation algorithm" to extract the signature of a malicious code fragment. "Signature calculation algorithm" is based on compiler optimization algorithm, but add and integrate memory sub-variable optimization, expression formalization and cross basic block propagation into it. 2) we formalize the expressions of assignment statements to facilitate comparing the functionalities of two expressions. 3) we design a detection algorithm to detect whether a program is an obfuscated malware instance. Our detection algorithm compares two aspects: CFG and the functionalities of basic blocks. 4) we implement the proposed approach, and perform experiments to compare our approach and the previous approach.


identifier: Wang, Yiming  (2010) Preserving privacy for location-based services with continuous queries.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Location-based service (LBS) is gaining momentum as GPS-equipped mobile devices become increasingly affordable and popular. One of the potential obstacles faced by LBS is that users may raise concerns about their personal privacy when location data are sent to a distrusted LBS provider. A well-known solution is to render the location data less accurate through spatial or temporal cloaking. However, such a solution has limitations when the LBS is based on location data that either include speed and heading direction, or are sent at a regular time interval. In the former case, by combining consecutive location data including speed, heading direction, and cloaked locations, an adversary can obtain more accurate estimation of the actual location. In the latter case, an adversary can infer additional information when an expected update to the location data is not received because cloaking is not possible. In this thesis, we will first show how privacy protection provided by spatial cloaking can be breached, and proposed a new cloaking method to integrate the speed and direction into the spatial cloaking process. We then propose an auditing system to ensure all the mobile devices can be well protected even when it is impossible to cloak some of them to meet their customized privacy requirements. We evaluate the proposed methods with experiments based on simulated mobile devices using real city maps. The experiments show that our speed and direction cloaking methods can achieve sufficient privacy protection without causing significant decrease in the service quality.