identifier: Saleh, Amr Abdelaziz Mostafa  (2016) Effervescent Atomization of Suspensions in a Gaseous Cross Flow.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Atomization of liquids (pure liquids and suspensions) plays an important role in numerous industrial fields and applications. One of the main important applications is in thermal spraying processes which is the primary motivation for this study. The main trend in thermal spray processes is to coat with sub-micron and nano sized particles due to the superior performance of fine microstructured coatings. Recently, thermal spraying processes are using the suspension spraying technique. The breakup of a suspension in the atomization process differs from that of a pure liquid by the influence of the suspended particles on the fragmentation kinetics. In suspension spraying process, different types of atomizers are used but clogging problems can occur due to the suspension properties. Effervescent atomizers have shown to be a good alternative to the conventional atomizers to solve clogging issue when liquids with large variety of viscosity and density such as suspensions are atomized.
In this study, effervescent atomization of suspensions in a crossflow of air is investigated experimentally. The tests have been performed at different liquid-to-gas momentum flux ratios (q) and different gas to liquid ratios (GLR). Hydrophilic and hydrophobic particles are used in the experiments. Shadowgraphy and image processing have been used in order to capture the penetration height of the spray. New correlations have been developed to predict the spray penetration height of suspensions in case the non-aerated liquid jet (GLR= 0) and for the aerated liquid jet (GLR ≠ 0).
Moreover, suspensions properties such as viscosity and surface tension have a crucial effect on the atomization process. Because the atomization process and droplet formation occur in a very short timescale of the order of milliseconds, it is necessary to analyze the rapid change of the affecting suspension properties related to this timescale especially surface tension. Therefore, the time changing (dynamic) surface tension is more appropriate to be analyzed than static surface tension. In this work, the dynamic surface tension of suspensions is investigated using a combined analytical and experimental approach based on the physics governing the oscillation of elliptical jets. The dynamic surface tension of suspensions liquids in the timescale of milliseconds is calculated. The effect of the dynamic surface tension of suspension on its atomization process has been analyzed.


identifier: Morrison, Victoria  (2016) The Three Percent Problem: Why do English Speakers Read So Few Books in Translation?  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

type: Thesis NonPeerReviewed

abstract:
Since the end of the 1990s, along with the availability of new technologies, globalization has stimulated local cultural industries and cultural exchange has increased. As a result, the number of books in translation in the world has grown from 50,000 published in 1980 to more than 75,000 in 2000. This represents a 50% growth in the number of translations published worldwide. However, the majority of these translations have English as a source language. Conversely, in the English book market the share of translations has fallen from 8.6% in 1960 to 2.8% today. This leads us to wonder: why is it that the more the world translates from English, the less it translates into English?

This thesis studies the various economic, political, and social aspects that influence the publishing industry in the United States, which have a clear impact on the attitudes of publishers regarding translated literature. The first half of the project examines the relationship between translation and globalization and the negative perceptions surrounding translation as process of deformation. The second half opposes independent and commercial publishing practices, especially regarding books in translation. Because 80% of books in translation are published by independent publishers, the last chapter presents an overview of ten small publishing houses, highlighting their approaches and thoughts about publishing international literature in English translation in the United States.


identifier: Tayler, Felicity  (2016) Conceptual Nationalisms: Conceptual Book-Works, Countercultural Imaginaries and the Neo-Avant-Garde in Canada and Québec, 1967-1974.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Recent exhibitions have redefined conceptualism as a global movement that emerged alongside locally situated experiences of national liberation movements, New Left social activism and countercultural world-making. This thesis proposes an art historical term, “conceptual nationalisms,” as a contribution to the historicization of conceptualism as the movement emerged in Canada and Québec. The term retrospectively describes book-works and magazines produced by an overlapping artistic and literary neo-avant-garde, which evince the symbolic value of print media forms during the post-Centennial period (1967-1974). As funding for the arts increased and converged with labour policy in this period, the relationship between state ideology and a conceptualist critique of the art object as a commodity became intrinsically intertwined. Many conceptual book-works and artists’ magazines were produced alongside publications issued by literary small presses, as such, this thesis also recognizes parallels taking place between the linguistic turn in conceptual art and literary movements such as concrete, visual and sound poetry that emphasize the materiality of the signifier in language.
This thesis introduces three primary case studies: Roy Kenzie Kiyooka’s "Transcanada Letters" (Talonbooks, 1975); the Image Bank "International Image Exchange Directory" (Talonbooks, 1972), which parallels the publication of the first three issues of General Idea’s "File" magazine (1972-1989); and a utopian “linguistic space” produced in the early days of Véhicule Art gallery, with reference to several publications including the magazine, "Médiart" (1971-1973), "Quebec underground, 1962-1972 (Éditions Médiart, 1973), and Bill Vazan’s "Contacts" (Véhicule Press, 1973). I also refer to two foundational works: Joyce Wieland’s "True Patriot Love/Véritable amour patriotique" (National Gallery of Canada, 1971) and Michael Ondaatje’s long poem, "The Collected Works of Billy the Kid: Left-Handed Poems (House of Anansi, 1970). These case studies draw from a wide range of interdisciplinary thinkers including art historians, theorists of utopian thought and the creation of counterpublics, and scholars of literature and print culture, with particular reference to the national publics documented through the encyclopedic "History of the Book in Canada" project.
Combining visual analysis, bibliographic and archival methods with research-creation, this thesis argues that works of conceptual nationalisms arise from countercultural social scenes where a politics of eros challenged fixed identity dispositions imposed through media, both domestic and imported. Invoking the affective state Herbert Marcuse described at the time as, “polymorphous perversity,” these case studies disidentify with a sense of nationhood based in shared language, blood or territory, relying instead upon the psychological drive of libido as a universalizing biological trait. The visual symbols underpinning national identity are simultaneously internalized and reinvested with an erotic ambiguity that manifests as Romantic irony and self-parody. Borrowing from Marshall McLuhan’s media theory, one could say that these case studies use communications media to produce a “counter-environment” within the nation. As works of conceptual nationalism, they reflexively engage an aesthetic transformation of the social imaginary that constitutes a nation-state.


identifier: Constantinides, Zoe  (2016) Broadcasting Taste: A History of Film Talk, International Criticism, and English-Canadian Media.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
This dissertation examines the history of international and Canadian popular film criticism. Though rarely addressed by media historians, film criticism in print and broadcast has served a variety of functions and mandates related to different periods, places, and institutions: nation building, cultural uplift, public education, popular entertainment, film promotion, and an entry point to the public sphere. In particular, I consider “film talk” in broadcast media as a popularizing force that has invited increasingly broad and diverse audiences to engage with and participate in local and global cinema.
Applying film history, cultural theory, and cultural studies methods to a series of examples, I explore film talk first as a form of cultural uplift on CBC Radio in the late 1940s, then as public education on TVOntario in the mid-1970s, then as a source of satire on SCTV in the late 1970s and 1980s, and finally as an amateur hobby in digital podcasts. These case studies demonstrate that film critics in popular culture have been a site of both cultural authority and anti-intellectual resistance. In Canada, this tension has been further complicated by implications for cultural policy and national cinema more generally. Moreover, the case studies illustrate the fact that film talk in English-Canada has failed to mobilize gender and ethnic diversity in a way that would make it meaningful to contemporary Canadians. Even as film criticism was made accessible in broadcast formats, parodied on television, and “democratized” on the internet, the faces and voices of critical authority remained remarkably consistent.
The precarious profession and status of culture critics has become a prominent topic in the press in the past decade. This thesis shows that popular film critics have indeed always had to respond to threats to their legitimacy, whether from populist backlash or new technological formats. The newest challenge for film critics in Canada is to adapt to—and help forge—a more plural cinema culture in which diverse voices can both speak and truly be heard.


identifier: Percy Campbell, Jessica  (2016) Digital Surveillance in the Post-Snowden Era.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Since 2013, we have learned a great deal about the inner workings of the surveillance state of the U.S. and its allies in the Five Eyes (Canada, New Zealand, the UK, and Australia). Through Edward Snowden’s leaks to the press, hundreds of classified National Security Agency (NSA) documents have been made available to the public online. Perhaps most importantly, the Snowden leaks have uncovered relationships between the corporate empire of digital communications platforms and Western intelligence agencies. For example, one internal NSA document demonstrates that Silicon Valley giants such as Google, Facebook, Apple, Yahoo, Microsoft and Skype have shared access to their servers with the NSA through the PRISM program for almost a decade. PRISM and related programs have allowed the Five Eyes to collect and store unprecedented troves of information on their own citizens, including massive amounts of e-mails, text messages, online chats, status updates, phone calls, videos, cellphone location data and search engine history despite constitutional protections against unwarranted searches. As state-run initiatives collect personal data on hundreds of millions of people on an untargeted basis, this thesis questions the scope of their reach in the U.S. and Canada. Has increased public awareness resulted in significant policy reform or have intelligence agencies and corporations continued running the same patterns? This work questions the future of the internet and digital privacy as various entities collect user data for the ultimate purpose of predicting and manipulating user behaviour, both online and in “real life”. As we enter unchartered realms of technological capability, the use of strong encryption and alternative software programs are offered as temporary solutions for securing communications online.


identifier: Allaw, Elissa  (2016) The effect of the SSARC model of task sequencing on L2 written production.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Planning lessons based on task sequencing is considered a problem in task-based language teaching as there is no one-agreed upon theoretical framework to sequence tasks in a way to promote better learning. Robinson’s (2010) proposal to sequence tasks based on his Cognition Hypothesis and Triadic Componential Framework gave rise to one of the most researched models to sequence tasks. This model is known as the SSARC (stabilize, simplify, automatize, reconstruct, and complexify) model of task sequencing. Nonetheless, there are not enough studies to empirically support the claims of the SSARC model, and thus, the question whether there is a universal task design that can systematically predict learners’ interlanguage development is still not answered. Thus, this study is aimed at exploring the effect of the SSARC model of task sequencing on written language development. The following research question was investigated: Does the SSARC model of task sequencing encourage French L2 students to use new lexical and grammatical forms in writing and will it, in turn, lead to higher accuracy, fluency, and complexity of written production? The study took place in a private elementary school in Lebanon. The participants (n=42) were divided into two experimental groups. The first group (n=21) performed treatment tasks in ascending order of cognitive complexity. The other group (n=21) performed treatment tasks in descending order of task complexity. The participants carried out a pre-test, immediate post-test, and delayed post-test two weeks later. Each test consisted of 4 sections: vocabulary section, spatial expression section, relative pronouns section, and paragraph writing section. Results from mixed ANOVA tests indicated that simple-to-complex group outperformed the complex-to-simple group on immediate post-test and delayed post-test on all measures, except for complexity. Results are discussed in light of Cognition Hypothesis and followed by pedagogical implications for task sequencing in second language context.


identifier: He, Jiaqing  (2017) Safety Study Related to Hydrogen Leakage from Fuel Cell Systems.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
The main challenge for the wide spread use of hydrogen in fuel cell systems is the safety concerns due to its ease of leaking, low-energy ignition, large flammability range, high buoyancy and diffusion rate in air. To alleviate concern of explosion during experiments, scientists are using helium as a stimulant for hydrogen safety studies. However, the equivalent behavior between the two gases only relies on numerical or experimental results, and the similarity is not connected by a theoretical correlation. This thesis assesses similarity relations using helium for hydrogen studies and develops a theoretical helium plume model. Meanwhile, a case study of leakage in fuel cell vehicles is simulated by Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD).
The accuracy of three different correlations, i.e., equal volumetric flow rate, equal buoyancy and equal concentration between helium and hydrogen was compared by CFD simulations validated by helium experiment in a 1/4 sub-scale residential garage model. The accuracy of these different methods at different leakage rate, stage of release, ventilation method and location was discussed. An updated theoretical helium plume model was validated by PIV (Particle Image Velocimetry) experiment and CFD. It is found that the new model could be used in estimating the plume size and velocity. In the case study of hydrogen leakage inside a FCV (Fuel Cell Vehicle), ventilation and sunroof show critical effect to reduce the level of hydrogen concentration accumulation.


identifier: Bahri, Mitra  (2016) Metal Organic Frameworks as Dual Functional Adsorbent/Catalysts for Plasma Air Purification Systems.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Indoor air pollution is responsible for the annual premature death of millions of people worldwide. Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are among these pollutants with proven detrimental effects on occupants’ health. Plasma-based methods’ capabilities for VOCs degradation have motivated designers to employ these methods for purifying indoor air environment. It has been demonstrated that utilizing a dual functional adsorbent/catalyst (DFA/C) in a plasma system can significantly enhance the VOCs removal and the system’s energy efficiency. However, selecting an appropriate DFA/C has remained a challenge.
For the first time, this research attempted to utilize metal organic frameworks (MOFs) as DFA/Cs for a plasma-driven catalytic reactor. Accordingly, three different MOFs, MIL-101 (MIL: Material Institute Lavoisier), MIL-53, and CPM-5 (CPM: Crystalline Porous Material-5) were synthesized through microwave and solvothermal methods. Furthermore, for the first time, a mechanochemical method was developed to synthesize CPM-5. To test the performance of the developed MOFs, a non-thermal plasma dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) system was designed, set-up and calibrated. Several adsorption and oxidation experiments were performed to study the physical and chemical behaviors of these MOFs for the removal of toluene and isobutanol. Also, the effect of the presence of humidity on the adsorption/oxidation capacities of MOFs was investigated.
Further analyses were carried out to study the surface characteristic of the developed MOFs using X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), BET surface area analysis, and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). The results for microwave-synthesized MIL-53 and CPM-5 and also solvothermal-synthesized MIL-101 showed a good crystallinity, very high specific surface area (SLangmuir: 1275-3747 m2/g), and acceptable thermal stability. In the case of mechanochemical-synthesized CPM-5, the TGA analysis showed a similar thermal stability compared to the microwave-synthesized CPM-5. However, the SEM micrographs showed a formation of different morphology of crystallites. Also, the surface area of the mechanochemical-synthesized CPM-5 was lower than the one synthesized by the microwave method.
The adsorption isotherms of toluene and isobutanol demonstrated the physisorption of these MOFs. This result was also confirmed by TGA characterization of samples before and after toluene adsorption. In addition, oxidation evaluation studies exhibited VOCs removal potential over these MOFs. MIL-101 and MIL-53 exhibited superior adsorption and oxidation ability than CPM-5 in most cases. Results also showed higher adsorption capacity of MIL-101 than MIL-53 in dry conditions but almost the same oxidation efficiency. Nevertheless, adsorption/oxidation capacities of MIL-53 surpassed MIL-101 in the presence of 30% relative humidity. Moreover, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) showed the stable structure of the examined MOFs after plasma-catalytic reactions, which indicated they were easy to be regenerated.
During the course of plasma-catalytic oxidation of toluene and isobutanol, different organic by-products and ozone were detected. Results showed utilization of a MOF as catalyst in the plasma system can reduce the downstream ozone concentration. Moreover, the presence of humidity suppressed the amount of ozone generation.
In conclusion, results demonstrated the potential capacity of MIL-53 and MIL-101 as DFA/Cs in plasma-catalyst air purification system.


identifier: Bakr, Ahmed Refaat  (2017) Electrochemical Filtration Technology for the Removal and Degradation of Ibuprofen and Bisphenol A from Aqueous Solutions.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
ABSTRACT

Electrochemical filtration technology for the removal and degradation of ibuprofen and bisphenol A from aqueous solutions

Ahmed R. Bakr, PhD
Concordia University, 2017

Electrochemical filtration is a promising technology that aims for the efficient removal of persistent contaminants that cannot be effectively eliminated through conventional treatment methods. Multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs) and carbon substrates can be employed as filtration media to which a DC potential can be applied for further electrochemical treatment.
Ibuprofen and Bisphenol A, two emerging contaminants of concern, have been reported to exist in natural waters, influent, secondary treated effluent of wastewater, and in primary and secondary wastewater sludge. In this study, dead-end electrochemical filtration was investigated as a removal method for these contaminants. This technique has shown promise in the elimination of both of these compounds and the reduction of their overall toxicity.
Carboxylated multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs-COOH) were used with the aim of increasing the filtration efficiency for the removal of carboxylated ibuprofen under different pH and electrolytic conditions. It was found that the presence of oxy-functional groups can increase the functional surface area of MWNTs and increase the filtration capacity in low voltage applications. In high voltage applications, it was found that electrochemical filtration is controlled by bulk electroactive species. Boron doped multiwalled carbon nanotubes (BMWNTs) were also studied, with the goal of improving electrical conductivity during bisphenol A electrochemical filtration experiments. It was found that despite previous reports describing the higher oxidative power of doped carbon nanotubes, with the highest reported for BMWNTs, pristine MWNTs and BMWNTs showed similar outcomes in eliminating bisphenol A.
The removal of ibuprofen and bisphenol A was also investigated by using crossflow electrochemical filtration. The crossflow configuration shows great potential in eliminating these two contaminants in both individual component and mixed solutions from pure and fouling electrolytes. This outcome can mainly be attributed to the crossflow mechanism and can be assigned to the horizontal shear flow, which likely leads to a consistent surface coverage. The long residence time within the membrane likely leads to a significant reduction in toxicity under applied voltage. Our results suggest that the electrochemical filtration technology has a potential for use as a polishing step for removal of emerging contaminants from different water sources.


identifier: Dault, Caroline  (2017) Comparer pour mieux comprendre : Perception d’étudiants et d’enseignants d’une approche interlangagière en langue seconde.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Une approche pédagogique en langue seconde (L2) incluant des références aux langues connues des étudiants pourrait comporter de nombreux avantages cognitifs, pédagogiques et socioaffectifs. Toutefois, en classe de L2 multilingue, l’utilisation du répertoire langagier (RL) des étudiants a peu été explorée. Cette recherche étudie donc la faisabilité de l’approche interlangagière Comparons nos langues (Auger, 2005) auprès d’immigrants adultes dans un contexte multilingue. Les questions de recherche explorent les attitudes des étudiants et des enseignantes lors des activités, leur perception de la valeur du RL, et la variation dans les réactions en fonction du niveau (débutant ou intermédiaire) des étudiants.
Deux enseignantes de français L2 ont développé et enseigné quatre activités interlangagières suivant l’approche, qui ont fait l’objet d’une captation vidéo et d’une analyse. Les réactions des participants ont été recueillies au moyen de rétroactions écrites, d’entrevues de groupe avec les étudiants et d’entrevues individuelles avec les enseignantes. Les résultats révèlent des réactions généralement positives, dont témoignent le niveau d’engagement des participants et leurs commentaires appréciatifs sur l’approche, ainsi que l’appréciation des étudiants de la reconnaissance de leur identité linguistique. Une analyse Chi2 démontre qu’il n’y a pas de différence significative entre les rétroactions écrites par niveau. Toutefois, les entrevues de groupe révèlent que l’approche était mieux reçue lorsqu’elle ciblait l’enseignement de nouveaux points de langue. L’étude démontre l’intérêt des participants pour une approche interlangagière et son potentiel pour améliorer l’expérience d’apprentissage d’une L2 chez des adultes immigrants.


identifier: Adesina, Adeyemi Damilare  (2016) Influence of Moisture on Alkali Silica Reaction.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Alkali silica reaction has been discovered over 75 years ago as a deleterious reaction in concrete, but the mechanism is not yet fully understood. Although there have been thousands of studies over the years, most of these studies have focused mostly on accessing aggregates that are susceptible alkali silica reaction so as to avoid it in new structures. In this study, focus is placed on understanding how moisture affects the progression of alkali silica reaction, as moisture cannot be affect the internal relative humidity inside concrete eliminated in concrete compared to other prerequisites for alkali silica reaction in concrete.Understanding how various forms of moisture will affect the reaction will help to understand the reaction more and how to sustain structures already affected by ASR.

This study employs the use of relative humidity as a measure of moisture in concrete, four sensors were assessed and internal relative humidity in concrete samples was measured at different depths to see how the external conditions affect the internal moisture of the concrete. Also, the effects of the initial water added to concrete, i.e. the water to cement ratio, and external relative humidity was studied to see how they affect expansion due to ASR. The overall objective of this thesis is to observe how moisture in various ways affects progression of alkali silica reaction in terms of primarily expansions observed and visual inspection of samples under an optical microscope. It was observed that the external relative humidity has an effect on the internal moisture in concrete.

Also, it was observed that the initial water to cement ratio has a slight increase on ASR as expansion of samples increase in water to cement ratio. It was also noted that fly ash and coatings affect the internal relative humidity inside concrete


identifier: Eltayesh, Faryed  (2017) Verifiable Outsourced Database Model: A Game-Theoretic Approach.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
In the verifiable database (VDB) model, a computationally weak client (database owner) delegates
his database management to a database service provider on the cloud, which is considered
untrusted third party, while users can query the data and verify the integrity of query results. Since
the process can be computationally costly and has a limited support for sophisticated query types
such as aggregated queries, we propose in this research a framework that helps bridge the gap between
security and practicality. The proposed framework remodels the verifiable database problem
using Stackelberg security game. In the new model, the database owner creates and uploads to
the database service provider the database and its authentication structure (AS). Next, the game is
played between the defender (verifier), who is a trusted party to the database owner and runs scheduled
randomized verifications using Stackelberg mixed strategy, and the database service provider.
The idea is to randomize the verification schedule in an optimized way that grants the optimal payoff
for the verifier while making it extremely hard for the database service provider or any attacker
to figure out which part of the database is being verified next.
We have implemented and compared the proposed model performance with a uniform randomization
model. Simulation results show that the proposed model outperforms the uniform randomization
model. Furthermore, we have evaluated the efficiency of the proposed model against
different cost metrics.


identifier: Medina Ramirez, Ana Maria  (2016) PRODUCTION OF HIGHLY POROUS AL-NI FOAMS BY POWDER METALLURGY USING DOLOMITE AS A FOAMING AGENT.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
In this study, metal foams were fabricated using Al-Ni combined with dolomite(CaMg(CO_3 )_2) as an alternative foaming agent via the powder metallurgy (PM) route. For first-time dolomite, a dual carbonate (magnesium-calcium) was found to be a highly effective foaming and an excellent stabilizing agent. It has a gradual decomposition and at different temperatures produces oxides, improving foaming conditions and expansion performance. The experimental findings showed that the addition of 7wt% of dolomite is the optimal amount for the development of well-formed pores with uniform cell distribution, spherical shape, and thick cell walls. The addition of Ni to the mixture increased the melting temperature and decreased the difference between the alloying melting point and dolomite decomposition temperature. Specific Al-Ni compositions showed appropriate viscosities for enclosing the gas as it was released. Al-10Ni and Al-15Ni were found the optimum combinations to form intermetallics which further helped stabilize the foams. Moreover, as a result of this investigation, a modification of the powder metallurgy technique was proposed, by partial-sintering the precursors before the foaming process (i.e. raising the temperature of the precursor for a period of time prior to foaming).  This step allowed the formation of particle sintering, enhancing foam expansion, leading to more homogeneous porosity, cell morphology and microstructure.
The following thesis is based in one paper, which has been submitted to the journal, Advanced Engineering Materials.


identifier: Musano, Ferdinando  (2017) The Destruction of the Temple in 70 CE: Rabbinic Judaism as a New Religious Movement.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
The Destruction of the Temple in 70 CE: Rabbinic Judaism as New Religious Movement

Judaism is one of the world’s most ancient religions with a rich and varied history.  This history is recognizable through the most notable Hebrew Bible stories that tell how great leaders like Moses, Joshua, and Samson spread the word of God to their followers.  It was also shaped by the considerable tumult and upheaval that marked the shifts between its eras.  Here it is necessary to provide an overview of the historical events that led up to the era that I intend to examine in detail, which is the era following the destruction of the Second Temple in the year 70 CE.  In this thesis, I will argue that Judaism evolved post 70 CE for the first time within a context of a new religious movement and we need to know why this historical shift was different from the others and why it made such an evolution possible.  It was not the first disruption Judaism experienced, but the Judaism that emerged followed an evolutionary path much different than in previous historical eras, which were also defined by the upheavals that created them.  This is the principal argument of my thesis.


identifier: Wangchao, Yuan  (2017) The firm-and country-level determinants of green investments: An empirical analysis.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: This paper examines the determinants of corporate green investments (GI) by using a series of both firm- and country-level factors. We use environmental expenditures as a proxy for green investments on a firm level. We find that bigger firms tend to invest more in green projects, whereas more profitable firms are less likely to go green. In terms of country-level determinants, we find that GDP per capita and surface area are negatively related with GI


identifier: Xie, Jing  (2017) On Urban Form and Accessibility to Fresh Food: An Enquiry into the Spatial Distribution of Fresh Food Retail Establishments, in Relation to Transportation Networks and the Built Environment: A Montreal Case Study.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: This thesis discusses the relationship between urban form and accessibility to fresh food in Montreal. Anchored in the disciplines of urban morphology and retail geography, it mobilizes GIS-based spatial and network analysis, as well as methods for measuring travel times by transportation modes. Establishments selling fresh fruits and vegetables are used as a proxy for healthy and nutritious food retailing. A three-pronged analysis is performed that looks into the establishments’ spatial distribution; the physical and spatial characteristics of their surroundings; and their accessibility by active and collective transportation modes. A morphological approach reveals fine spatial articulations between retail location and specific characteristics and properties of the urban system, including its transportation infrastructures. The importance of accessibility to fresh food on public health cannot be over-emphasized. Furthermore, a supply system that reduces automobile dependence is a crucial step towards social and environmental sustainability and equitability.


identifier: Jebbar, Oussama  (2016) Model Driven Upgrade Campaign Specification Generation and Evaluation.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Oussama Jebbar

High availability is an important non-functional requirement for carrier grade services. The applications/systems providing and protecting such services undergo frequent upgrades which makes meeting this requirement very challenging. A system upgrade is the migration process from the system’s current configuration to a new one. This migration may include configuration changes, installation and removal of software, etc.. The Service Availability Forum (SAF) published a set of standards that describe a high availability enabling middleware for Commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) components based systems. In such a middleware, the Software Management Framework (SMF) is the service responsible for orchestrating the upgrades. These upgrades are performed according to a road map called an upgrade campaign specification. The Availability Management Framework (AMF) is another service defined in the SAF standards and which is responsible of managing the availability of the services and the service providers. To take a SAF compliant system from one configuration to another, one has first to come up with an upgrade campaign specification for that purpose. Moreover, there are multiple upgrade campaign specifications that can take the system from the same source configuration to the same target configuration, but they differ in the duration they take and the service outage they may induce. Designing an upgrade campaign specification for a SAF compliant system is not a straight forward process. Indeed, this is an error prone task that becomes more challenging when the system and the set of changes to perform get larger. Besides, selecting which upgrade campaign specification to apply among all the valid ones is either expensive (running the same upgrade campaign specification on a replica of the real system), or tedious (evaluating, comparing and selecting upgrade campaign specifications manually).
In this thesis we propose automation as a solution to ease and minimize human intervention in the design and evaluation of upgrade campaign specifications. We devise a model driven approach to automatically generate upgrade campaign specifications. Our approach consists of several activities in order to ensure the SAF compliance of the generated upgrade campaign specification on one hand. On the other hand, we use the dependencies between system components to apply a set of rules that can improve the quality of the upgrade campaign specification by avoiding some of the unnecessary service outage. These rules include rules to order changes to be performed as well as a set of heuristics that make use of the dependencies. We also address the upgrade campaign evaluation related issues. We extend an existing discrete event systems based simulation approach for upgrade campaign evaluation. We expose the limitations of a random simulation as its results are unreliable for comparison. To overcome these limitations we define best case and worst case scenarios that we use to guide upgrade campaign simulations to see how the upgrade campaigns perform in edge cases. We also devise a method for upgrade campaign specification selection/elimination based on applicability checks according to two criteria: the maintenance window, and the acceptable outage during this window. Finally, we implemented prototypes for upgrade campaign specification generation and evaluation.


identifier: Zastavniouk, Carol  (2017) Small but diverse: patterns of sexual trait differentiation among fragmented trout populations of varying size.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: A reduction in population size due to habitat fragmentation can alter the relative roles of different evolutionary mechanisms in phenotypic trait differentiation. While deterministic (selection) and stochastic (genetic drift) mechanisms are expected to affect trait evolution, genetic drift may be more important than selection in small populations. We examined relationships between mature adult traits and ecological (abiotic and biotic) variables among 14 populations of brook trout. These naturally fragmented populations have a common ancestor but experienced considerable variability in habitat characteristics and differ by up to two orders of magnitude in population size (49 < Nc <10,032; 3 < Nb < 567). Populations differed markedly in body size, shape, and colouration, with a tendency for more variation among small populations in both phenotypic trait mean and CV when compared to large populations. These differences were more frequently and directly linked to habitat variation or operational sex ratio than to population size, suggesting that selection may overcome genetic drift at small population size. Phenotype-environment associations were also stronger in females than males, suggesting that natural selection due to abiotic conditions may act more strongly on females than males. Our results suggest that natural and sexual-selective pressures on phenotypic traits related to mating systems change during the process of habitat fragmentation, and that these changes are largely contingent upon existing habitat conditions within isolated fragments. Our study provides an improved understanding of the ecological and evolutionary consequences of habitat fragmentation, and lends insight into the ability of some small populations to respond to selection and environmental change.


identifier: Gareau, Kristian  (2016) Pipeline Politics: Capitalism, Extractivism, and Resistance in Canada.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Economic and political pressures to extract Canada’s oil sands—among the most carbon-intensive and polluting fossil fuels on the planet—have increased manifold, while heightened risks of toxic spills, climate change, and environmental degradation from fossil fuel use and production have solicited intense public concern. Yet, influenced by neoliberalism, political solutions to climate and environmental crises are often swept aside in favor of market-based approaches to economic and social organization. In the face of such depoliticizing trends, and an economic model that makes life on Earth increasingly precarious, a loose network of environmental organizations and citizens took social and political action against oil pipelines in response to the “failure of institutional representation” (Dufour et al., 2015: 127). This movement—dubbed the anti-fossil fuel or anti-pipeline movement (Klein, 2014)—sought to challenge the dominant cultures and politics of fossil-fueled capitalism to initiate a public conversation about building and governing differently in a socio-ecologically precarious world. For that reason, social resistance to a specific oil infrastructure project, the Energy East pipeline in Canada, presents an opportunity to unpack how political claims for a post-carbon society are enacted and formulated. Drawing primarily on reviews of the social science literature on risk, capitalism, and environmental politics, as well as discourse analysis and in-depth interviews with key anti-fossil fuel movement actors, the thesis aims to explore how anti-pipeline claims problematize capitalist solutions to contemporary environmental problems. It argues that social resistance to pipelines carves out a space in the public imaginary for a future beyond petroleum—and perhaps even modern capitalism itself.


identifier: Paquet, Frederick  (2017) The Fire Safety of Granular Propellant Handling Facilities.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
This thesis examines an industry-related problem in the field of solid granular propellant combustion. Through a literature review, it has been found that the safety aspects of propellants installations have not been well defined and studied. Such lack of standard could potentially lead to industrial accidents of varying magnitudes. The present project studies the flame propagation, heat output and pressure generated by the combustion of a range of propellants configurations. An experimental approach is first used to obtain a reliable set of data. Models are then obtained through the comparison of the empirical data with theoretical considerations, scaling and numerical simulations. Using the generated models, it shall eventually be possible to apply the findings in conceiving a set of guidelines for the safe design of propellant installations.

Flame propagation is central to the study of propellant combustion. Through the examination of video recordings from an array of propellant fire tests, it is possible to observe three main flame propagation modes: radiation heat transfer (ideal case), contact with burning projections and engulfment by a fireball. The maximum event dimensions depend on the dominant mode. A decision tree scheme is used to breakdown the possible events in the various propagation modes and assign conditions for their occurrence. Application of the methodology on a small scale flame propagation test shows that it is possible to scale the results to larger scale cases and obtain propagation rate estimates.

In both the radiant heat flux and pressure generation cases, theoretical forms are derived based on previous work and theoretical principles. Statistical analyses of the experimental results show good agreement with general theoretical forms. It is shown that one must, however, be attentive to possible collinearities and variable factors when interpreting statistical results. By taking into account the theoretical expectations, it is possible to estimate these additional factors and obtain models that are more generally applicable. It is also shown that the general models rely heavily on the combustion rate of the propellant configuration. This shows that the flame propagation analysis is an important part of estimating the various fire safety parameters of granular propellants.


identifier: Faulconbridge, Olivia  (2016) Children’s and Adolescents’ Peer Relationships as Contexts for Forgiveness and Nonforgiveness.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: This study investigated how children and adolescents describe forgiveness and nonforgiveness experiences within the context of their relationships with peers. Specifically, we examined (1) the types of relationships youth described in their narrative accounts of forgiveness and nonforgiveness, (2) how youth described changes in the nature of their relationships following forgiveness and nonforgiveness, and (3) the circumstances in which youth ultimately described forgiving or not forgiving their close friends for transgressions. A total of 100 children and adolescents (7-, 11- and 16-years-old) described two experiences in which they forgave or did not forgive a peer who had hurt them. At all ages, youth described friends more frequently in forgiveness narratives, and disliked peers more frequently in nonforgiveness narratives. Further, adolescents differentiated more between friends and good friends than 7-year-olds. Youth overall described more positive consequences in their relationships following forgiveness than nonforgiveness, but these effects were qualified by the manner in which youth described their experience of forgiveness. In particular, negative consequences for relationships were more often described following a lack of intrapersonal forgiveness (i.e., describing unresolved emotions persisting into the present). Last, a qualitative analysis of youths’ forgiveness and nonforgiveness experiences with good friends suggested that the type of harm, intentionality, and offender’s response following the harm influenced youths’ willingness to forgive a best friend. These findings provide new insight into the ways in which youth describe relationships as contexts for forgiveness and nonforgiveness experiences and changes in their peer relationships following experiences.


identifier: Bongiorno, Tony  (2017) Perceived Image, Prestige, Respect and Support: How Employees Manage Multiple Reflected Appraisals at the Workplace.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: This thesis collects three articles that explore the construct of reflected appraisal –individuals’ beliefs about how they are seen in the eyes of others. These manuscripts are linked by the overarching question “How do employees manage the bombardment of myriad reflected appraisals in their daily organizational lives?” To address this, the articles examine four workplace manifestations of reflected appraisals that are represented by the constructs of perceived supervisor support, organizational support, respect and external prestige (also called image) while considering the referents inherent in each construct (i.e., Co-workers, team members, the employing organization and external stakeholders). The theoretical manuscript (article 1) examines the four reflected appraisals together, asking what contextual and individual factors predict which reflected appraisals employees are more likely to focus on and when. We use employees’ work-roles as the key construct that links these factors together, arguing that self-motives drive individuals to focus on some reflected appraisals under the constraint of accountability and interdependence that are part of the organizational structure. The quantitative manuscript (article 2) examines the concurrent impact of respect and prestige on relational and organizational identification. In a survey of student-athletes from varsity sports teams, we found that the matching principle prevailed: Prestige and respect that are focused on the relationship predicted relational identification while respect and prestige focused on the collective predicted organizational identification. However, prestige was the better predictor of both the relational and organizational foci. The qualitative manuscript (article 3) focuses on organizational image and explores how individuals respond to perceived organizational stigma. I interviewed employees of general contractors during a city-wide scandal in which various audiences marked their organizations as “the enemy” by virtue of their category-membership. I found that interviewees negotiated two images that embodied individuating and de-individuating reflected appraisals of their organization. Furthermore, employees constructed these images using various sources of information that they integrated into their reflected appraisals. Overall, the three articles demonstrate that employees actively engage with a plethora of reflected appraisals from multiple referents in the organizational environment.


identifier: Zheng, Dongdong  (2017) Identification and Control of Nonlinear Singularly Perturbed Systems Using Multi-time-scale Neural Networks.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Many industrial systems are nonlinear with "slow" and "fast" dynamics because of the presence of some ``parasitic" parameters such as small time constants, resistances, inductances, capacitances, masses and moments of inertia. These systems are usually labeled as "singularly perturbed" or ``multi-time-scale" systems. Singular perturbation theory has been proved to be a useful tool to control and analyze singularly perturbed systems if the full knowledge of the system model parameters is available. However, the accurate and faithful mathematical models of those systems are usually difficult to obtain due to the uncertainties and nonlinearities.

To obtain the accurate system models, in this research, a new identification scheme for the discrete time nonlinear singularly perturbed systems using multi-time-scale neural network and optimal bounded ellipsoid method is proposed firstly. Compared with other gradient descent based identification schemes, the new identification method proposed in this research can achieve faster convergence and higher accuracy due to the adaptively adjusted learning gain. Later, the optimal bounded ellipsoid based identification method for discrete time systems is extended to the identification of continuous singularly perturbed systems. Subsequently, by adding two additional terms in the weight's updating laws, a modified identification scheme is proposed to guarantee the effectiveness of the identification algorithm during the whole identification process. Lastly, through introducing some filtered variables, a robust neural network training algorithm is proposed for the system identification problem subjected to measurement noises.

Based on the identification results, the singular perturbation theory is introduced to decompose a high order multi-time-scale system into two low order subsystems -- the reduced slow subsystem and the reduced fast subsystem. Then, two controllers are designed for the two subsystems separately. By using the singular perturbation theory, an adaptive controller for a regulation problem is designed in this research firstly. Because the system order is reduced, the adaptive controller proposed in this research has a simpler structure and requires much less computational resources, compared with other conventional controllers. Afterward, an indirect adaptive controller is proposed for solving the trajectory tracking problem. The stability of both identification and control schemes are analyzed through the Lyapunov approach, and the effectiveness of the identification and control algorithms are demonstrated using simulations and experiments.


identifier: Liu, Yonglan  (2016) The Effects of Measurement Unit Price.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

title: The Effects of Measurement Unit Price

abstract: Past research has found that judgement of quantitative information is subject to various biases. Among these biases are the numerosity effect and the unit salience effect, whereby people are sensitive to the numerical magnitude but rely on other information (i.e., unit of measurement) when that information is salient. We investigate these effects in the real-world context of retail pricing, and investigate the extent to which consumers rely on the numerical magnitude of the price (e.g., 3.99) under conditions when a familiar measurement unit (lb/kg) varies in salience. Findings of five studies supported our hypotheses, and revealed that participants perceived prices with small numerical magnitudes, corresponding to a smaller unit of measurement, as less expensive than equivalent prices with large numerical magnitudes and larger units of measurement (e.g., 3.99/lb vs. 8.8/kg). We also found an interaction effect between numerical magnitude and unit salience such that by increasing the salience of the measurement unit, the differences between the equivalent measurement unit prices decreased. This study contributes to the literature on price perceptions and provides practical implications for retailers and regulators.


identifier: Rast, Michael Christopher  (2017) Unsettled Island: Irish Nationalism, Unionism, and British Imperialism in the Shaping of Irish Independence, 1909-1922.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
This dissertation analyzes the convoluted process by which Irish nationalists, Irish unionists, and British politicians negotiated Irish self-government in the first two decades of the twentieth century.  In December 1909, a modest form of self-government known as home rule within the British Empire for all of Ireland became a practical issue in United Kingdom politics again, after the failure of two previous home rule bills in 1886 and 1893.  After a decade that witnessed a world war and a revolution in Ireland, two new Irish polities emerged by June 1922.  Northern Ireland, a majority-unionist state comprised of six counties in the province of Ulster, acquired a limited form of home rule within the United Kingdom.  Covering the rest of the island, the Irish Free State secured significant control of its domestic affairs as a dominion of the British Empire, though not the complete independence demanded by Sinn Féin and the Irish Republican Army (IRA), which had waged the revolution.
How did the main political parties and actors in Britain and Ireland arrive at this settlement, especially as it was so different from how elites had envisioned Irish self-government in 1909?  Using archival material and public discourse, this dissertation seeks to answer this question by methodically analyzing the political decisions taken by British and Irish political parties and movements between 1909 and 1922.  It challenges historical conceptions that the settlement enacted by the Government of Ireland Act (1920) and the Anglo-Irish Treaty (1921) was an inevitable evolution in Anglo-Irish relations, that it marks the British government’s recognition of the Irish right to self-determination, or the triumph of Irish democracy.  Instead, I argue that the settlement was highly contingent upon prevailing political circumstances, heavily influenced by British interests, and often defied the democratic demands of Irish people, both nationalist and unionist.  Partition, the separation of Ireland into two different states, was achieved through the acquiescence of British politicians to the demands of Ulster unionist leaders, without reference to public opinion in any part of Ireland.


identifier: Woodward, Ariadne  (2016) Sumptuary Legislation and Conduct Literature in Late Medieval England.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: This study is an examination of attempts to control dress in late medieval England. Concerns about dress expressed in sumptuary legislation and conduct literature were demonstrative of deeper anxieties about gender, class, status, the interrelationship between medieval contemporaries, nationhood and morality. Clothing was especially targeted because it was an important marker of status and of individuals' morals. However, the lack of evidence of enforcement of sumptuary legislation and the limited scope of this type of legislation demonstrates a certain ambivalence towards a strict control of what individuals wore. Clothing played an important role in social negotiations. Late medieval society was extremely hierarchical and yet these hierarchies were somewhat fluid, which was both a source of confusion and opportunity.


identifier: Li, Minhui  (2016) A New Approach to Designing the Conical Point of a Twist Drill.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
The point geometry of a twist drill is the most significant part which may affect to cutting performance in the drilling process. However, it is really complicated to establish an exact mathematic equation to represent the conical flank surface of a twist drill. In order to simplify the problem and meet the practical engineering demand in the industry, this research focuses on developing an approximate mathematic model of the conical drill point geometry.
Additionally, an integrated CAD/CAM software is developed. This software integrates the modelling function of flute, margin, point and split features and is able to calculate grinding path of each feature. With the help of this software, drill geometric parameters can be modified reasonably according to different requirements easier than ever.
Finally, this research also mentions a CAD/CAM/CAE application to evaluate the cutting performance of a twist drill. The designed 3D model can be imported in Thridwave to predict cutting force, torque and peak temperature during the drilling process. Based on these simulative factors, the cutting performance of a twist drill can be generally evaluated. Four evaluated designs were selected and ground by 5-axis CNC grinding machine. The geometry of the ground drill shows a good agreement with the dimension of each design parameter, which validates the accuracy of the proposed modelling method and the corresponding grinding path.


identifier: Rau, Daniel  (2016) Board of Directors Educational Diversity and Acquirer’s Announcement Cumulative Abnormal Returns.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: The aim of this paper is to study the relationship between the educational diversity of the board directors and the acquirer’s cumulative abnormal return associated with the announcement of a M&A. The results show that the cumulative abnormal return is positively related to educational diversity, however the model exhibits significant heteroscedasticity and therefore the results cannot be accepted as conclusive. Several attempts at fixing the heteroscedasticity failed and statistically appropriate model relating the cumulative abnormal returns to the explanatory variables is yet to be found.


identifier: Ye, Tian  (2017) The influence of dark pool activity on the open market price impact of takeover rumors.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Using takeover rumors as informed trading events, this paper investigates dark pool trading characteristics as well as the influence of dark pool activity on the price impact in open markets. We find that dark pool participation impacts return, volatility and bid–ask spread of the rumored takeover targets. A closer examination of the trading venues reveals that as the relative trading volume in dark pools increases, the price discovery in the dark pool also sees a marginal increase. Interestingly, most of the permanent price impact seems to emanate from small size trades. A possible explanation could be that because of the low execution probability in dark pools, informed traders prefer to slice their orders into small pieces.


identifier: Khlat, Lea  (2016) The Implementation Process of a Closed Loop Marketing System in the Healthcare Industry: A Case Study Approach.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Closed Loop Marketing (CLM) is a relatively new marketing information system that has received substantial attention in recent years. However, the pharmaceutical and medical device industry has been slow to adopt CLM, primarily because of the industry’s resistance to cultural and business process changes. Research is limited in the context of CLM and some issues have arisen with respect to leadership and mandatory versus volitional use of this system. Literature on other Management Information Systems (MIS) such as ERP and CRM (which face similar difficulties) reveals the need for a deeper understanding of the management of the implementation process of such systems. As CLM differs from ERP and CRM in certain respects, this research is grounded in the broader array of the implementation of strategic decisions in order to uncover the Critical Success Factors (CSFs) specific to CLM. Case study methodology is used to compare two CLM system implementations in the same medical device organization. The results delineate a chronological three-step process model that highlights the varying effects of CSFs throughout the implementation process. In addition, the research findings revealed Backing as a novel and important CSF in the context of MIS implementation. Backing consists of having efficient aggregate leadership activities and commitment driving the initiative forward across all levels of the organization. Finally, a mandatory versus volitional use environment did not seem to have a significant impact on implementation success. These findings align with previous research on both MIS implementation and strategic decisions’ implementation.


identifier: Shehzad, Muhammad Shirjeel  (2016) Statistical Classification Based Modelling and Estimation of Analog Circuits Failure Probability.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
At nanoscales, variations in transistor parameters cause variations and unpredictability in the circuit output, and may ultimately cause a violation of the desired specifications, leading to circuit failure. The parametric variations in transistors occur due to limitations in the manufacturing process and are commonly known as process variations. Circuit simulation is a Computer-Aided Design (CAD) technique for verifying the behavior of analog circuits but exhibits incompleteness under the effects of process variations. Hence, statistical circuit simulation is showing increasing importance for circuit design to address this incompleteness problem. However, existing statistical circuit simulation approaches either fail to analyze the rare failure events accurately and efficiently or are impractical to use. Moreover, none of the existing approaches is able to successfully analyze analog circuits in the presence of multiple performance specifications in timely and accurate manner. Therefore, we propose a new statistical circuit simulation based methodology for modelling and estimation of failure probability of analog circuits in the presence of multiple performance metrics. Our methodology is based on an iterative way of estimating failure probability, employing a statistical classifier to reduce the number of simulations while still maintaining high estimation accuracy. Furthermore, a more practical classifier model is proposed for analog circuit failure probability estimation.

Our methodology estimates an accurate failure probability even when the failures resulting from each performance metric occur simultaneously. The proposed methodology can deliver many orders of speedup compared to traditional Monte Carlo methods. Moreover, experimental results show that the methodology generates accurate results for problems with multiple specifications, while other approaches fail totally.


identifier: Mourtada, Aref  (2017) Mining Association Rules Events over Data Streams.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Data streams have gained considerable attention in data analysis and data mining communities because of the emergence of a new classes of applications, such as monitoring, supply chain execution, sensor networks, oilfield and pipeline operations, financial marketing and health data industries. Telecommunication advancements have provided us with easy access to stream data produced by various applications. Data in streams differ from static data stored in data warehouses or database. Data streams are continuous, arrive at high-speeds and change through time. Traditional data mining algorithms assume presence of data in conventional storage means where data mining is performed centrally with the luxury of accessing the data multiple times, using powerful processors, providing offline output with no time constraints. Such algorithms are not suitable for dynamic data streams. Stream data needs to be mined promptly as it might not be feasible to store such volume of data. In addition, streams reflect live status of the environment generating it, so prompt analysis may provide early detection of faults, delays, performance measurements, trend analysis and other diagnostics. This thesis focuses on developing a data stream association rule mining algorithm among co-occurring events.  The proposed algorithm mines association rules over data streams incrementally in a centralized setting.  We are interested in association rules that meet a provided minimum confidence threshold and have a lift value greater than 1. We refer to such association rules as strong rules. Experiments on several datasets demonstrate that the proposed algorithms is efficient and effective in extracting association rules from data streams, thus having a faster processing time and better memory management.


identifier: Gagas, Andromachi  (2017) The Anxious Subject: Janet Werner and the Disfigured Female Portrait.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: This thesis investigates the notion of an anxiously engaged viewer in relation to the paintings of women produced by Janet Werner (b.1959) over a ten-year period, from 2006 to 2016. Werner’s portraits are made up of re-purposed photographic imagery of the hyper-feminine originating in our commercialized visual pop culture, transformed through Werner’s act of repainting. While Werner’s work has been discussed in relation to pop culture and kitsch, as an aspect of appropriation and re-presentation, and as triggers for empathy, my approach engages with the mutability of her painted women as a performative space of fragmentation and deformation, and as a trigger for anxiety. The thesis begins by interrogating the genre of portraiture, drawing on Gadamer’s idea that the portrait is different from the copy because it proposes an “increase in being.” These ideas are joined to affect theory, to approach the artist’s work as a performative space, involving the artist’s body, the viewer’s body, and the body in the artwork. If Werner’s female subjects are represented in a state of flux, this can also be understood as a state of feminine existential negotiation. Werner’s process of formal distortion in portraiture is thus regarded as a performative act that brings the viewer into an encounter with the emotive state of anxiety.


identifier: Cluley, Heather  (2017) Daily decision-making at the work-family interface. A couple-level study.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: This qualitative study uses a grounded theory approach to examine work-family decision-making at the couple-level. It focuses on answering two questions: (1) How do couples develop and enact work-family routines and make non-routine decisions? And, (2) What is the role of identity construal in the way couples carry out their daily work-family responsibilities? By focusing on daily (or micro-role) experiences, I learned that daily work-family decisions are indeed made at the couple-level and that there are three types of daily work-family decisions, including decisions about work-family routines, decisions about immediate, unanticipated changes to routines and decisions about anticipated, scheduled events. Anchoring decisions made by couples over time create the context for decision-making for all three types of daily decisions. In terms of how couples make daily decisions at the work-family interface, I found that they consider multiple cues, including situational cues from their work and family contexts, activities cues, cues from their routines, cues from their relationships with one another, and cues related to family and parenting role expectations, but that the cues to which they attend and the processes for making sense of them varies by the type of decision and the type of couple making the decision. Overall, my analysis of daily decisions revealed that these decisions are made in a manner consistent with a logic of appropriateness, which involves situational recognition and enactment of appropriate behavioral rules. These rules emanate from family role construals. Couples can be classified according to differences in their family role construals and each couple type uses different appropriateness rules, and thus tends to favour different choices for both anchoring and daily decisions. From a practical perspective, the results of this study have implications for couples looking for better strategies to meet their work and family responsibilities and for supervisors looking for better ways to support employees’ efforts in carrying out their various roles. Theoretically, this research complements past work-family research, which has predominately focused on individual-level models and the negative aspects of combining personal roles with paid work. Also, it extends applications of identity theory in work-family science by broadening our understanding about the role of identity construals in work-family decisions.


identifier: Ohlinger, Marie Elisabeth  (2016) A Balancing Act: Max Beckmann and Post-War American Cultural Politics.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Max Beckmann, one of the most significant German artists of the 20th century, immigrated to the United States in 1947 and entered into the last — but nevertheless productive — stage of his life. After ten years of isolation in Amsterdam exile, due to his denouncement as a “cultural Bolshevist” by the German National Socialist Party, the painter was finally able to work, exhibit and sell his art once again. He taught at Washington University in St. Louis and at the Brooklyn Museum School in New York City.
Despite declining health and financial insecurities, Beckmann travelled through large parts of the United States and accepted opportunities to speak about art on several occasions. In these speeches, Max Beckmann never returned to the explicit and programmatic messages so characteristic of his statements from the Weimar era. However, his reversion to active engagement as a teacher and speaker in his new cultural environment stood in stark contrast to his abstinence from stylistically or politically positioning himself during the reign of the National Socialists.
Even though Beckmann avoided taking an unequivocal stance concerning the cultural politics of the past which had affected his art, that avoidance or refusal cannot be ascribed to a lack of interest in or awareness of the political and cultural developments in postwar America. Indeed, upon closer examination, Beckmann’s activities and connections in the United States place him decisively within a large and influential network of intellectuals, curators and artists, many of them entangled as protagonists in the developing discourses ensuing of the cultural Cold War. As such and as has not been foregrounded in the scholarship on the artist, his restraint is indeed indicative of Beckmann’s acute insight into the emerging bipolar power structures of the Cold War conflict, with its attacks on certain “isms” in art, and his strategy to maneuver the increasing hegemony of Abstract Expressionism in the United States, both of which had serious repercussions for politicized art and artists.


identifier: Alarie, Catherine  (2017) The Investigation of CEO Leadership Style as a Driver of Greenwashing and a Case Study Analysis to Provide Empirical Evidence for the Delmas and Burbano’s Drivers to Greenwashing Framework.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
The growing societal concerns about the environment have led to major changes in the marketplace not only terms of products and services but also in terms of strategies and marketing campaigns as organizations attempt to match new stakeholders’ needs (Furlow, 2010). Unfortunately, lax regulations and policies have opened the door to a new kind of manipulative strategy (Archambeault, DeZoort & Holt, 2008; Delmas & Burbano, 2011; Hahn & Lülfs, 2014) which is refining over the years and is becoming harder to uncover: Greenwashing (Bowen & Aragon-Correra, 2014). It has yet to be further investigated as it remains challenging to define and measure (Bowens Aragon-Correra, 2014).

Several studies focus on determining the ways in which Greenwashing occurs and its outcomes on firms and stakeholders. The mechanisms behind Greenwashing, or its drivers, have yet to be better explored and understood Delmas & Burbano, 2011).

The objective of the following research is two-fold. First, the author aims to expand on the existing Drivers of Greenwashing framework (from Delmas & Burbano, 2011) by investigating CEO leadership style as a driver to Greenwashing. To do so, four leadership styles (narcissistic, transactional, transformational and authentic) are presented and assessed. It is suggested that CEO leadership style will influence an organization’s propensity to Greenwash. Secondly, the author attempts to provide empirical support for the Drivers to Greenwashing Framework (from Delmas & Burbano, 2011) as to the author’s knowledge, it only has been conceptually determined.

A list of the top 10 Greenwashing firms in America (24/7 Wall Street, 2009) was used to objectively determine the corporations under investigation. Using the zero-acquaintance approach, archival data (such as videos, interviews, etc.) were used to assess the leadership style of the 10 CEOs at the head of Greenwashing companies. Descriptive statistics were used to compare CEOs. Then, in-depth case analyses were conducted to provide empirical support to Delmas and Burbano’s framework. Letters to shareholders and annual reports were the primary source of information to determine the corporations’ drivers to Greenwash.

Partially due to the small sample size, results do not illustrate a clear pattern concerning the potential influence of CEO leadership styles on an organization’s propensity to use Greenwashing strategies. On the other hand, support for 11 out of 12 drivers of Delmas and Burbano’s framework is established, although to varying frequency.

This study fulfills its exploratory purpose and promises to be conceptually insightful by joining two major literature streams: leadership and Greenwashing. This research is expected to trigger inspiration for further studies and to lead to important managerial implications, as Greenwashing is a growing challenge that more and more CEOs will have to face and overcome in the future.


identifier: Timmermans, Marshall  (2016) The mycobacteriophage Bxb1 integrase as a catalyst for DNA inversion in Saccharomyces cerevisiae.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Synthetic biology aims to develop methods of genetic regulation not seen in nature to manipulate biological systems, allowing them to achieve incredibly complex feats of biotechnology. One genetic element which has been receiving some attention by synthetic biologists is a class of enzymes known as serine recombinases. These enzymes have been shown to catalyze integration, excision, and inversion of DNA in a site-specific and directional manner. Due to the variety of activities of these enzymes and their irreversible mechanism of action, these enzymes could be used to construct gene regulation devices analogous in function to the digital memory of modern computers. This “genetic memory” could potentially offer improvements to the field of metabolic engineering and industrial biotechnology where traditional methods of genetic induction may not be sophisticated enough to provide total regulation of each step of complex metabolic pathways, and which may be considered expensive when carried out in large scales. This thesis aims to explore the use of DNA inversion catalyzed by the serine integrase from the BXB1 mycobacteriophage as a method of gene control in the brewer’s yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, which is a common strain used in industrial biotechnology. An assay was developed wherein a yeast-enhanced Green Fluorescent Protein (yeGFP) coding sequence could potentially be inverted with respect to a promoter, allowing for the expression of the reporter to indicate whether integrase-mediated inversion has occurred. Three conditions were tested to determine the parameters of the BXB1 integrase inversion in yeast: One where the yeGFP sequence began in a reverse compliment orientation with respect to a promoter element on a low-copy plasmid, and upon inversion would result in a translationally functional “forward” orientation which would be detectable by GFP fluorometry. Another plasmid based assay where the yeGFP sequence began in the translationally functional forward orientation and would be inverted to a non-functional reverse compliment orientation was also constructed. Finally, a third assay where the yeGFP reporter would be integrated into a yeast chromosome in the reverse compliment orientation and could potentially be inverted into the translationally functional orientation upon expression of the BXB1 Integrase was also undertaken. The results from these assays show that this reporter system could be made to “activate” GFP fluorescence on a plasmid, but could not be found to inactivate GFP fluorescence on a plasmid or activate the chromosomally integrated GFP reporter. These results, call into serious question the utility of the BXB1 serine integrase, and possibly serine integrases in general, as tools for synthetic biology in Saccharomyces cerevisiae.


identifier: Scully-Blaker, Rainforest  (2016) Re-curating the Accident: Speedrunning as Community and Practice.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: This thesis is concerned with speedrunning, the practice of completing a video game as quickly as possible without the use of cheats or cheat devices as well as the community of players that unite around this sort of play. As video games become increasingly ubiquitous in popular media and culture, the project of accounting for and analysing how people interact with these pieces of software becomes more relevant than ever before. As such, this thesis emerges as an initiatory treatment of a relatively niche segment of game culture that has gone underrepresented in extant game and media scholarship. The text begins by discussing speedrunning as a community. By chronicling the community’s beginnings on SpeedDemosArchive.com and examining its growth with the emergence of contemporary content hosting sites like YouTube and Twitch, this thesis presents speedrunning as a collaborative and fast-growing community of practice made up of players who revel in playing games quickly. From there, an analysis of space and speed, both natural and virtual, is undertaken with a view to understanding how speedrunning as a practice relates to games as narrative spaces. Discussions of rule systems in games and within the speedrunning community itself follow. It is ultimately argued that speedrunning is a museum of accidents, a re-curating of a game according to what this thesis calls its explicit rules. This claim is expanded upon through the coining of a concept dubbed curatorial play as well as several case studies of developer responses to various games being speedrun.


identifier: Mallet, Audrey  (2016) Vichy against Vichy: History and Memory of the Second World War in the Former Capital of the État français from 1940 to the Present.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Following the June 22, 1940 armistice and the subsequent occupation of northern France by the Germans, the French government left Paris and eventually established itself in the city of Vichy. The name ‘Vichy’ soon came to be used to refer to the regime instigated by Pétain and his ministers. The shortcut was maintained and popularized in the postwar period, to the great displeasure of the Vichyssois, who have long been refusing to incorporate the war into the city’s history. Whereas the Vichy regime is considered one of the most defining historical events of France’s recent past, the city of Vichy stands out as a non lieu de mémoire in the national memorial landscape of the Second World War.
This dissertation investigates the wartime period in Vichy and explores how the population has dealt with the fraught legacy of the Vichy regime from 1944 to the present. My research examines how the interaction between national mythology, specific local concerns, and broader troubling issues have impacted – and often blocked – the formation of a local war memory. In the immediate postwar years, local resisters strove to establish a strong memory of the resistance. At the same time, a powerful victimhood myth emerged in response to the city’s fears of stigmatization and ostracism. The spa tourism’s recovery in the early 1950s marked a significant change in the city’s memorial politics, leading to the memory of the war being pushed into the background, thereby establishing a tradition of silence in Vichy. This, however, does not mean that the memories of the war never resurfaced. They did, especially during the Algerian War. In the 1950s, Vichy’s economy largely depended on colonial spa tourism. Known as the “Capitale d’été de l’Afrique du Nord,” Vichy was indeed a privileged summer destination for thousands of settlers, especially pieds noirs from Algeria. The fear provoked by the prospect of a grave economic crisis in the event that Algeria would become independent led to a rightward shift of the population. This shift provided the ideal environment for a pro-Pétain memory to gather strength in Vichy, beyond Pétain’s traditional extreme right base. While in the 1950s, Pétain’s myth also enjoyed a revival of popularity in France, it declined rapidly, when, following the end of the Algerian War, the extreme right hit historical lows. In Vichy, on the other hand, this counter memory continued to develop in the 1960s. In the post 1970s period, although the local Petainist memory went underground, no other memory has risen to occupy a central place in the local collective remembering of the war, turning the city into a non lieu de mémoire and making it a counter example of what has been happening in many other places across Europe, where the most shameful aspects of the Second World War have been memorialized.


identifier: Olivera-Aravena, Jorge A.  (2016) Applying Priming Manipulations during Ratings to Relate Individualism and Collectivism with Discomfort towards Performance Appraisal and Leniency.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: The issue under scrutiny in this study is to answer whether priming manipulations can influence performance appraisal in terms of discomfort towards the appraisal process and leniency. We viewed priming manipulations as a potential palliative for rating elevation as well as a tool for research in performance appraisal. Following previous studies, 278 participants were primed with collectivism or individualism to alter interdependent and independent self-construals. We hypothesized that, in comparison to participants primed with individualism, participants primed with collectivism would: (1) Display more discomfort towards the rating phase of the appraisal process, and (2) provide higher ratings. Results showed significant difference neither in means of discomfort towards the rating phase of the appraisal process nor in rating elevation. We discuss practical implications concerning the use of priming in the appraisal process. Further analysis suggested that predominantly interdependent raters feel less discomfort towards rating but are more prone to elevate ratings as compared to predominantly independent raters.


identifier: Mingquan, Miao  (2016) How Consumers' Brand Loyalty Would Be Influenced in Social Media Based Brand Communities.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Building consumers’ brand loyalty has always been of major importance for brands. Many previous studies have comprehensively studies how consumers’ brand loyalty is affected through brand satisfaction and brand trust from different perspectives. However, in the development of new technologies, social media gradually plays an important role in people’s daily life. In the same time, social media based brand community appeared corresponding to this development and a growing number of brands became alert to this change and began to use this platform to build their consumers’ brand loyalty. As a result, how brand satisfaction and brand trust would influence consumers’ brand loyalty nowadays in social media based brand communities became of great interest for marketers and companies. Moreover, social media based brand communities are beyond the limitation of national boundaries. And therefore if brands want to establish an effective marketing strategy to strengthen consumers’ brand loyalty through social media based brand communities in a global context, they should take culture into consideration. In the meantime, shopping experiences with a brand could have more impact than product features and product benefits and leaves a more memorable impression on consumers so that consumers with different levels of shopping experience may have different attitudes towards a brand in social media based brand communities. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to study and investigate how brand satisfaction and brand trust from a separate perspective would influence brand loyalty in social media based brand communities when considering the effects of cultural difference and consumers’ level of shopping experiences on brand loyalty in social media based brand communities so as to provide more comprehensive and profound suggestions for marketers to develop appropriate and efficient marketing strategies under targeted international marketing backgrounds.
Keywords: social media based brand community; brand satisfaction; brand trust; brand loyalty; shopping experience; cultural orientation.


identifier: Sun, Yuan  (2016) Analysis of Mating Circuitry in The Fungal Pathogen Candida albicans.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
It has been proposed that the ancestral fungus was mating competent and homothallic.  However, many mating competent fungi were initially classified as asexual because their mating capacity was hidden behind layers of regulation.  For efficient in vitro mating, the essentially obligate diploid ascomycete pathogen Candida albicans has to homozygose its mating type locus from MTLa/α to MTLa/a or MTLα/α, and then undergo an environmentally controlled epigenetic switch from the white form to the mating competent opaque form (white opaque switch). These requirements greatly reduce the potential for C. albicans mating. In this thesis, I used a mutant library to screen genes involved in white to opaque switching in the MTLa/α background, which allowed us to focus on the barriers of mating in C. albicans (Chapter 2 to 5).  Construction of the mutant library is described as an appendix. Heterotrimeric G proteins are an important class of eukaryotic signaling molecules that have been identified as central elements in the pheromone response pathways of many fungi. As well, I did genetic studies on G proteins of the mating pheromone pathway in C. albicans (Chapter 6).
    Chapter 2 discusses how deletion of the YciI domain gene OFR1 allows the bypass of the need for C. albicans cells to homozygose the mating type locus prior to switching to the opaque form and mating, and allows homothallic mating of MTL heterozygous strains. Transcriptional profiling of ofr1 mutant cells shows that in addition to regulating cell type and mating circuitry, Ofr1 is needed for proper regulation of histone and chitin biosynthesis gene expression.  It appears that OFR1 is a key regulator in C. albicans, and functions in part to maintain the cryptic mating phenotype of the pathogen. Chapter 3 describes the gene termed OFR2, which affects the formation of lipid droplets, white opaque switching and mating. Chapter 4 discusses how the different transcripts of ORF19.7060 in white and opaque states play a role in white opaque switching and mating. Chapter 5 describes how the F1-ATPase chaperon ATP12 regulates white opaque switching and carbon metabolism.
In Chapter 6, disruption of the STE18 gene which encodes a potential γ subunit of a heterotrimeric G protein was shown to cause sterility of MTLa mating cells and to block pheromone-induced gene expression and shmoo formation; deletion of just the C-terminal CAAX box residues is sufficient to inactivate Ste18 function in the mating process. Intriguingly, ectopic expression behind the strong ACT1 promoter of either the Gα or the Gβ subunit of the heterotrimeric G protein is able to suppress the mating defect caused by deletion of the Gγ subunit and restore both pheromone-induced gene expression and morphology changes.


identifier: Duncan, Hilary D  (2017) The contribution of bilingualism to differences in brain structure and function in aging, mild cognitive impairment, and Alzheimer disease.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
This dissertation presents findings that address several questions with respect to research demonstrating protection from age-related cognitive decline and dementia in older bilinguals relative to monolinguals. Manuscript 1 (Chapter 4) reports research investigating the contribution of bilingualism to cognitive reserve by examining the clinical and neurophysiological manifestations of dementia in monolingual and multilingual patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and Alzheimer disease (AD).  Neuropsychological assessment data, demographic information, cortical thickness, and gray matter tissue density are compared between monolinguals and bilinguals. Results in AD patients indicated lower grey matter density in the posterior parahippocampal gyri (and similar directional trends for the rhinal cortices) for multilinguals compared to monolinguals, despite the fact that the groups were matched for functioning on two episodic memory tests. Results in both MCI and AD patients showed thicker cortex and greater tissue density in a number of regions related to bilingualism in multilinguals compared to monolingual. Additionally, this study also found significant correlations between brain regions related to language and cognitive control and episodic memory measures, for multilingual patients but no monolingual patients. This provides evidence towards our hypothesis that for multilingual patients, greater brain matter in cognitive control regions may form part of compensatory memory network.
	Manuscript 2 (Chapter 5) reports research investigating functional differences in the brain activity of younger and older monolinguals and bilinguals while completing cognitive control tasks (i.e., Stroop, Simon, and Eriksen flanker tasks). Previously collected and published data (Kousaie & Phillips, 2012b; 2017) are re-analysed using novel electrophysiological measures to investigate whether bilingualism contributes to differences in brain responses between monolinguals and bilinguals, and whether these effects vary as a function of aging. As was seen in the previously published research, neither the younger nor the older participants show conflict-specific language-group differences in behavioural results (with the exception of the Stroop task for the older adults). However, differences are seen in electrical brain activity between the four groups suggesting differences in cognitive control processing. Broadly, we found an overall age difference in power (with older adults lower higher power in the alpha and theta frequency bands, and more suppression in the beta frequency band than younger adults), and some evidence for conflict-specific language-group differences (with younger and older bilinguals showing larger conflict effects in power than their monolingual counterparts). We also found that induced activity was a better marker of conflict processing than evoked activity and that the locus of the conflict differed across the three tasks with respect to the manifestation of trial type differences in event-related power.


identifier: Dey, Samhita  (2016) Osmotic Energy-Based Micro Hydroelectric Power System.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
A hydroelectric system has been designed for a distributed generator in the range of 10 to 100 kW. The turbine of this system is run by osmotic power, which is generated from the concentration difference between sea water and fresh water. The concentration difference creates a pressure and a flow rate. This pressure and the flow rate are the power inputs to the turbine.  As the system has a high head and a low flow rate, a Pelton turbine is selected, which is the most suitable device or equipment for this power system. Turbine wheel diameter and jet velocity are estimated based on the turbine power and a nominal rotor speed of 1800 rpm, which produces 60 Hz power frequency. Torque and speed are the outputs from the Pelton turbine. By considering ideal conditions the maximum speed and torque outputs are calculated. A permanent magnet synchronous generator (PMSG) is used to generate the electric power.
The whole system is divided into four parts. They are osmotic, hydro, mechanical and electrical. The power in each of these types is calculated and found to be the same. Calculations of higher power levels are also done, (100 kW and 250 kW). In the load side, capacitor, inductor, and resistors are connected. The whole system is first implemented in the Matlab/Simulink and the output values have been achieved. Then, the system is implemented in PSIM software. The PMSG model is used in both Matlab/Simulink and PSIM software packages and the same parameters values of PMSG are considered for both models.

The PMSG outputs are electrical current and voltage. The voltage and current outputs from Matlab and PSIM have been compared and found same. The system is also implemented experimentally. An emulation has been done from this setup. In the experimental setup, all the parameter values are taken same those in Matlab model. The voltage, current, and frequency have been measured from the experimental setup and these results are compared with the Matlab outputs.
Model is validated using experimental results.


identifier: Appel, Randy  (2017) Corpus approaches to issues in second language acquisition: three studies.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
This dissertation demonstrates how advancements in corpus approaches to linguistic inquiry can be used to improve the methodological rigour, reliability, and general usefulness of findings in various areas of Second Language Acquisition (SLA) research. Although these studies primarily focus on improvements in areas where corpus approaches are already commonplace, this dissertation also demonstrates how corpus methods can be usefully applied to new areas. Through the use of these methods, the presented studies highlight issues learners face when attempting to gain proficiency in second language (L2) English.
	Study 1 investigated the usefulness of transitional probability as a way of improving the extraction of formulaic sequences (e.g., on the other hand) from large scale corpora. Since current methods of identification often lead to lists of overlapping structures that lack psycholinguistic validity and pedagogical usefulness (Liu, 2012; Nekrasova, 2009; Simpson-Vlach & Ellis, 2010), this study evaluated the effectiveness of a new statistical measure in this area, transitional probability, as a way of improving the psycholinguistic status of corpus derived formulaic sequences. Using a sequence completion task, results revealed that corpus derived formulaic sequences with higher transitional probabilities were more accurately completed by first language (L1) and L2 English users, leading to the conclusion that these sequences are more likely to be stored as prefabricated units.
	Study 2 used a corpus approach to investigate the relationship between L1 background and the lexical choices made by L2 English writers. Looking specifically at L2 English writers of L1 Arabic, Chinese, and French backgrounds, a corpus of 150 argumentative essays written as part of an English for Academic Purposes program at a large English-medium university in North America was used to identify production tendencies in the use of linking adverbials by each L1 group. Results revealed important L1 differences for the use of specific linking adverbials and broader functional categories.
	Study 3 investigated lexical dimensions of L2 English speech associated with differences in perceived linguistic ability as judged by naïve L1 English raters. Using a corpus of transcribed speech samples from 97 L2 English users across two tasks (194 speech samples), naïve L1 English raters evaluated each sample for perceived comprehensibility and nativeness. Variables associated with factors related to dimensions of lexical  density, sophistication, and diversity were targeted for potential correlations with L1 rater judgements of each construct. Results indicated important linguistic measures significantly correlated with each construct as well as task-based differences.


identifier: Sultana, Sharmin  (2017) Treatment of High Strength Brewery Wastewater Using Combined Electro-Oxidation and Electro-Fenton Process.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: In this study, the performance of the anodic oxidation (AO) process was first evaluated for treating brewery wastewater using BDD/Graphite as electrodes, then Fe2+ was introduced into the system externally to investigate the combined effect of electro-Fenton (EF) and AO. The AO system showed up to 96% of COD removal with increasing current density yet a current density of 16 mA/cm2 was used for the rest of the analysis as increasing this parameter past this point improved the performance by only 5% yet consumed 51% more electrical energy. The EF-AO system showed a minor improvement in performance which prompted a hypothesis: the threshold catalytic amount of Fe2+ is already present in the brewery sample to initiate the Fenton reaction. Further analysis was performed to support this hypothesis: reactive oxygen species (ROS) and total Fe along with Fe2+ and Fe3+ speciation. The ROS (i.e. H2O2 and •OH) generation showed slight variations in AO and combined EF-AO process and iron speciation study showed significant reduction of Fe2+ over the electrolysis period and the available form of iron is Fe3+ which passivates easily at the experimental condition used, therefore, external addition of Fe2+ showed no improvement in performance. However, the pre-existing concentration of iron (66 µg/L) in brewery wastewater makes the treatment of this type of wastewater using anodic oxidation a dual performing system and therefore, shows satisfactory results. For this dual system, a set of experiments was performed to investigate the removal of COD, TN, and TP at different pH conditions with electrolytes. From these analyses, the removal efficiencies were found to be 94, 86, and 100% for COD, TN, and TP respectively at a pH of 7.