identifier: Jiru, Teshome Edae  (2006) A new generation of zonal models : development, verification and application.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Zonal models are intermediate between CFD and single-zone models. They can generate results faster than CFD and more accurately than single-zone models. They provide global information on the distribution of airflow and temperature in a room and they have been used to predict moisture distribution, thermal comfort, contaminant distribution and personal exposure. The zonal models predict the airflow pattern reasonably well for natural convection since airflow is only due to buoyancy. For forced convection, they provide good prediction only in the specific zone, which indicates that the power-law model (PLM), used in the standard zone, is the main cause of the discrepancies of the zonal approach.  In this study, three methodologies were investigated for improving the prediction capability of the PLM. The first was investigation of the significance of the value of the flow coefficient ( K ). In this methodology, one K value was used for each cell in the standard zone. Values other than the commonly used value of K = 0.83 were considered. The result revealed that for forced convection, the value of K has no impact on the prediction of the PLM. The second method employed CFD generated data to estimate K value for each cell. Two models were developed using this approach: PLM with variable K (PLMK) and PLM with variable K where K is a function of y/H (PLMK func ). The PLMK was found to provide better predictions than the PLMK func and the PLM. In the third methodology, the direct and indirect combinations of the PLM and the SDM were explored. The direct combination has provided different zonal models. The indirect combination has resulted in the modified power-law model (MPLM). The comparison of the predictions of the zonal models, for isothermal and non-isothermal room, with experimental data and CFD shows that the MPLM is superior to the other zonal models.  Additionally, zonal approach was applied for the prediction of the temporal and spatial temperature distribution in a mechanically ventilated DSF and good agreement with experimental data was obtained. Since the zonal approach provides global information faster than CFD, potential applications of the zonal approach include the prediction of temperature distribution and contaminant dispersion in whole building. This is very important for protecting building occupants from fire accidents, chemical/biological attacks by terrorists and from natural occurring diseases such as SARS and avian flu


identifier: Lafond, Gilbert  (2006) La signification de l'expérience de travailler avec des experts de contenu lors de projets de conception pédagogique pour des concepteurs pédagogiques.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

type: Thesis NonPeerReviewed

abstract: The work between instructional designers and subject matter experts is a major dimension of the instructional design process. With E learning, this work is more important than ever.  The objective of this research is to answer the question: What is the meaning of the experience to work with subject matter experts for instructional designers during instructional design projects. My research is an investigation of lived experience through Husserl's phenomenological tradition. My study concerns the study of meanings and structures of human phenomenon through an eidetic aspect.  Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with six participants who met the following criteria: have realized an instructional design, speak French fluently, are able to elaborate on their experience and have at least one year of experience as instructional designer.  Data analysis, using an adaptation of Giorgi's methodology, to identified six themes: relation definition, professional status, negotiation, professional satisfaction, mediation and emotional dimensions. These six themes regroup fifteen subthemes which describe the meaning of the experience for the instructional designers to work with subject matter experts: A team travel, compulsory, fascinating, planned but unpredictable, with important emotional dimensions, full of dilemma, double bind and conflicts, allowing the instructional designers to realize themselves professionally .  The themes and sub themes have been analyzed through the results of empirical research presented in my literature review and through sociopsychological theories.  This research proposes recommendations for the instructional designers, the training managers and for further research


identifier: Marshall, Elizabeth  (2006) Letters from a young poet.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

title: Letters from a young poet

abstract: This thesis documents one poet's coming to writing through the influence of Emily Dickinson. It is divided into three sections: the first is a correspondence between the poet and her muse---the character of Emily Dickinson; the second is a series of letters written by the female inmates of an asylum; the third is a series of poems that deal with Dickinson's ideas of circumference.  The invocation involves the poet and the Emily-muse in a journey through New Brunswick's Bay du Vin, during which they witness a terrible storm that kills many of the town's fishermen. The storm introduces death into the world of art, the world created by the poet and her muse as a kind of placeless heaven.  The second section is a series of letters written from the perspective of the fishermen's wives, now confined in an asylum. Titled "Much Madness is Divinest Sense/Letters from the Asylum," this section makes of its setting a significant symbol: a cage, a prison, the asylum figures finitude and limitation. In this milieu, distance, absence, death, pain and, indeed, madness become their opposites.  The final section, "Circumference," deals with the Dickinsonian idea of limitation and expansion, the I and the not-I and how one negotiates the distance between self and other, self and God. The final poems of this section investigate the world of Bay du Vin as seen through the poet's eyes. There is a movement away from Emily and towards the poet's plotting of her own circumference


identifier: Moinudeen, Haja  (2006) Design for verification of a PCI-X bus model.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: The importance of re-usable Intellectual Properties (IPs) cores and the system-level design languages have been increasing due to the growing complexity of today's System-on-Chip (SoC) and the need for rapid prototyping. In this respect, the SystemC language is becoming an industrial standard to be used as a modeling language for SoCs at the system level. Nevertheless, it is of paramount importance to have SystemC IPs in particular bus standards in order to facilitate SoC designs using SystemC. PCI-X is the fastest and latest extension of PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) technologies that is backward compatible to previous PCI versions. It plays a crucial role in today's SoC since it helps to connect various on chip IPs. In this thesis, we provide a design for verification approach for the PCI-X bus. We use different modeling levels, namely UML, AsmL and SystemC to design and verify the PCI-X. From informal specifications, we first represent the PCI-X model in UML where a precise capture of design requirements is possible.


identifier: Mohebbi, Hamid Reza  (2006) Mode matching technique for calculating the dispersion curve of one-dimensional periodic structures.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: In this thesis, the rigorous Mode Matching (MM) technique is utilized to find the dispersion curve of the traveling wave in one-dimensional planar periodic structures. The structure consists of a homogenous dielectric substrate backed by a ground plane and infinite number of periodic perfect strip conductors on the top. The thickness of the strips is infinitely small. Such a structure is also known as Strip Grating in frequency selective surface (FSS) applications. The technique is first applied to a shielded microstrip line, and then to the 1-D printed periodic structure.  A general formulation for rigorous modeling of shielded microstrip line as well as strip grating structures is introduced. The modeling is based on hybrid transverse electric (TE) and transverse magnetic (TM) mode analysis. After matching the fields at the junction of the air-dielectric, a set of equations on the area of interface is driven. Unlike the conventional MM technique, a simple sub-domain orthogonal set is used to convert the algebraic equations obtained from the boundary conditions into a matrix format.


identifier: Hossain, Md. Mosharroff  (2006) Multi contrast, multi illumination and microwave imaging of 2D inhomogeneous scatterers.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: In this thesis, we consider the microwave imaging for reconstructing the material properties of inhomogeneous lossy dielectric cylinders using scattered field data. The scattered field is numerically computed using direct/forward method. The scatterer is an inhomogeneous two-dimensional (2D) arbitrary-shaped cylindrical structure containing impurities at any transverse location. The scatterer is immersed in a known dielectric media (like air, water, saline-water etc). The known surrounding dielectric is used as an observation domain whereas the complex scatterer is used as an investigation domain. Unrelated multi sources are used to illuminate the scatterer at different angles for reconstructing the less erroneous complex permittivity profile. Multi-frequency effect with the noise is addressed during the reconstruction of the complex permittivity profile using numerical simulations.  The objective function as well as the permittivity profile are computed using an inverse scattering method from the corresponding scattered field. The two-dimensional "Lippmann-Schwinger" integral equation for nonlinear inverse-scattering problem is discretized by the method of moment (MoM)


identifier: Hu, Yongxin  (2006) Mobile location-based bridge inspection decision-support system.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: The conventional data collection in bridge inspection is paper-based and provides limited support for spatial visualization, which makes the data collection process inaccurate and inefficient. In addition, condition rating evaluation of bridge components from the collected data still depends on the subjective opinion of the inspector. Therefore, new technologies are motivating the development of new types of bridge inspection systems to improve the quality and efficiency of bridge inspection and to allow the inspectors to better focus on their tasks. In this research, we describe a new approach to support bridge inspection data collection using location-based computing and to evaluate condition rating using a Bayesian network that can learn from the previous bridge inspection data.  Using 3D bridge model, inspectors can visualize and analyze information related to the inspection of bridges based on various interaction methods and a database


identifier: Huang, Cheng  (2006) Rheology of highly filled propylene/ethylene copolymers.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Rheology of filled polymeric systems is an ever expanding area for industrial researchers. New experimental propylene-ethylene copolymers supplied by The Dow Chemical Company have a unique chain microstructure and an excellent balance of product performance properties. They feature narrow molecular weight distribution and broad crystallinity distribution. The unique molecular architecture offers the distinguishing feature of allowing exceptionally high filler loadings (even higher than 80wt%) yet maintaining good processability. Our goal is to thoroughly characterize the rheological behavior and the interfacial phenomena to provide a fundamental understanding of the lower than expected viscosity. Such a fundamental understanding is necessary for the design of other new resins with a better capacity for incorporating particles and for the development of optimum processing conditions for the composites.  In this work, the rheological properties of experimental P/E copolymers filled with calcium carbonate are studied. Steady shear and dynamic measurements on composites with different loadings (0-80wt%) are carried out


identifier: Shehab, Samer  (2006) Control of a PWA system cascaded with a nonlinear system : an application to a UAV path following problem.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Over the past few decades, there has been a significant need for the use of Uninhabited Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) in both civilian and military applications. Nowadays, UAVs are becoming increasingly popular to perform hard missions that include surveillance, sensing (of, for example, chemical agents), acquiring weather data, and reconnaissance over oceanic and remote areas. Motivated by such importance of UAV missions, this thesis presents a new control methodology applied to a UAV path following problem in the longitudinal plane. This control methodology takes into account the actuator dynamics that is used to deflect the elevator of the UAV. In particular, it considers a model of the Coulomb friction that exists in the dynamics of the actuator. For controller design purposes, the overall dynamics of the UAV are divided into two sets of dynamics that are in cascade connection. One set of dynamics describes the steering motion of the UAV and another set describes the translational motion of the UAV, where both motions are in the longitudinal plane. Each set is treated separately in the controller design. A piecewise-affine state feedback controller is designed for the dynamics of the steering subsystem of the UAV and a nonlinear controller is designed for the dynamics of the translational velocity subsystem of the UAV. Stability of the novel cascade interconnection of the two subsystems is investigated. Simulation results show the effectiveness of the proposed control methodology.


identifier: Kao, George  (2006) 3-D routing algorithms in mobile ad hoc networks.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: A unit disk graph and its proximity graphs are often used as the underlying topologies of a mobile ad hoc network. One category of unicast routing algorithms, position-based routing algorithms, has been developed and studied extensively in the context of 2-dimensions (2-D). This, however, poses evident questions in terms of the reliability and efficiency of these algorithms when practically the mobile host is an object positioned in the real world of 3-dimensions (3-D).  Our first proposed 3-D routing algorithm, Projective FACE routing on two orthogonal planes, adopts a projective approach to adapt the 2-D FACE routing algorithm to a 3-D environment. This algorithm, shown by our simulation, performs significantly better in terms of delivery rate than the other deterministic routing algorithms such as 3-D Greedy , 3-D Compass routing algorithms.  We provide a comparison of performance for routing in 2-D and in 3-D. Two versions, half-space partition and quadrant-space partition , for certain deterministic routing algorithms are proposed to accommodate the randomized routing in 3-D. We also study experimentally the properties of geometric graphs in 3-D and the performance of various 3-D routing algorithms on these graphs in this thesis.


identifier: Chen, Bing  (2006) Applying aspectJ for source code instrumentation to support tracing of functional features.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Program comprehension is an essential part of software maintenance and there exists a variety of techniques the can be applied to support the comprehension process. Two of these techniques are source code analysis and program instrumentation. Source code analysis is typically applied to analyze the source code of existing systems and their behavior. There exists a wide range of techniques and approaches to support source code analysis. Feature analysis is one of these techniques that can be applied to extract functional features from existing source code. Another approach is program instrumentation that is used to collect program executions and program behavior. In this thesis, both of these techniques, feature analysis and program instrumentation, are combined to improve on the understanding of functional features and their behavior. In the presented approach, feature related statements in Java programs are mapped in a semi-automatic process into AspectJ tracing program. The approach takes advantage of both, the tracing and encapsulation support embedded within the Aspect Oriented Programming (AOP) paradigm. An initial case study is presented to illustrate the presented approach.


identifier: Christison, Margaret  (2006) ¿Helping? : volunteering with children in Chile.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: This thesis provides perspective on helping and international volunteerism. Specifically, research was done with the volunteer organization, Voluntarios de la Esperanza, which recruits international volunteers to work in various hogares, or children's homes, in Santiago, Chile. The experiences of the creators of the organization as well volunteers are examined through the lens of notions of helping and altruism. The motivations of individual volunteers to participate in such a program is looked at as they play out against the goals of the organization and the hogares themselves. Because the ultimate recipients of the volunteer effort are children, it is particularly important to analyze how much real help is occurring. A second major question that is discussed is the idea of an apparent lack of volunteerism within Chile by Chilean in terms of whether or not this is actually the case, why this perception exists. Information was gathered through observation in some of the hogares hosting international volunteers, and semi-structured open ended interviews with current and past volunteers.


identifier: Di Salvio, Franco  (2005) We are family : sexual diversity issues and the elementary curriculum in Quebec.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: The main question this study asked was to what extent teacher attitudes towards the inclusion of gay and lesbian issues in their teaching support the persistence of homophobic attitudes within society. This study offered an indication of teachers' attitudes regarding the inclusion of gay and lesbian issues into cycle I, cycle II and cycle III Moral Education, Geography, History and Citizenship Education, and English Language Arts curriculum in Quebec. Findings from the study suggested that generally teachers realize the benefits of including gay and lesbian issues in elementary school curriculum and are willing to incorporate them into their teachings, however many teachers also display homophobic attitudes.


identifier: Beer, Max  (2006) What else could we have done? : the Montreal Jewish community, the Canadian Jewish Congress, the Jewish press and the Holocaust.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: In 1933 Hitler and the Nazi party came to power in Germany. At the same time, in Canada in general and in Montreal in particular, anti-Semitism was becoming more widespread. The Canadian Jewish Congress, as a result of the growing tension in Europe and the increase in anti-Semitism at home, was reborn in 1934 and became the voice of Canadian Jewry.  During World War II the Nazis embarked on a campaign that resulted in the systematic extermination of millions of Jews. This paper focuses on the Montreal Jewish community, its leadership, the Jewish press and their response to the fate of European Jewry. The study pays particular attention to the Canadian Jewish Congress which influenced the outlook of the community and its subsequent actions. As the war progressed loyalty to Canada and support for the war effort became the overriding issues for the community and the leadership and concern for their European brethren faded into the background.


identifier: Blais, Émilie  (2006) European integration and ethnic minority mobilization in East Central Europe.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: The thesis seek to understand the implications of the perspective of European integration on the mobilization of ethnic minorities and to answer the following question: to what extent and in which ways European integration shapes the mobilization of ethnic minorities in the newly democratic states of post-communist East Central Europe? To this end, a theoretical overview of the theories of European integration is provided and an analytical framework is built on various rational choice and social movement literature. Two independent variables (Homogeneity and convergence with European Union's policies and expectations) are identified to influence the type of mobilization that will prevail. Three hypothesis are being investigated: a homogeneous country that is EU convergent will have high political mobilization and low non-political mobilization; a country who is heterogeneous and not EU convergent will have a high level of non-political mobilization and low political mobilization; finally, a country that is heterogeneous and is EU convergent will have an even level of both types of mobilization. The analysis is based on three case studies that each represent a hypothesis: Hungary (Homogeneous and EU convergent), Romania (Heterogeneous and not EU convergent) and Latvia (Heterogeneous and EU convergent). The analysis reveals that the political opportunity structure is influenced by the presence of the EU which is considered as a soft veto player and confirms the hypotheses


identifier: Wong, Michael  (2006) A modified FDTD method for the analysis of wide and dual band antennas.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Abstract (Document Summary)  This thesis uses a modified Finite-Difference Time-Domain (FDTD) method to examine several wide and dual band antenna structures. The FDTD method is a finite difference approximation to Maxwell's equation that is solved in the time domain. Frequency domain results are obtained by taking the Fourier transform of the time-domain result. Recent advances in the FDTD method such as the Convolutional Perfectly Matched Layer (CPML) were necessary for such analysis of certain structures and have been used for simulation in this thesis. Some improvements in the implementation of the boundary conditions and in the CPML implementation have been documented and the new Floating Perfectly Matched Layer (Floating PML) has been introduced. The historical and mathematical development of the FDTD method is also discussed.  The code itself is written in object-oriented C++ and has been partially optimized for speed. It has been written so that microstrip and stripline structures are particularly easy to implement. Because the code fully implements Maxwell's equations, the radiation characteristics of antennas are correctly modeled when designing microstrip structures. The code has been verified with simple to more complicated antenna structures such as microstrip-fed dielectric resonator antennas (DRA)


identifier: Etezadbrojerdi, Maryam  (2006) Modeling and electronic characterizations of carbon nanotube field effect transistors.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: The goal of the present work is to explore the concept of nanotechnology, carbon nanotubes and its function in Carbon Nanotube Field Effect Transistor (CNFET) and develop an analytical theory for nanometer-size field-effect transistor. This thesis research models and characterizes the future opportunities of CNFETs within digital designs.  The energy band of CNFETs has been modeled at equilibrium. For equilibrium condition, the carrier concentration is found by allowing the local electrostatic potential to rigidly shift the carbon nanotube density of states. The effect of contacts characteristics leading to the potential spikes in the tube at the source and drain of height determined by both work functions of source and drain and V gs have been explored.  By approximating the potential barrier shape and using Landauer-Büttiker expression it can be seen that CNFET have noteworthy IV characteristics. The current characteristics are similar to MOSFETs, having the operation being controlled by the electric field from the gate and source/drain voltage which can lead to strong band bending allowing carriers to tunnel through the interface barrier


identifier: Mesgar, Alireza Hajhosseini  (2006) Design, fabrication and characterization of RF MEMS inductors and switches.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: MicroElectroMechanical Systems (MEMS) concept covers different miniature devices in different disciplines, including but not limited to biological, chemical, electrical, fluidic, magnetic, optical, and thermal applications.  Initially, the background of MEMS, RF MEMS and fabrication technologies are introduced. Then switch and inductor are introduced. Theory, different configurations, designs, and fabrication technologies are considered. Finally proposed designed components are given. Each design is verified through software simulations. Modeling and simulation is the next step. Switches are simulated by MATLAB. Inductors are designed using MATLAB and simulated by ADS-Momentum.  Switches are fabricated in the Multi-User MEMS Process (MUMPs) which uses a surface micromachining technique. Inductors are fabricated in both MUMPs and CMOS processes. MUMPs chips require a simple post-fabrication processing that is soaking them in hydrofluoric acid to remove the sacrificial silicon oxide layer For CMOS inductors, bulk-micromachining required post-processing is performed after fabrication


identifier: Wong, Amy Ho Yee  (2006) Overexpression, purification and characterization of potential iron-trafficking proteins from a phenol-degrading pseudomonad.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Frataxin is a small protein implicated in intracellular and mitochondrial iron trafficking. Some studies of frataxin have suggested that it can act as an iron donor for iron-sulfur cluster assembly and heme assembly. We are interested in iron-binding proteins involved in phenol degradation by Pseudomonas sp. strain CF600, and the possible involvement of frataxin and other proteins in their assembly.  One of the goals of this research was to overexpress, purify, and to characterize the stability, metal iron binding properties, and subunit structure of CyaY, the frataxin homologue from Pseudomonas sp. strain CF600. CyaY was successfully overexpressed and CyaY purified to homogeneity using Fast-Flow DEAE-Sepharose, Sephacryl S-300HR Gel Filtration, and High-Performance Phenyl Sepharose chromatographies. Analytical ultracentrifugation studies indicated that CyaY exists mainly as a monomer and that it does not aggregate in the presence of Fe(II). Isothermal titration calorimetry results were consistent with the binding of 1 Fe(II) or 1 Mn(II) per monomer of CyaY, with Fe(II) binding with a higher affinity. These and other results were similar to the reported iron-binding properties of CyaY from E. coli . Additional studies showed that CyaY significantly retarded oxidation of Fe(II), helping to keep it available for incorporation into other proteins.  A second goal was to overexpress and purify a putative iron-sulfur protein (CyaZ) that is encoded in the Pseudomonas putida genome adjacent to CyaY. This was successfully accomplished, and the resulting preparation appears to contain an iron-sulfur cluster. As was demonstrated for CyaY, CyaZ significantly retarded oxidation of Fe(II) in the presence of both proteins. CyaY and CyaZ are currently being tested for their ability to affect assembly of iron-containing proteins involved in phenol degradation


identifier: Milad, Martin  (2006) Understanding the interactions between the nitrate reductase signal peptide and its maturation chaperone NapD.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Periplasmic Nitrate Reductase (NapA/NapB) belongs to a class of proteins that are exported in a folded state by the twin arginine translocon (Tat) machinery. For a long time it was known that NapD is essential for the proper formation of the NapA/NapB enzyme. However, the mechanism by which this is accomplished is still unknown. The focus of this study is to understand the interaction between NapA and its maturation chaperone, NapD. For the first time we will show that the N-terminal consensus leader sequence of NapA that is involved in Tat export is also the binding site for the chaperone. To characterize the mechanism co-purification experiments, biophysical techniques and Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) were used. Co-purification experiments indicated that the N-terminal fragments; NapA114, NapA35 and NapA27 were able to bind NapD. Circular Dichroism (CD) analysis of NapD in complex with NapA35 illustrated a small increase in secondary structure. NMR confirmed that the small changes in CD spectra were due to conformational changes within NapD and the formation of an alpha-helix for NapA35. Chemical shift changes from NMR demonstrated that the entire leader peptide participates in binding with NapD. The residues that underwent the greatest changes in chemical shift are Arg6, Phe8, Met9, Lys10, Val14, Ala16-21, Gly22 and Leu23. NMR also showed that the NapA35 peptide is mobile when unbound. However when NapA35 is complexed with NapD, drastic changes in mobility occurred. For the first time the structure of the Tat leader peptide, NapA35 is determined when in complex with the chaperone NapD


identifier: Bevan, Ryan  (2006) Creed between the lines : the value and potential of literature in Education.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: The following pages deal with literature and its relationship to education. Three writers (Maxine Greene, Martha Nussbaum, Wayne Booth) are incorporated because of their extensive works which explore how literature is a unique and important companion to our lives. A polyfocal analysis ensues, inspired by Joseph Schwab's vision of the eclectic, which attempts to build a foundation for comparison as I show how literature serves as not only a companion to our lives, but also embodies, in its very structure and form, a potential value that is applicable to our development of a curriculum sensitive to contributing vantage points. Literature becomes an example of how a polyfocal analysis acknowledges the power of the imagination in our educational process.  Literature becomes, in this sense, a companion to our subject matter in a similar sense as it is a companion to our lives, as we reflect and deliberate between perspectives.


identifier: Trudel, Mona  (2006) Conjuger l'art au singulier ou au pluriel? : Analyse des représentations d'étudiants en arts visuels et médiatiques au sujet de l'enseignement de leur discipline en contexte scolaire pluriculturel.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Cette recherche s'intéresse à l'étudiant qui se prépare à enseigner les arts plastiques dans un contexte scolaire pluriculturel. Elle fait suite à des interrogations soulevées lors de supervisions de stage ainsi qu'au constat de l'absence de formation disciplinaire s'inscrivant dans une perspective interculturelle.  Cette étude qualitative tente de répondre aux questions suivantes: Comment les étudiants se représentent-ils l'enseignement de leur discipline en regard de la réalité plurielle du milieu scolaire? Comment les étudiants se représentent-ils leur expérience de stage en contexte scolaire pluriculturel? Cette recherche vise à cerner les représentations, les attitudes, les valeurs et les croyances qui influencent leur pratique d'enseignement en contexte scolaire pluriculturel. Pour ce faire, nous avons procédé à des entrevues individuelles en profondeur, semi dirigées, auprès de trente étudiants inscrits au baccalauréat en enseignement des arts visuels et médiatiques de l'Université du Québec à Montréal.  L'étude démontre que bon nombre des répondants se représentent difficilement l'adaptation de l'enseignement en regard de la réalité plurielle du milieu scolaire, principalement parce qu'ils ont insuffisamment exposés à des projets d'art qui leur permettraient d'en apprécier les retombées éducatives. Leur représentation de l'art est centrée sur l'individu et très peu sur les dimensions culturelles et sociales, ce qui va à l'encontre des visées récentes de l'énoncé de politique d'intégration scolaire et d'éducation interculturelle (MEQ, 1998), et du programme de formation de l'école québécoise (MEQ, 2001-2004). L'étude montre que la majorité des répondants proviennent de milieux culturellement homogènes et qu'ils ont été peu exposés à la diversité ethnoculturelle. Ils font leur stage dans des milieux socioculturels qui leur sont complètement étrangers. Également, leur ambivalence quant à leurs propres appartenances culturelles finit par nuire au rapport pouvant être établi avec les élèves issus de l'immigration. L'art, comme moyen d'aller vers l'autre et de la toucher par des projets pouvant être signifiants, est encore à apprivoiser pour l'ensemble des répondants.  Des recommandations sont faites en ce qui concerne la formation des futurs enseignants d'art. Des pistes de recherche futures sont également élaborées.


identifier: Aitken, Robert Charles  (2006) Undo the myth maker : a comparison of ritual torture and religious transaction in popular religious rioting during the French Wars of Religion, and the Huron Prisoner of War Execution Ceremony in North America during the end of the sixteenth century.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: The late sixteenth and early seventeenth century played host to two separate series of events wherein large groups of commoners willfully participated in ghastly scenes of torture and execution. On the European continent, the French Wars of Religion (1562-1629) afforded groups of average French citizens the opportunity to dismember their religious rivals and neighbors. The infamous season of Saint-Bartholomew was a zenith of such violent behavior. Across the Atlantic, French explorers were just beginning to learn of well-established Iroquoian traditions concerning the execution of prisoners of war. They would learn of common members of society, including women and children, joining in the torture of captives.  My thesis is an exploration of ritual torture and religious transaction. The extant to which the violence, in both contexts, reflected a process of undoing the victim was a point of particular interest. Attention was paid, in the North American context, to actions that effectively thwarted the possibility that the victim could ascend to the role of a formidable figure in the myth and felt spiritual reality of the tribe. Similarly, I approached the French context with an eye for behavior, seemingly, resulting in the reversal of the religious authority of the victim; the obstruction of the possibility that, in death, the target could offer a powerful testimonial of his/her religious convictions; or the creation of obstacles to any subsequent change in the status of this figure to that of saint or martyr. Along the way, various findings underscored the role of memory and the communicative capacity of ritual violence.


identifier: Yulek, Mustafa  (2006) Dynamic compaction of a thin subgrade layer overlying weak deposit.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: This thesis presents an axisymmetric numerical model to simulate Dynamic Compaction of a thin subgrade layer overlying a deep deposit of various stiffness levels. The compaction effort is applied by means of impact energy on the ground and modeled as a transient loading having a constant frequency level with different amplitude values depending on the energy level used. On the light of the numerical model results obtained, it can be reported that the presence of weak deposit significantly affects the compaction level of the subgrade. The results depend on the thickness of the subgrade layer, stiffness of the underlying deposit and the energy level used. The energy consumed to compact the subgrade layer and further the energy dissipated to the lower deposit were measured, and accordingly, the level of compaction for a given soil/load/geometry conditions was predicted. Design procedure was given for practicing use. Designer may consider alternatives for undesirable cases such to improve the lower layer before compaction using other methods of soil improvement.


identifier: Koulakis, Bill  (2005) Demystification and transmutation : neo-pagan witchcraft in the 21st century.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: This paper will explore the origins and progression of the Neo-Pagan Witchcraft movement, as well as provide the teachings, beliefs, practices, social structure and definition of this New Religion. This paper will also deal with the relationship of Neo-Pagan witchcraft and technology, that has given rise to the Techno-Pagan, the latest addition into the Modern Witchcraft fold. The Techno Pagan serves as the ideal example of the spiritual movement into Cyberspace and highlights the increasing trend of artificial technologies, animism and the social implications of this environment.


identifier: Jean, Amélie D. L  (2006) The functions of maternal touch during mother-infant face-to-face and still-face interactions : relationship between function of touch and infants' affect.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Touch plays an essential role in mother-infant interchange, however investigations have focused primarily on the role of distal modalities of communication, such as affect and gaze. The present study was designed to investigate the functions of maternal touching during a Still-Face procedure between mothers and their fullterm 5歔-month-old infants. The objectives were to (1) document how the overall duration, the types, and the functions of touch employed by mothers varied across both Normal periods, (2) clarify the impact of infants' and mothers' distress on the function and duration of touch provided to infants, (3) investigate the reciprocal relationship between functions of touch and infants' affect, and (4) examine how maternal regulatory behaviours provided in the transition period were predicted by infants' affect, and how they influenced the amount of nurturing touch during the Reunion Normal period. Maternal touch was systematically coded using the Caregiver Infant Touch Scale and the Functions of Touch Scale. Results indicated that mothers adapted the functions of touch they used across period, and according to infants' affect and distress level. Mothers used more nurturing function of touch when their infants were fretting or distressed, whereas they used more playful function of touch in order to get their infants smiling. Moreover, findings revealed that the transition periods played a critical regulatory role and influenced subsequent maternal behaviour. Together, these results highlight mothers' ability to sensitively adjust the function of their touch according to their infants' affect, while at the same time underscoring the importance of touch as a channel of communication.


identifier: Kamkar, Katayoun  (2006) Anxious and avoidant attachment to parents and psychological distress in early adolescence and young adulthood.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Depression increases in adolescence and reaches its highest rate in adulthood. Identifying processes operative developmentally prior to the increase is essential to understanding the causes. This research includes two studies in which processes linking adolescents' insecure attachment to parents to psychological distress are examined. The first study examined the association of insecure attachment to parents with depressive symptoms among early adolescents ( n =140) and assessed the mediating roles of attributions and self-esteem. Adolescents more anxiously attached to both mother and father reported most depressive symptoms. Anxious attachment to mother was associated with depression for adolescent girls only, and maladaptive attributions to negative events partially mediated the association. For girls, self-esteem also mediated between anxious attachment to mother and depression.  The second study investigated the role of attributional processes to stressful interpersonal events as a process linking insecure attachment and psychological distress among early adolescents ( n =164) and young adults ( n =132). Because working models are hypothesized to crystallize with age and cognitive rigidity is expected to increase, the association between insecure attachment and negative attributions was expected to be stronger for young adults than for adolescents, and negative attributions were expected to mediate more strongly for the older age. More anxious attachment to mother was associated with higher dysphoria whereas more avoidant attachment to mother was associated with lower dysphoria. Negative attributions mediated between anxious attachment to mother and dysphoria. Negative attributions were more strongly associated with psychological distress for young adults than for adolescents, and thus, attributions to interpersonal stressors mediated more strongly between attachment and dysphoria at the older age.  In conclusion, results of both studies support cognitive models of depression and highlight the importance of quality of attachment to mother in adolescence, in particular attachment anxiety. Attributional processes are indicated as one pathway from anxious attachment to mother to psychological distress for girls in study 1 and for both boys and girls in study 2, a pathway that the results of study 2 suggest is stronger at older ages. Study 1 found self-esteem as another pathway for adolescent girls


identifier: Zhu, Yongzhong  (2006) Test of the overreaction theory of price limits in futures markets.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: In this thesis we examine the effects of daily price limits on futures trading and test the overreaction theory of price limits in futures markets. The overreaction theory states that price limits can be used to correct the overreaction in the market and then reduce the excess volatility. This thesis studies both corn and soybean futures on the Chicago Board of Trade during a twelve year period from July l, 1982, to November 30, 2004, and conducts tests to see if the futures price volatility is reduced during the day or days after limit hits in futures markets.  We use event study methodology to compare matched samples. Our tests find little evidence supporting the overreaction theory. On the contrary, our results show strong spillover effects and provide strong evidence indicating that price limits mainly suspend the transaction and delay the price discovery and make the market less efficient, especially when the price limit level is set too narrow.  Further tests indicate that the overreaction theory may work at an intra-day level. The overreaction built up is reduced during the first several minutes after a price limit is hit. Results also show that overreaction is just a minor effect and the overreaction theory only depicts a small part of the picture of how price limits work.  We propose that in most situations where the optimized limit level is unknown, we should set limit levels wider rather than narrower, to avoid delayed transactions and inefficient market prices


identifier: Schilles, Laurianne  (2006) The impact of ownership structure and corporate governance characteristics on LBO gains.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: This paper explores the relationship between ownership structure and firm value by examining the market effects of LBO transactions. LBO transactions are assumed to solve inefficiencies due to Agency conflicts in the firm, either between the shareholders and the manager or between the major owner and minority shareholders. Principal - Agent Agency (PAA) conflicts are expected to dominate in the US, where ownership structures tend to be dispersed, while Principal-Principal Agency (PPA) conflicts are more likely to dominate in Continental Europe, where concentrated ownerships is the most common form of structure. With a sample of 63 transactions with French, German and US targets from 1998 to 2004, I find that US targets have higher abnormal returns at the time of announcement than European targets, but have negative post-event abnormal returns. I also find that PAA problems, proxied by the Tobin Q and cash flow retention, are indeed a source of gain for the LBO investor. Also the management ownership appears to have a significant impact on the gains: I find that the situation that creates Agency conflicts is when two controlling parties, outsider and manager, are facing each other with equivalent forces.


identifier: Silverman, Mark  (2006) Beyond fun in games : the serious leisure of the power gamer.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Over recent years, considerable scholarly attention has aimed at exploring the forms of played sociality emerging out of the digital spaces of Massive Multiplayer Online Games. Yet, a central limitation of the research thus far is the tendency to generalize to the experience of a 'casual gamer', while the radically different experience of the more extreme player type known as the 'power gamer' has gone virtually undocumented.  Blurring the line between work and leisure, power gamers take their play very seriously. They demonstrate such intense levels of commitment and perseverance, that they are often cast as deviants, seen as all too willing to compromise every basic valued moral and personal principle, along with several bodily necessities such as sleeping, eating and exercise, all in exchange for success and personal gain in a video game.  Yet, how can we explain their intense level of perseverance? What are their motivations? How can we explain the development of such intense commitment to a social world where participants almost never meet face to face? By using concepts from sociology, social psychology, and leisure studies, my project aims at understanding some of the processes at work which may help to provide some answers to these questions. Through my ethnography of Everquest , using both participant observation and interviews, I explore the intense culture of commitment of the power gamer as it is shaped through a digitally mediated serious leisure pursuit


identifier: Morgante, Anthony  (2006) Functions of bounded variation, wavelets, and applications to image processing.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: A common problem in image processing is to decompose an observed image f into a sum u + v , where u represents the more vital features of the image, i.e. the objects, and v represents the textured areas and any noise that may be present. The benefit of such a decomposition is that the " u " component represents a compressed and noise reduced version of the original image f .  The space BV of functions of bounded variation has been known to work very well as a model space for the objects in an image because indicator functions of sets whose boundary is finite in length belong to BV . This thesis is aimed at investigating the mathematical properties of the space BV while looking at a very well known "u+v" model, called the ROF model, in which it is assumed that u ✹ BV .  More recent work has shown that the optimal pair ( u,v ) to many decomposition problems can be obtained by expanding a given image f into a wavelet basis and performing simple operations on the wavelet coefficients. This thesis will provide a detailed introduction to the theory of orthonormal wavelets, giving some important examples of their effectiveness, as well as showing comparisons of wavelet bases with classical Fourier series


identifier: Keating, Erin M  (2006) "My masculine part" : or, The disappearance of the female body : the shifting boundaries between gender, status, and the body in the writing of Aphra Behn.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Recent literary and cultural histories have refined our understandings of the categories that created identity in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries---the period leading up to the solidification of the modern concept of the self. Drawing on this scholarship, my thesis investigates the ways that Aphra Behn explores the categories of gender and status (both in transition during the Restoration period) as they relate to the physical body. Through readings of two pieces of short fiction, a play, and a three-part novel, I trace the ways in which Behn creates different situations to explore the complex interactions between gender, status, and the body in order to expose the often dramatic ways that these categories inflect one another. Ultimately, I argue that the potential for the disembodiment of female identity as it is portrayed in Behn's works (as opposed to the fully embodied identity of the male) allows for a radical re-imagining of female identity that is bound by neither traditional concepts of gender nor status.


identifier: Santo, Jonathan Bruce  (2006) Predicting peer acceptance using target, rater and group variables : an examination of care, justice and aggression in children from Barranquilla and Montreal.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: The current project examined the predictive strength of children's peer rated care, justice and aggression on expressed liking. A total of 685 children (mean age = 10.34 years, SD = 1.32) participated. Data collection took place in Montreal, Canada and Barranquilla, Colombia. Participants were rated by classmates for levels of justice, care, aggression and their liking of others. Analyses of the associations between variables were performed through the use of multilevel modeling. Correlates of peer acceptance were variables at the level of the target, at the level of the rater and at the level of the group (to assess contextual influences). While target aggression was negatively associated with acceptance, target care and justice were positively associated. Subjects rated same-sex peers more positively than other-sex peers. Also, several characteristics of the group were associated with peer liking in various ways. The significant group variables included SES, place and interactions with individualism. As a whole, the final model accounted for 19.1% of the target-related variance and 37.5% of the rater-related variance and 47.8% of the group variance. Additional research is required using different dimensions of culture to better elucidate contextual factors associated with acceptance.


identifier: Jiang, Heng  (2006) Probing the physiological roles of saccharomyces cerevisiae cytochrome c peroxidase using biochemical and proteomics approaches.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Yeast cytochrome c peroxidase (CCP) efficiently catalyzes the reduction of H 2 O 2 to H 2 O by ferrocytochrome c and is presumed to be a key component in cellular redox signaling. The CCP W191F variant does not possess ferrocytochrome c -oxidizing activity but does signal oxidative stress. A biophysical study of the recombinant proteins showed that CCP exhibited greater spectral (absorption and near-UV circular dichroism) changes than CCP W191F over 30 min following exposure to 10 molar equivalents of H 2 O 2 . The stable nitroxyl radical, 2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidinyl-1-oxy (TEMPO * ), inhibited H 2 O 2 -induced protein crosslinking and accelerated the rate of oxyferryl (Fe IV =O) heme reduction. Diethylenetriaminopentaacetic acid (DTPA) inhibited crosslinking of the mutant but not of wild-type CCP.  The mass spectral behavior of TEMPO * in aqueous solutions was investigated prior to characterizing its reaction with the H 2 O 2 -oxidized peroxidases. The electrospray ionization mass spectrum showed that TEMPO + , TEMPOH *+ and TEMPOH 2 + ions were formed in the ionization source. TEMPONa *+ ions were dominant in the presence of sodium and fragmented by cleavage of the weak TEMPO * -Na + bond. Quantum chemistry calculations revealed that protonation unlike sodiation destabilized the electronic structure of TEMPO * , which complicated the mass spectra.  The function of CCP in vivo was systematically investigated. Cell survival, antioxidant activity and tolerance to heat and oxidants of wild-type, ccp1x ( CCP1 -null-mutant) and ccp1x-ccp1 W191F ( ccp1x cells transformed with ccp1 W191F ) S. cerevisiae strains were compared. The phenotypic differences provide strong evidence that yeast CCP has separate antioxidant and signaling functions in both exponential- and stationary-phase cells.  Mitochondria of wild-type and ccp1x strains of S. cerevisiae in the W303-1B genetic background were isolated for proteome analysis. Over 200 protein spots were detected for both strains on 7{604}10-cm two-dimensional (2D) gels over the pI range 3--10. Since 2DE image analysis was not reliable for proteins with less than three-fold changes in expression, a metabolic labeling approach for isotope-ratio quantitation of proteomes by mass spectrometry (MS) was developed. The W303-1B strain, a leucine auxotroph, was grown on synthetic complete medium containing natural abundance (H 10 -Leu) or perdeuterated Leu (D 10 -Leu), and the cultures were mixed prior to 2DE separation. The D 10 -Leu label provided an internal mass calibrant for accurate quantitation of Leu-containing tryptic peptides by matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization time-of-flight MS. Using this methodology to measure the stress-response indices to H 2 O 2 of six glycolytic enzymes revealed that glycolysis was initially inhibited but restored within about two hours after challenging exponentially growing yeast cells with 0.4 mM H 2 O 2


identifier: Jowett, Stephanie D  (2006) Welcome to psychedelphia : identity and community in the Haight-Ashbury District of San Francisco, 1965-1967.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: From early 1965 until the autumn of 1967 the Haight-Ashbury community of San Francisco underwent a period of rapid change as it became an icon of the larger countercultural movement of the 1960s.  Early psychedelic "happenings" helped to create and consolidate a non-conformist identity for the district and its inhabitants, as the area was transformed into a liberated zone of countercultural carnival. Attracted by the vivid visual style and exotic nature of the new culture, the mass-media and commercial interests helped to construct a standardized and stereotypical image of "the hippie" that then drew tens of thousands of tourists, teenyboppers, and "plastic hippies" to the Haight. These newcomers came to sample the commodified lifestyle elements of the Haight-Ashbury experience, often mimicking patterns of consumption deeply internalized by American society as a whole.  This thesis examines the creation of community identity in the Haight-Ashbury district, and the subsequent transmission, standardization, and consumption of that identity


identifier: Provost, Kathy C  (2006) Blunted lives : working children in east-end Montreal, 1880-1890.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: This thesis is a cross-sectional study with some longitudinal elements using a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods to describe, compare and contrast the lives of working-class children in the municipal wards of St-Laurent, St-Louis, St-Jacques and Ste. Marie in the City of Montréal between 1880 and 1890. The research involved conducting an investigation of a select group of children aged 10 to 16 years through the use of contemporary census, demographic and pedagogical data. The pure research was used to better understand the roles that age, gender, parental occupational status, ethnicity and religion play in the work and educational life trajectories of children in Montréal's East-End wards in the late nineteenth century.  Research findings include that adolescent children (14-16 years) of fathers in unskilled occupations were the most likely to be working and the least likely to be in school. Boys and girls residing in female-headed households were generally more likely to be working than their counterparts in male-headed households. Children whose parents held professional/white collar occupations were more likely to be in school than their counterparts whose parents held skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled occupations. A critical shift in activity status occurs for girls around the age of 13 years and for boys around the age of 14 years. Irish Catholic and English Protestant children were more likely to be in school than their French Catholic counterparts


identifier: Zhang, Cheng  (2006) The news and stock market activity in Canada.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: This study explores the relationship between public information and Canadian stock market activity. Headlines of stories published by Canada Newswire from 1999 through 2003 were indexed and characterized by content and timing of release and then associated with measures of market activity, such as daily return, the number of transactions, and the volume of trade on the Toronto Stock Exchange, for both a broad index and individual companies. While strong patterns in the way news is released are not evident, there is systematic seasonal and daily variation. About 12% of the variation in the volume of trade and 3% of the variation in average daily return can be attributed to the flow of all news as measured by the number of stories released, but these numbers drop sharply when the flow of news is restricted to the number of headlines mentioning company names. The first finding suggests that news is uncertainty or divergence of opinion which results in more trade but the effect on the market is largely netted out. The second suggests that markets do respond to general news and not just firm-specific news, a vindication of sorts for market efficiency, but that most trade remains unexplained.


identifier: McCain, Kevin  (2006) Thinking the excess : Derrida's general economy.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: This thesis attempts to explicate the central role of general economy in the philosophy of Jacques Derrida. At stake in this 'concept' is a double movement that is always at play in Derrida's work. This double movement results from the relation of general economy to the restricted economies that it makes possible. General economy represents both the irreducible movement of differentiation underlying all metaphysics, which both allows for metaphysics while exploding its perceived limits, as well as the strategy for thinking that this movement necessarily implies in the thinking of restricted economies.  Although Derrida explicitly discusses general economy only early in his work. I argue that this 'concept' remains active in all of his later thought. Thus the explication of general economy serves not only to elucidate his early deconstruction of the metaphysics of presence, but also provides a better understanding of the importance of this earlier deconstruction to his later work, particularly his more explicitly ethical and political work. To show this, I examine two later moments in Derrida's work: his thinking of the gift and his work on Marx. The quasi-transcendental idea of the gift can be better understood as general economy, which then allows the strategy of general economy to elucidate the ethical implications that Derrida derives from the gift. Similarly, general economy helps clarify Derrida's radicalization of Marx by allowing for the double movement of a deconstruction of Marx's metaphysics that at the same time remains critical of the restricted logic of capitalism


identifier: Fang, Lei  (2006) Valuation, operating performance, expenditure decisions and management ownership of listed Canadian dual-class firms.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Dual-class capital structures, which are characterized by holders of one class of common stock having greater voting rights than holders of another class, are relatively common among Canadian corporations. The cash flow ownership and voting rights ownership of M&D (management and directors) diverge substantially for many Canadian firms with dual-class equity structures, and M&D voting rights ownership generally exceeds cash flow ownership. The relation between firm value and M&D voting ownership is negative and convex. In contrast, the relation between firm value and M&D cash flow ownership is indeterminate, which corresponds with the notion that the primary motive for dual-class equity structures is to ensure voting control. The relation between capital expenditures and M&D voting ownership is negative and convex with increasing M&D voting ownership. The relations between measures of operating performance (such as sales growth, net profit margin and return on equity) or combined R&D and advertising expenditures relative to assets and sales with either M&D cash flow or voting ownership also are indeterminate.


identifier: Trottier, Daniel  (2006) Media savvy and lateral surveillance among reality TV audiences.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Contemporary media outlets call upon an increasingly interactive engagement from audiences. Reality television in particular invites its viewers to offer feedback through a plurality of modes, notably through the internet and text messaging from portable devices. To employ Erving Goffman (1959), it is through a multi-modal appraisal of media texts that audiences are given access to a backstage where deliberate constructions of reality are sustained. This savvy engagement with media texts and media devices among audiences resonates with the expansion of practices and discourses of lateral surveillance. Through a cynical assessment of interpersonal relations as risky, discursive subjects are invited to adopt strategies---also through media devices---to monitor their peers.  To this end, this research calls attention to the increasing convergence of media savvy and lateral surveillance in contemporary reality television. Here, reality television instantiates the proliferation of both strategies. In particular I am looking at Big Brother , a longstanding reality program where audiences monitor purportedly real people who are contained within an enclosure. I conduct a discourse analysis of House Calls , an online call-in talk show produced by CBS for Big Brother fans. This talk show offers a behind-the-scenes interpretation of Big Brother , and enables a critical appraisal of the program among audiences. Additionally, I will conduct an analysis of audience engagement with this discourse by looking at audience conversations about House Calls on an audience-generated online message board


identifier: Martel, Monique  (2006) Novels as a medium of contemporary discourse with ourselves : an exploration of Benjamin's Storyteller and Bachelard's 'poetic reverie'.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: This is a personal exploration into the landscape of the imagination, a landscape where memory, perception and the imagination exchange functions. It is a place where life becomes death, where death comes to life, where a suitcase becomes a lifetime, where a fountain mirrors the transience of human life. It is a place where everything that I have ever lived for evaporates into the air, into the sea, into the flame of the fire that burns before me. It is a place that leaves one with no theoretical place to stand. Here, I am on my own.  In this landscape of the ephemeral, subjectivity rules. There is no objectivity. Exploring this land will not be a way to produce irrefutable truth. Nor will it be a place from which to define a specific paradigm. But, the landscape of the imagination is a place from which a different perspective can be obtained on diverse concepts and disciplines, a place where the forced inversion of real and unreal forces one to examine who and what one is, and what one believes in. Like a virtual immersion in which one creates what one wishes to be, it is a place where being is not being, and not being is the reaching of the essence


identifier: Tiepoh, Moses Geepu Nah  (2006) The farm investment and food security implications of privatized land tenure and cash crop production : evidence for a cooperative tenure alternative for West African states.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: In view of the continuing crisis in African agricultural development and particularly food production, and the inefficacy of past policies by African governments and international institutions in improving the investment incentives and productive capacity of low-resource farmers, attention is now being redirected to the institutional context of these farmers, especially the terms on which they own and utilize land. The main debate in this discourse has been about whether or not African indigenous customary land tenure institutions constrain the region's agricultural development and therefore should be replaced with formally privatized tenure systems.  The purpose of this doctoral thesis is to contribute to this debate by explaining and demonstrating how under certain social, political, and institutional governing conditions such customary institutions may evolve into cooperative tenure alternative rather than privatization, promote efficient land use and, in the process, encourage rural farm investments; and by showing that cash crop production, which is linked to land privatization, may impede national food security.  Although previous authors have stressed the need for more inclusive models to address these two research questions, none have provided analyses and evidence that clearly highlighted the linkage between both questions. This dissertation has attempted to accomplish this by demonstrating that farmers operating under a cooperative land tenure system, as facilitated by their social capital and access to state-local institutions, will have less incentive to overexploit any available communal forest land and therefore invest more in intensive farming and agricultural modernization than those producing under a non-cooperative or privatized tenure. The empirical evidence for this conclusion shows that households farming under cooperative systems have a greater average investment spending than those under privatized systems. The dissertation has also shown that cash crops as produced mainly on privatized land and food crops are substitutes in production. On average a percent increase in cash crop production is associated with a 0.18 percent decrease in food crop production for most West African countries.  Thus it may be the case that cash crop production conflicts with the food security needs of these countries, just as it is supported by a land privatization that undermines farmers' investment incentives


identifier: Tekel, Rose M  (2006) The pilgrim without a map : the religious vision of Hermann Hesse.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Four novels of Hermann Hesse are analyzed in order to formulate the religious vision that characterized Hesse's life and works. Particular attention is placed on locating the biographical, cultural and philosophical influences that shaped Hesse's writings. The four elements that make up Hesse's religious vision are identified as rejection of external authority, the inner journey, the aesthetic realm, and the life of service. These four elements make up the framework of a constructed model that serves to illustrate Hesse's religious vision. The meaning of Hesse's religious vision for a modern definition of religion is examined. The result is a critical dialogue between a mind of the twentieth century and the evolving one(s) of the twenty first century, examining the boundaries and possibilities of a religious vision that fits within a modern context.


identifier: Leonard, K  (2006) An application of feminist thought to high school administration.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: The hierarchal structure of our patriarchal society is reflected in current educational policies. As such, this study seeks to explore the agency of the public high school principal, and illustrate ways in which feminist pedagogy and feminist thought can be used as a source of empowerment. In this study I interview three public, high school principals to explore their perceptions of their agency in stimulating social change, as compared to what is documented about their roles and responsibilities. I then analyze and critique this space from a postfeminist perspective, using postfeminist concepts to explore the power relations that principals are implicated in and how they might be challenged through feminist pedagogy. The study poses the following question: How can feminist pedagogy be used by public high school principals to stimulate social change?


identifier: Symianick, Sandy  (2006) Nodes in the network : an exploration of the paths of high-tech professionals towards occupational success in the Montreal area.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: As products of the network society, high-tech professionals find themselves nodes in many different, interrelated organizational and personal networks---nodes in the global network of production, nodes in the structures of their companies, nodes in the networks of their work colleagues, nodes in a greater network of professionals, nodes in personal networks.  In examining the research done on the rise of the network society and the attached reorganization of work structures involved, this thesis aims to understand how the high-tech professionals interviewed cope with being disposable 'nodes' along these networks. Based on other studies concerning constructions of work roles and the culture of work in the informational era, this thesis also explores how the professionals interviewed perceived the values of high-tech industry, the uses and constructions of high-tech organizational work environments, and their constructions of work-selves and 'true'-selves.  The research involved with this study was based on fourteen structured individual interviews, and participant observation in a high-tech organization and in informal group settings with high-tech professionals. Work in the network society can be seen as disaggregating---this thesis demonstrates that under such conditions, the high-tech professionals interviewed have shaped the determinants of their identities to fall outside the networks associated with work in an efficient manner of dealing with professional ambiguities


identifier: Stefanov, Anguel Neykov  (2006) Bulked segregant analysis as a new tool for identification and cloning of genes in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. Identification of TBC1.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Although Chlamydomonas reinhardtii is a widely used model organism for studies of a variety of cell biological processes, the identification and cloning of genes known by mutations is still arduous. Current methods are inefficient for many of the existing mutations as their mutant alleles can either spontaneously revert or produce no selectable phenotype. With the sequencing and the annotation of the C. reinhardtii nuclear genome and mapping of available molecular markers, positional cloning is now possible. This thesis explored the application of bulked segregant analysis (BSA) with two types of molecular markers, amplified fragment length polymorphisms and single nucleotide polymorphisms, in order to identify and characterize the nuclear TBC1 gene and its predicted product. TBC1 was previously shown to functionally interact with specific regions and structures in the 5' untranslated region of chloroplast psbC mRNA to promote its translation and the synthesis of its product, the CP43 subunit polypeptide of PSII. Using BSA, TBC1 was mapped to an 8 map-unit region of Linkage Group VI. Complementation analysis narrowed down its position to a 41 kb region. Analyses of predicted genes in the region identified an exonuclease II orthologue as the best candidate for being TBC1


identifier: Dong, Lingfang  (2006) Stability study of bilateral tele-operation systems with haptic device.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Tele-operation has been a hot topic for a long time in computer science and electrical engineering fields since it has been applied in many different domains such as dangerous operating environments, deep-sea operations, and multiple operations through network. At the same time, bilateral control technology has resulted in significant interests by people, since information such as force reflection will improve the perception of the operator to interact with environment with great capabilities. As a result, stability of bilateral systems is of particular importance as unstable force reflection could hurt the human operator.  However, in tele-operation systems, time delay always exists and it varies with the network performance, and this time delay, even very small, will destabilize an originally stable system. That is why that stability problem is so important and critical in the tele-operation bilateral systems. This is the main motivation for this thesis research.  In this thesis, wave transfer method is investigated and introduced into the stability and control of bilateral tele-operation systems. However, using a wave variable tele-operation system with a PD controller to maintain the position tracking of the slave side has resulted in undesired position drifts.  Sliding mode control is an effective robust control method and is particularly useful for solving tracking problems. The control objective is to force the system dynamics approach to the sliding surface and remain on it for all the future time to eliminate or minimize the tracking errors. Consequently, the designed sliding-mode controller as validated and verified in the simulation results decreases the tracking error and guarantees the slave track the master position quite satisfactorily for bilateral tele-operation system with varying time delay.  The contribution of this thesis is the investigation of the model of the phantom haptic device and analysis of the tele-operation system using the phantom device as master and slave manipulator. The designed wave variable sliding mode controller guarantees the stability of the tele-operation system having time varying communication delays


identifier: Fisher, Janel  (2006) How to be an activist : choreographing identity and community within social movement activism.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: This thesis is about the creation and performance of identity and community within a specific animal rights activist organisation. More specifically, this thesis argues that the individual as a key player in the development of social activist ideologies needs to take a more central role in an academic approach to social movement theorising.  Social movement activism has long been the subject of inquiry for many different academic disciplines and social movement theories, evolving from Marxist interpretations to New Social Movement theories, have all attempted to explain and examine these phenomena. However, how social movements and their participants have historically been represented across theoretical perspectives has come under criticism as overly homogenising. Primarily, the problem with this homogenous representation is that it does not fully reflect the complexities of both the organisations and the individuals involved in a particular social movement. While such presentations can make a comparative approach easier, it does not address the historical particularities and diversities existing among social movements across social, economic, and political borders. Combined with a preference on the presentation of a communal identity over the individual, I argue that social movement theorising needs to be re-focused making the individual more apparent and visible as a mover and shaper of change.  This thesis attempts to locate the individual within a specific organisation within the more general animal rights movement. It is also addresses how they come to understand the role of community, as it exists on both physical and abstract levels. While in the process of actualising this sense of community and solidarity among themselves, individuals also negotiate and deal with tension, uncertainty, and contractions while coming to terms with their own individuality and ideologies. In the end, this thesis is about moving from a typical collective unit of analysis to a more difficult one, the individual


identifier: Farris, Judith  (2006) Placing the Heart in 'Paradise Lost'.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

title: Placing the Heart in 'Paradise Lost'

abstract: In Paradise Lost, John Milton's language for the heart reflects his monist belief in the inseparability of body and soul. As the voices within the epic speak with and through each other, the heart is characterised as the centre of the individual. This thesis reads Milton's view of the heart in the light of his theological context, particularly the various translations of the Bible available to him, beginning with that of William Tyndale, the first translation of the Bible directly from the original languages into English. Milton's figurative language and style are rooted in the scriptures, in which the New Testament interprets the Old. A New Testament book that is particularly illustrative of the revision of the Old Testament is the epistle to the Hebrews, which is an important biblical place in relation to Paradise Lost. Other intertexts include Tyndale's commentaries, the Authorised Version of the Bible, and Milton's own theological treatise, On Christian Doctrine. The first section of the thesis considers the place of the heart in the world, where it functions as a commonplace book, gathering and keeping the word. The second section examines Milton's language for hardness or fleshiness of heart. The final section considers the heart in worship in an argument that sees Milton entering into the theological debates of his day as he negotiates a place for outward religious rites and makes the heart the most important place of worship.


identifier: Gelfand, Laurie A  (2006) The effects of a brief mindfulness induction on metamemory following repeated checking.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Memory distrust has been found to be both associated with repeated checking behaviour in individuals with OCD (Radomsky, Rachman, & Hammond, 2001) and a product of repeated checking in non-clinical samples (van den Hout & Kindt, 2003a, 2003b). Interventions designed to target memory distrust could attenuate declines in confidence in memory following repeated checking, and thus the urge to check again. Mindfulness training has been defined as including processes such as the self-regulation of attention and metacognitive awareness (Bishop et al., 2004; Shapiro, Schwartz, & Bonner, 2006; Teasdale, 1999). It was hypothesized that a brief mindfulness intervention would attenuate decreases in metamemory following repeated checking. Participants were randomly assigned to one of three groups in which they listened to a short tape-recording of: (1) mindfulness instructions, (2) relaxation instructions or (3) a song selection (control group). Participants then completed a single and a repeated checking task. Participants were asked to provide memory, metamemory, and mood ratings. It was found that memory accuracy and metamemory scores decreased for all participants, but no differences between the groups were revealed. However, participants who scored high on a trait-measure of mindfulness exhibited greater declines in metamemory while reporting significantly lower anxiety and negative affect than those who scored high on the trait-measure. These findings are discussed in relation to a cognitive approach to compulsive checking.


identifier: Morin, Annick  (2006) On the syntax of clause type particles : evidence from Gascon, Innu and Quebec French.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Various ways of encoding information about whether a clause is declarative, interrogative, exclamative or imperative are found across languages. In this thesis, I am looking at languages that encode clause typing by means of particles.  Some languages use particles to express morphosyntactic features that other languages express by inflection. Compare English to love , where the infinitive is marked by the particle to , with French aimer , composed of a root morpheme, aim- , and an inflectional morpheme, -er , marking the infinitive. In 'inflectional' languages like French, the verb root is assumed to move in order to check the features of the inflectional morphemes, whereas in 'non-inflectional' languages like English, no movement of the verb is assumed for the purpose of feature checking on a particle. At first glance, there seems no need to assume particle movement either.  This thesis is an exploration into the syntax of one kind of such particles, namely clause type particles. I will show that these particles actually move and interact with other particles and with other constituents in the same clausal domain. Data was collected from three unrelated languages that have received little attention in the literature: Gascon, Innu, and Quebec French. Clause type particles are shown to occupy a position in the left periphery of the clause and to express both Force and Finiteness features at the same time. Evidence from these languages suggests that clause type particles interact with Topic constituents and with negative markers. This study offers a detailed analysis of these interactions


identifier: McGinnis, Nicholas  (2006) Wittgenstein's influence on the development of virtue ethics.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Remarkably little has been said concerning the implications of Wittgenstein's later thought for moral philosophy. I will argue here that the recent renaissance of virtue ethics, typified in the work of authors such as Rosalind Hursthouse, finds much of its inspiration in Wittgenstein's later thought. This influence is three-fold: first, in the critical tradition of virtue ethics vis-à-vis traditional theories of ethics; second, in the establishment of its broadly 'anti-theoretical' stance; and last, in the fact that recent critiques of virtue ethics can be parried by reference to Wittgenstein. The conclusion I hope to establish is that virtue ethics, in order to itself flourish as a viable alternative, must take careful account of Wittgenstein's thought and structure itself accordingly.


identifier: Fan, Haibo  (2006) Spanning tests for small cap indexes as separate asset classes international evidence.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Traditional spanning and step-down spanning tests are used to study whether or not small cap indexes in Asian and G7 countries could be separate asset classes of efficient portfolios for U.S. investors. Empirical tests on different index combinations show that the composition of a benchmark portfolio determines whether or not a small cap index could enlarge the original efficient frontier. The interaction among all assets in a portfolio is the key to the effectiveness and efficiency of a small cap index in efficient portfolios and constraints do not always reduce diversification benefits of a new asset. In addition, the time period the sample covered and length of holding time also influence the test results. Most small cap indexes of G7 countries are separate asset classes to the portfolio consisting of the popular indexes in G7 markets in our sample period. Moreover, pair-wise correlation is not an effective approach to search and study the diversification benefits. The step-down test results are consistent with empirical measures on risk and return of portfolios; this fact implies that the step-down approach, as an alternative method to correlation analysis, could be a powerful procedure to identify potential separate asset classes.


identifier: Simpson, Joni  (2006) Immigrant women entrepreneurs in Montreal : building business and lives.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: How often do we have or take the opportunity to ask people who have immigrated to Canada about their journeys? What could we learn from their stories? Canada is a country built upon immigration. Today, Canada is one of a handful of countries that actively recruits and promotes immigration as a means to sustain population growth and respond to internal labour force needs. Since 1967, immigration policy changes widened the range of sending countries to include countries located in the Global South and increasingly immigrants are well-educated and highly skilled people from urban settings.  This study took place in the third largest immigration destination in Canada, Montreal. It focussed on the experiences of a group of fourteen women. Sooner or later, all of these women turned to entrepreneurship to generate economic activities. By contextualizing their experiences, I hoped to gain a better understanding of the opportunities and challenges they faced in accessing economic opportunities in Canada.  Generally, past research has focussed upon male dominant models and often overlooked the experiences of immigrant women entrepreneurs. It is important to focus on women in particular to better understand the gendered implications of entrepreneurship and to offer different experiences that work against stereotyping all entrepreneurs into one homogenous category. By studying the specific experiences of these fourteen women, and by using a qualitative approach, I hope to illustrate the importance of textualized research in building a better understanding about immigrant women entrepreneurs in Canada.


identifier: Zitkute, Lina  (2006) Design and evaluation of a siebel basic navigation course.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: The results of a usability evaluation of an e-learning course are presented in this thesis equivalent. The main goal of the study was to evaluate the usability of the Siebel Basic Navigation e-learning course. A secondary goal was to explore the eventual impact of e-learning course usability on student performance.  The Siebel Basic Navigation course was designed for one of the major Canadian pharmaceutical companies. This course had five modules and a test at the end. The primary purpose of this course was to introduce a new Siebel application upgrade, since this company had just upgraded from a desktop-based Siebel application to a Web-based Siebel application. Major improvements and changes needed to be introduced to the users. The secondary purpose of this course was to introduce new hires, who would not have had prior experience with Siebel, to the Siebel application.  The participants, seven health care and banking professionals, completed the Siebel Basic Navigation e-learning course, and filled out the usability questionnaire. The usability evaluation was based on the Generic User Interface Questionnaire developed by Chin, Diehl, & Norman, (1988). The distribution of the scores were calculated and high median (the middle value of a set of data), and high range were identified.  In addition to the descriptive statistics, correlations between the software usability and student test performance emerged, underlining the importance of usability evaluation of systems supporting on-line learning.


identifier: Bélair, Catherine  (2006) When hunger is silenced : endemic hunger and the socio-cultural construction of the Almoço for the urban poor in Trairi, Brazil.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: This thesis is an ethnographic study of endemic hunger in the city of Trairi, in the Northeastern state of Ceara. Brazil. It explores the lunch time meal ( almoço ) as a socio-cultural construct and proposes it as a useful tool for the investigation and comprehension of the daily experiences that take place when one is hungry. The extensive descriptions and the narratives of women and men of Trairi complement one another as we come to discover two slightly different discourses of hunger that emphasize the occurrence of a paradox that plays either on the presence or on the absence of a socio-cultural problem of hunger.  Several conclusions emerge from the arguments at the basis of this thesis: endemic hunger is understood as meaning malnutrition and undernutrition; the Trairiense know poverty which governs their socio-cultural eating patterns; the almoço is the principal meal of the day and is an excellent milieu from which to scrutinize the ideologies rooted within everyday eating practices; and lastly, people have developed different ways of acting and of speaking about food in such a manner that they are able to endure their condition. These findings come together and work simultaneously to silence the state of endemic hunger in Trairi: it is not a silence that relies on intimidation or on enforcement; it is a silence that is culturally shared and ingrained in social codes that, I suggest, are being reproduced in the daily performance of the almoço


identifier: Cornellier, Bruno  (2006) Absence et présence de l'Indien : identité, nationalité et indianité dans Le Confessionnal (1995) de Robert Lepage.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Une étude attentive de la réception locale du Confessionnal (1995) de Robert Lepage révèlent que si la critique médiatique interprète généralement l'expérience individuelle des personnages principaux en tant qu'allégorie de la ±crise» identitaire québécoise, cette allégorisation de la nation, dans son désir de cohérence, implique aussi l'élision du personnage indien/autochtone (Moose) dans la description et la lecture du film. À partir de cette constatation, ce mémoire propose de réfléchir sur l'idée d'allégorie nationale, définie comme stratégie de lecture et mode spécifique d'énonciation, de production et de systématisation d'une collectivité en fonction de l'expérience individuelle d'un personnage ou d'un groupe de personnages. À ce titre, plusieurs critiques ont déjà commenté ce qu'ils considèrent comme la structure profondément hétérocentrique de l'allégorie nationale au Québec, alors que le corps queer vient généralement connoter l'immaturité identitaire et l'incapacité d'entrer en rapport avec l'autre. J'entends alors démontrer comment, dans le film de Lepage, le corps sauvage et sexualisé de l'Indien est associé au corps queer en tant que sujet colonial et représentant privilégié, en terre américaine, de toutes les marginalités. De sorte que cette indianité/américanité, qui unit dans le fantasme ces deux personnages, serait indicative de cette tension qui, dans le film, relie deux désirs qui semblent de prime abord vouloir s'opposer: d'un côté, il y a ce désir évident de repenser l'identité individuelle/collective en terme processuel et en tant qu'acte individué de volition, hors de toute stabilité ontologique et en marge du modèle hétérocentrique dominant, et de l'autre, ce retour atavique vers le paradigme sauvage qui fait de l'Indien le miroir et le dépositaire silencieux et passif de la quête identitaire euro-américaine.


identifier: Burr, Andrew  (2006) What's important when : personal values in the transition from work to retirement.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: This study examined differences between the current personal values of recently retired adults and retrospective reports of their pre-retirement values. The role that personal values play in the subjective well-being (SWB) of recent retirees was also investigated. It was hypothesized that achievement and power values would be perceived as lower after retirement, and that benevolence and universalism values would be perceived as higher after retirement. It was also hypothesized that goal adjustment capacity (GA) would predict the degree of reported difference between current and retrospective pre-retirement values. The pattern of relations among values and SWB for retirees was expected to differ from previous research findings based on younger adult samples. Self-report measures of current and pre-retirement values, GA, SWB, and demographics were administered to 385 recent retirees. HLM analyses revealed that differences between current and retrospective values were in the predicted directions. Age, education, and GA influenced achievement value ratings; gender influenced benevolence and universalism ratings; and power values were associated with education. Differences between current and perceived pre-retirement values were not explained by goal adjustment capacity. Regression analyses revealed that positive affect was predicted by reports of higher benevolence, self-direction, and stimulation values and negative affect was predicted by higher tradition and achievement values and lower self-direction values. Life satisfaction was predicted by lower tradition values as well as higher benevolence and conformity values. The results suggest that personal values and their relations to SWB vary along lifespan development


identifier: Buchsbaum, Roxana  (2006) Effects of objective self awareness on reaction times for self-descriptive trait terms.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: The directing of attention toward internal aspects of the self was studied within the framework of Duval and Wicklund's (1972) theory of objective self-awareness. According to the theory, individuals who become aware of a discrepancy between their actual behaviour and ideal standards of behaviour are motivated to change their behaviours in order to reduce the discrepancy. Whereas objective self-awareness has been induced in participants by the presence of a mirror, no specific manipulations with regard to trait-specific judgments while being self-aware have been employed in prior-research. In the current study, participants were presented with trait terms either while looking at their own image in a mirror or looking at a blank screen. Participants were expected to make self-descriptive judgments faster when primed with a matching trait term and in a state of objective self-awareness than when they were not self-focused. Contrary to expectations, priming facilitated response times for self-descriptive judgments in the absence of a mirror, when participants were not self-focused. This was only true for women. Possible explanations for this pattern of results are discussed within the framework of objective self-awareness theory


identifier: Dunne, Erin  (2006) The short-term association between acute physical symptoms and negative affect in older adults : the buffering effects of goal adjustment capacities.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: The onset of physical illness can contribute to depressive symptoms in the elderly. In turn, depression can also have a detrimental impact on physical health. This reciprocal relationship may produce a downward spiral, characterized by low subjective well-being and subsequent health declines.  An important facet contributing to psychological well-being is the attainment of daily- and life-goals. However, the experience of acute physical symptoms (APS) may hinder the pursuit of these goals. In such circumstances, individuals' goal adjustment capacities can help maintain a sense of control and prevent the experience of negative emotions that stem from the constraints on goal attainment. Specifically, goal disengagement can protect individuals from the negative effect of failure, while goal reengagement can help individuals maintain a sense of purpose in life.  The objective of this study was to examine the short-term relations between APS and negative affect in 215 older adults. The experience of APS was expected to contribute to same-day negative affect and to an increase in negative affect across three normal days. No reciprocal impact of negative affect on APS was anticipated. Furthermore, it was expected that goal adjustment capacities would buffer the negative effects of APS on emotional well-being.  The results demonstrated that APS predicted both same-day and an increase in negative emotions across days. Additionally, both goal adjustment capacities moderated the relationship between APS and same-day negative affect, while only goal disengagement buffered the relationship across days. Negative affect did not contribute to the experience of increased APS across days. Implications of the findings for successful aging are discussed


identifier: Chen, Bo  (2006) Founder replacement in newly public firms.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: We study the relationship between family ownership and the performance of newly public family firms around founder resignations. We find some preliminary evidence that founder resignations are a part of his or her exit strategy that involves an exit from the equity position as well. In particular, founders who completely resign from all positions in their firms do so after a relatively good performance. Our results also suggest an entrenchment at low levels of family ownership and a better alignment of family's interests with those of minority shareholders at high levels of family ownership. First, we find a non-linear and concave relationship between family ownership and the market reaction upon the founder resignation announcements. Second, we find the same non-linear and concave relationship between changes in the operating performance after founder resignations and ownership of the founding family. Finally, we find a bell-shaped relationship between family ownership and the likelihood of a family succession and a convex relationship between family ownership and the likelihood of a founder's complete exit from management and governance roles.