identifier: Darling, Meredith  (2013) One Hundred and Twenty Poems about Jason Seligman, M.D. won't change anything...  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
ABSTRACT

One Hundred and Twenty Poems about Jason Seligman, M.D. won’t change anything…

Meredith Darling
(as Glisten Chilton Guthrie)

The heroine, subject, and as Winfried Siemerling would say, “ubiquitous I” of our story’s name, Glisten, means, by definition of the Oxford English Dictionary, “to shine with a fitful twinkling light.”  The author writing “as” another name is a trope that plays on the byline of I Never Promised You a Rose Garden, Joanna Greenberg as Hannah Green.  To the author as a child seeing this book on her bookshelf, that mysterious identification was fascinating.   It seemed random, considering the original editions of the book that were credited to Hannah Green were, to put it bluntly, long forgotten.  Meredith Darling as Glisten Chilton Guthrie on the cover of the project is not only an alter ego, it is an identification with a greater context of women’s writing on mental illness.  Glisten clearly exhibits schizoaffective disorder, with its characteristics of both psychosis, evidenced in the loose dissociations of the poems found in the poems in the section “Emergency;” and mania, evidenced in the way this epic collection of hypersonic poems is maniacally “churned out like butter” by Glisten.  Glisten wants to step outside herself so much that she addresses herself in the second person.  It is not surprising someone with Glisten’s degree of monomania—that is to say mania of the “I” [moi]—comes to see the voice of the “self” [soi-meme] addressed to her being as belonging to another entity [being-present].  The doctor is portrayed as a saviour yet he is the enemy of Glisten’s recovery, leading to a binary of good/evil.  Glisten thinks with her mind that the doctor is evil, yet with her heart she sees herself as his lover.  Not only is this a double bind but it also leads to another binary opposition: real/imaginary.  These gaps and silences in the text are also marginalizations.  It demonstrates the hierarchy of the dominant signifier, male over female, insanity over sanity.  Glisten is a deconstructor in her process of realization which ultimately leads to a reversing these governing terms.   120 Poems is an allegory.  Conflated with Jesus and named as “saviour,” yet deified on the grounds of human affect, Jason is symbolic of False Gods;” as part of the medical establishment he is also symbolic of “Reason,” conflating Reason and Falsity.  Glisten, representing Everypatient, is faced with the apotheosis of reason and asked to be “patient.”  Will is Glisten’s only power in the face of authority— the “messages mixed with authority” and the “healing authority,” but we see that will without agency only places her in an asylum without asylum.  When it comes to love, however, just as in Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave,”  where the prisoners’ shadows projected on the wall are their nearest approximation of reality, the closet reification of reality Glisten ever experiences is her projections onto the doctor.


identifier: Leedahl, Taylor  (2013) Aganetha Dyck and the Honeybees: The Evolution of an Interspecies Creative Collaboration.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

type: Thesis NonPeerReviewed

abstract: This thesis is an exploration of Canadian artist Aganetha Dyck’s interspecies collaboration with honeybees. From 1991 to 2013 Dyck created hundreds of sculptures and installations with honeybees by placing found and handmade objects into commercial beehives. I argue that through this practice Dyck has created a unique approach to collaboration and interspecies relationality in that she establishes a symmetrical creative partnership wherein the production of art relies on both Dyck and the honeybees: their unique and complementary knowledges, skills, and access points into ecological and social communities. This thesis begins by situating the practice within posthumanist theory in that Dyck underscores honeybees as important ecological actors in our interconnected environment, which departs from the humanist boundary-making techniques and hierarchical arrangement of species thinking. I then trace Dyck’s career from her pre-honeybee art career to a retrospective of her work with honeybees, Aganetha Dyck: Guest Workers (2011, Confederation Centre for the Arts, Art Gallery, Charlottetown, PEI), to elucidate the developments in Dyck’s approach to the bees: initially Dyck employed honeybees as sculptors that provided distinctive materials, building methods, and metaphors for human sexuality; eventually this progressed into an appreciation for how the presence of the honeybees generates ideas about their entanglement with human culture, and especially about the emergence of Colony Collapse Disorder in the twenty-first century. Ultimately, their symmetrical collaboration provides two key insights: that art historical notions of collaboration depend upon shared language systems and are therefore inherently closed to interspecies authorship; and that by operating under the belief that there are no differences in value between organisms, this practice remains sensitive to its own broader context and successfully illuminates the interconnectedness at play in the world. Dyck and the honeybees are figured as individual historical entities whose multi-authored artworks, like fossils, mark their historical locatedness.


identifier: Guterman, Mark  (2013) Nhe6 and Nhe9 are sodium hydrogen exchangers found on separate mobile endosome populations in neuronal dendrites.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: This dissertation reports the endosomal locations of NHE6 and NHE9, sodium hydrogen exchangers that contribute to pathogenesis of Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASDs) within dendrites of cultured hippocampal neurons. ASDs are debilitating, neurological disorders characterized by deficient social interaction; obsessive, repetitive behaviors; and often accompanied by mental retardation, epilepsy, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). For normal brain function to occur neurons form circuits at synapses and their size and strength change based on use, known as synaptic plasticity. Disruption of synaptic plasticity is thought to underlie ASDs. Because endocytosis is required for synaptic plasticity and the yeast ortholog of human Nhe6 and Nhe9 is known to contribute to this process, I hypothesized that Nhe6 and Nhe9 are found on endosomes in hippocampal neurons where they contribute to endocytosis and synaptic plasticity. Using fluorescence microscopy, I initially demonstrate that Nhe6 and Nhe9 are localized to different pools of endosomes with cultured HeLa cells using Rab-GTPases as markers of the endocytic pathway. Nhe6 and Nhe9 showed similar distribution within the dendrites of hippocampal neurons cultured from mice or rats whereby Nhe6 was present in Rab5 and Rab11-positive endosomes and Nhe9 was found in Rab11, Rab7, and Rab9-positive endosomes later in the pathway. Live neuron imaging revealed that both Nhe6 and Nhe9 endosomes are mobile and that Nhe9-positive endosomes appear to undergo transient fusion and fission events from Rab7, Rab9, or Rab11-positive endosomes. Together, these data imply roles for Nhe6 and Nhe9 in endosome mobility and fusion underlying endocytosis required for synaptic plasticity.


identifier: Nazarnia, Naghmeh  (2013) Measurement of urban sprawl in the metropolitan areas of Montreal and Quebec over 60 years.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Increasing awareness of the negative effects of urban sprawl has made this phenomenon a topic of great debate. However, there still are no agreed methods for measuring this phenomenon. This thesis uses the current and historical data and applies the newly developed metrics of urban permeation and weighted urban proliferation to measure the level of urban sprawl in the Montreal and Quebec census metropolitan areas over the past sixty years. This study also compares the two study areas with Zurich metropolitan area with regard to urban sprawl and its change over time.
The results indicate that since 1951, and more significantly during the past 25 years, urban sprawl has been rapidly increasing in the Montreal and Quebec census metropolitan areas. In Zurich, the sharpest increases of urban sprawl occurred during the period 1960 to 1980. Three major reasons for this striking difference in sprawl dynamics are the planning laws legislation since 1979 in Switzerland, the much lower level of public transportation availability in Montreal and Quebec and the polycentric settlement structure in Zurich.
The comparative assessment of urban sprawl presented in this study can be used for scenario analysis and decision-making. Its results provide a basis for monitoring and controlling urban sprawl and its negative consequences and thus, would greatly help land-use planners critically assess projected plans.
The thesis also provides an assessment of Entropy, which is among the mostly used methods for measurement of urban sprawl. The results showed that Entropy is not a reliable method since it does not meet fundamental criteria for the measurement of urban sprawl.


identifier: Zehavi, Madeleine  (2013) Understanding the Adult Learner: Life Story Research and the Adult Secondary Student Experience.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
This thesis is a qualitative study that uses life story research methods and grounded theory to investigate the perceptions of three adult high school students on their lives, with particular focus on family, community, and childhood and adolescent educational experiences. The participants were also interviewed about their interactions with and interests in art and art education. The study was conducted over a period of one month, during which time each participant was interviewed once for approximately two hours. The interviews were audio-recorded, and the data was collected and analyzed as per the grounded theory method. The emerging themes which highlighted factors affecting participant academic success and school involvement at the adolescent high school level were: familial/home stability, guidance, stimulation and teaching practices, and stigmatization with regards to both race and teen pregnancy.

Keywords: Art Education, Adult Education, At-risk youth, Drop-out, High school, Life Story research, Student-directed teaching, Culturally relevant pedagogy, Teaching practices, Race, Teen Pregnancy


identifier: Patel, Dipti  (2013) Characterization of vacuole aquaporin function and its implication in membrane fission.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: All cells and organelles must regulate volume to control their size, shape and copy number. Volume homeostasis, in turn, is dependent on osmosis facilitated by aquaporins. Despite being critical for membrane fusion and fission events that underlie organelle morphology and membrane trafficking, volume regulations in the endocytic pathway and the aquaporins responsible have not been characterized. Thus, the primary goals of my dissertation research were to better understand the role of osmosis in membrane fusion or fission and identify the aquaporin(s) responsible using the yeast vacuole as a model. First, I characterized osmosis across isolated vacuole membranes and identified the aquaporins responsible, Aqy3 and Fps1, using stopped-flow fluorometry. Fluorescence microscopy revealed that knocking out AQY3 or both aquaporins disrupted vacuole morphology, indicative of an impairment in membrane fission. Using a new cell-free vacuole fission assay, I then determined that osmosis can drive fission in vitro and that this process involves inactivation of Ytp7, a Rab-GTPase and key regulator of vacuole morphology. These results support a model whereby water efflux by Aqy3 permits membrane invagination while signaling the fission machinery necessary for membrane fission.


identifier: Altay, Sirma Cagil  (2013) A general upper bound on broadcast function B(n) using Knodel graph.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Broadcasting in a graph is the process of transmitting a message from one vertex, the originator, to all other vertices of the graph. We will consider the classical model in which an informed vertex can only inform one of its uninformed neighbours during each time unit. A broadcast graph on n vertices is a graph in which broadcasting can be completed in ceiling of log n to the base 2 time units from any originator. A minimum broadcast graph on n vertices is a broadcast graph that has the least possible number of edges, B(n), over all broadcast graphs on n vertices. This thesis enhances studies about broadcasting by applying a vertex deletion method to a specific graph topology, namely Knodel graph, in order to construct broadcast graphs on odd number of vertices. This construction provides an improved general upper bound on B(n) for all odd n except when n=2^k−1.


identifier: Karimi, Elnaz  (2013) Exploring the effect of individual protective behaviors on influenza transmission, using an agent based model.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Individuals develop different protective behavioral patterns toward a specific disease based on their knowledge of effective interventions. Understanding how people behave individually toward an outbreak of a disease can help experts to evaluate different control strategies and to implement the most effective one.
In this research we use the Health Belief Model (HBM) to evaluate the health behavior of students toward influenza in Concordia University and its effect on the spread of virus within the target population. We conduct a survey to gather information about the health-related attitudes and beliefs of students. We apply our survey a control and a treatment group to explore the effect of education on people’s health-related behaviors patterns. Control group reflects the behavioral patterns of students based on their general knowledge of influenza and its interventions while the treatment group illustrates the level of behavioral changes after individuals have been educated by a health care expert.
In this research we use an agent-based simulation to explore the effect of individuals behaviors patterns on the spread of influenza and illustrate how the health-related behavior changes in individuals can affect the chances of exposure to the virus.


identifier: Chen, Yuxiang  (2013) Methodology for Design and Operation of Active Building-Integrated Thermal Energy Storage Systems.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Thermal energy storage (TES) systems that are part of the building fabric and are exposed to room air can be described as building-integrated thermal energy storage (BITES) systems. BITES systems with appropriate space conditioning strategies can significantly improve the thermal performance of buildings. The present study focuses on active BITES systems, which embody controllable internal charge/discharge system. Thermal energy can be stored and released in an appropriate manner to control zone temperature for improved comfort and energy performance.

To assist the design and control analysis of active BITES systems, methodologies are first developed for three numerical modeling approaches: time domain lumped-parameter finite difference model, frequency domain analytical model and regression model. The regression model is demonstrated for the charge control of active BITES cooling using outdoor cool air. A frequency domain methodology is presented with guidelines for the design and operation of active BITES systems that facilitate primary space conditioning with low operating energy, relatively flat power demand, and improved thermal comfort. Three key factors considered by the methodology are as follows: sufficient thermal coupling between the BITES systems and their thermal zones, integration of design and operation, and integration of thermal and structural designs. A heuristic approach based on building physics is suggested for establishing a near-optimal room air temperature set-profile. Dynamic response of active systems derived from their frequency domain transfer functions are used to enhance the set-profile. Using the set-profile and corresponding space conditioning load profile as inputs, the charge and discharge rates for the active BITES can be predicted over a desired time horizon. A bounding-condition-based design approach is presented. Finally, a procedure for the integration of structural and thermal designs is demonstrated with focus on ventilated BITES systems using standard structural components and their variations. The methodology and guidelines are general and applicable to different BITES systems and different buildings with different thermal and structural loads.


identifier: Liu, Liya  (2013) Formalization of Discrete-time Markov Chains in HOL.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Markov chains are extensively used in the modeling and analysis of engineering and scientific problems which can be expressed as random processes with the memoryless property. Usually, paper-and-pencil proofs, simulation or computer algebra software are used to analyze Markovian models. However, these techniques either are not scalable or do not guarantee accurate results, which are vital in safety-critical systems. To improve the accuracy of the analysis, probabilistic model checking has been recently proposed to formally analyze Markovian systems. However, model checking suffers from the inherent state-explosion problem and thus has a very limited scope in terms of analyzing Markovian models.\newline
\indent In order to overcome the above mentioned limitations, this thesis advocates the usage of higher-order-logic theorem proving for conducting the analysis of Markov chains. We present the higher-order-logic formalization of Discrete-time Markov Chains with finite number of discrete states. We also verify some of their most widely used properties using a theorem prover. These foundations allow us to formally express and reason about Markov chains within the sound core of a theorem prover and thus attain precise results. Moreover, by building upon these foundational results, this thesis also presents the formalization of classified discrete-time Markov chains and hidden Markov chains in higher-order logic. These are widely used concepts in the analysis of Markovian models and thus allow us to tackle the formal analysis of a wide range of engineering and scientific systems. For illustration purposes, the thesis also presents some applications including a binary communication channel, the automatic mail quality measurement (AMQM) protocol, a DNA sequence, a least recently used (LRU) stack model and the birth-death process.


identifier: Zikratyy, Yuriy  (2013) Cross-Class Escape and the Erotics of “Proletarian” Masculinity in Thomas Painter’s Sexual Record and Visual Archive.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
This dissertation examines the sexual journal and visual archive of Thomas N. Painter (1905-1978), an informal collaborator of Alfred C. Kinsey’s Institute for Sex Research, who since the 1930s documented in writing and photography his commercially-based homosexual relations. One of the largest sexual records ever produced, it focuses on Painter’s lifelong erotic interest in lower-class men whom he idealized as paragons of masculinity and sexual uninhibitedness. It chronicles Painter’s history of sexual contacts with these men, driven by his philanthropic ideal of socially beneficial cross-class friendship, and his attempts to reform his often delinquent lovers and rescue them from the life of poverty and crime.

Analyzing Painter’s autobiographical and auto-ethnographic writing as well as his erotically-themed collection of drawings and photographs, this dissertation explores the practice of sexually motivated cross-class escape, evident in the personal histories of many upper- and middle-class homosexual men living in the mid-twentieth-century Europe and North America. One such man, Painter eschewed the cultural demands of marriage and bourgeois domesticity and, relinquishing his upper-middle-class background, sought to spend his life among the hyper-virile and sexually open “urban proletariat.” Tracing the influence that philanthropic discourses of “social brotherhood” and subcultural eroticization of “proletarian” masculinity had on Painter’s understanding of his same-sex desires and his vision of sexual and romantic relationships with his lower-class partners, the dissertation poses critical questions about the complex power dynamic in these relations, the changing notions of masculinity in the period, the role of commercial sex in early male homosexual communities and the alternative forms of intimacy and kinship fostered by their members.


identifier: Besanger, Kendra Michelle  (2013) Le Champ des Possibles: notes toward a politics of enchantmnent.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Situated at an intersection between place studies and political theory, this thesis presents a yearlong exploration of le Champ des Possibles, a peculiar urban site in the Mile End neighbourhood, of Montréal, Québec. As a rail yard left to grow wild over several decades, it has become a site of revelry, urban agriculture, civic engagement, and artistic intervention: it is a vibrant and coveted urban wild place in the city. Place studies theorists such as Lucy Lippard, E.V. Walter, Henri Lefebvre, and Doreen Massey present place as a complex object of study; one that requires a heterodox methodology capable of incorporating the complexity of human experience, which is suggested to be central to the formation place. Similarly, the literary and artistic works of Italo Calvino, Becky Cooper, and Rebecca Solnit demonstrate a range of ways in which place can be told through narrative objects: stories, images, and maps. This thesis intervenes in contemporary place studies by moving away from subject-centred modes of analyses and toward an understanding of place itself as possessing agentic capacities.  The central claim of this work suggests that cultivating an attentive, curious, and materialist approach to place forms a kind of praxis that holds the potential to interrupt our human-centred attention to place and place-based politics. From such praxis, we might learn how to pay attention and, ideally, care about the agency of non-human bodies, rhythms, and patterns. Such attention is an important component of what political theorist Jane Bennett frames as an urgent ethical project – one that might reframe the way we communicate, analyze, and act in a material world that is, always-already, a combination of human and non-human.


identifier: Pan, Maomao  (2013) Developing Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for a Department Utilizing Environment Based Design (EBD) Methodology.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
The research on KPIs has undergone substantial developments for the past few decades. Different users of KPIs often define the KPIs from different perspectives. Generally speaking, KPIs are quantifiable variables that indicate the efficiency and effectiveness of the performances of a product, a system, or personnel. Managers may use them to evaluate the performance of their team members in order to keep them on the right track; employees can use them to monitor his/her own performances and adjust accordingly; customers can use them to select their ideal products. This thesis focuses on developing KPIs for a department.
Currently, the methodologies of developing KPIs for a department are very limited. The dominate methodologies in both the research and practical world are Business Scorecards and Six Sigma. Both of them define the performance measurements from a high business level instead of providing much technical know-hows. Also, neither of them has addressed on how to prioritize the performance measurements. This thesis work proposes a new framework to systematically develop KPIs for a department utilizing Environment-Based-Design (EBD) methodology by treating “Designing KPIs for a department” as a design problem. A case study of applying the proposed framework on an engineering department of an Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) project in the oil and gas industry is also included in this thesis.


identifier: Bacchus, Zorina  (2013) Hearing what we see: Eye tracking as an augmented performance instrument.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Eye tracking technology has been developed in science to track the movement of the eye while viewing images or reading. This technology requires an extensive background in science to both design an experiment, and to interpret the data. The aim of the current thesis is to investigate simple and approachable methods for the application of this technology in an artwork about the nature of looking. I created a performance art project to test the application of eye tracking towards constructing an instrument that expresses visual sounds in a performance. To accomplish this, I modified a method for low cost eye tracking to make a set of sound performing eyeglasses. This project showed that it is possible to use eye tracking outside of science in a artistic performance in novel ways, but also demonstrates that this technology could be further developed towards not
only solo artistic performances, but also towards other installation artworks that involve the spectator.


identifier: Al Zein, Manal  (2013) The role of the calcineurin/NFAT signaling pathway and its regulation in muscle diseases.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Abstract
The role of the calcineurin/NFAT signaling pathway and its regulation in muscle diseases
Manal Al Zein, PhD
Concordia University, 2013

	Elevations in intracellular calcium activate the phosphatase Calcineurin (Cn) and its downstream target the Nuclear Factor of Activated T cells (NFAT), leading to the expression of genes involved in skeletal muscle growth and cardiac remodeling. In this thesis, we set out to investigate the role of the Cn/NFAT signaling pathway in the progression of two muscle diseases: Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD), which is characterized by the loss of the functional protein dystrophin, and cardiac hypertrophy. First, to understand the roles of Cn and Cn regulators in DMD, we used mdx mice crossed with mice expressing transgenes that manipulate the Cn/NFAT pathway. For instance, the expression of the transgene Parvalbumin (PV) in mdx mice leads to attenuation of Cn activity and reduction in the expression of utrophin, a protein that compensates for the loss of dystrophin. Our results show that strategies promoting Ca2+/Cn signaling are considered an effective countermeasure in the treatment of DMD and that Cn regulators might have a critical role in the progression of the disease. Secondly, the role of the NFATc2 transcription factor in Cn-dependent cardiac hypertrophy is emphasized using adult NFATc2 knockout mice in the presence and absence of biochemical stress. Here we show a cardio-protective role for NFATc2 in normotensive hearts, but not in hearts exposed to stress. Together, the results of this thesis provide a better understanding of the role of the Cn/NFAT pathway in the regulation of various muscle diseases.


identifier: Handfield, Philippe  (2013) Les discours posthumaniste et esthétique dans l'oeuvre de Michel Houellebecq: lorsque le sublime résiste au devenir posthumain indifférencié.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Ce mémoire de maitrise porte un regard sur le traitement romanesque des discours posthumaniste et esthétique dans l’œuvre de l’écrivain français Michel Houellebecq. Partant du postulat que les textes de Houellebecq sont avant tout conçus à partir d’une matrice constituée des multiples champs discursifs qui concourent à la société, cette analyse sociocritique cible les transformations, les décalages et les interférences qui résultent de la confrontation entre art et posthumanisme dans Les Particules élémentaires (1998) et La Possibilité d’une île (2005).
Cette étude démontre qu’au fil de son œuvre, Michel Houellebecq passe progressivement d’un discours littéraire très influencé par le posthumanisme à une écriture et un imaginaire beaucoup plus centrés sur des considérations esthétiques. Elle évoque la possibilité d’une inversion dans la pensée et l’œuvre de l’auteur, où semble se cristalliser le discours esthétique. À cet égard, ce mémoire suggère que le sublime constitue un motif récurrent dans l’œuvre houellebequienne : en plus d’être représentée par l’entremise de ses personnages d’ « artistes authentiques », cette catégorie du jugement esthétique semble être matricielle à son écriture. Le sublime chez Houellebecq acquiert une originalité propre pour se faire le catalyseur d’une vision personnelle de l’Homme et de l’art, ainsi qu’un espace de résistance contre le devenir posthumain indifférencié que mettent en scène ses récits.

This thesis looks at the way post-human and esthetic discourses are treated in French writer Michel Houellebecq’s work. Positing that Houellebecq’s works are primarily conceived from an array of discursive fields rooted in society, this sociocritical  analysis examines the transformations, shifts and interferences resulting from the confrontation between art and posthumanism in Les Particules élémentaires (1998) and La Possibilité d’une île (2005).
This study shows that, troughout his work, Michel Houellebecq progressively goes from a literary discourse that is strongly influenced by posthumanism to a type of writing that is more oriented towards esthetic considerations. The analysis suggests that an inversion seems to have occurred in the author’s thought and work, in which the esthetic discourse appears to become essential. The thesis posits that the sublime is a recurring pattern in Houellebecq’s work: it is represented through his fictional “authentic artists”, but moreover, this esthetic judgement category seems to be essential to his writing. In Houellebecq’s work, the sublime reaches its own originality in order to become the catalyst of a personal vision of Man and art, and thus becomes a space of resistance against the undifferentiated posthuman destiny that is revealed in his work.


identifier: Dash, Partha Protim  (2013) A Variable Bandwidth, Power-Scalable Optical Receiver Front-End.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
The tremendous growth in internet data traffic and computation power has increased demand for high-speed links in almost all communication systems. Normally, high-speed interconnects in a super computer are implemented using a short distance electrical medium such as a printed circuit board or coaxial cable. However, data transmission through an electrical medium suffers severe bandwidth limitation due to its distributed resistance, inductance and capacitance. To overcome this problem, several equalization techniques are adopted which can make the system more complex and power hungry. An efficient way to enhance the capacity of short-reach link is through the use of an optical channel rather than the band-limited electrical one.
The analog front-end is the most important building block of the optical receiver as it converts the small current generated by the photodiode to a significant voltage level. In this work, we present an inductor-less, variable bandwidth, power-scalable optical receiver front-end in TSMC 65nm and 90nm CMOS with two different topologies. The front-end contains a transimpedance amplifier (TIA) and post amplifiers (PA) in 90 nm CMOS (Design 1) whereas in 65 nm CMOS (Design 2) an offset compensation block and a transconductor is incorporated to improve the robustness of the overall receiver front-end.The transimpedance amplifier in both designs is implemented with the shunt feedback topology and the post amplifiers in 90 nm and 65 nm design use the common source topology loaded with modified active inductors and the Cherry-Hooper inverter based topology, respectively. In order to make the receiver front-end power and bandwidth scalable, a current controlling PMOS array and a tuneable resistive bank is implemented in both designs. The Design 1 is able to vary the supported data rate from 1.25 Gb/s to 15 Gb/s. The gain at each data rate is ~ 84 dBΩ. The overall power dissipation varies from 0.94 mW to 7.46 mW as the data rate scales, maintaining an energy per bit lower than 800 fJ at all data rates using a 1.2 V power supply. The input referred noise density varies from 4.31 pA/√Hz to 14.27 pA/√Hz. In the Design 2, the receiver front-end can be tuned from 1.25 Gb/s to 20 Gb/s maintaining a fixed gain of ~75 dBΩ. The power dissipation in this case varies from 0.32 mW to 13.5 mW as the data rate scales up, maintaining energy per bit less than 700 fJ using a 1 V power supply. The input referred noise density varies from 8.46 pA/√Hz to 18 pA/√Hz. Simulation shows that Design 1 is not robust enough against the mismatch and global process variations whereas Design 2  is much more robust against these effects.
This type of front-end has applications in links that vary data rate in response to system requirements. Additionally, the lowest data rate can be act as an idle mode which receives data used only to maintain transmitter and receiver synchronization.


identifier: Sali, Adedotun Oluwaseun  (2013) Using Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis to Investigate Drinking Water Regulatory Stringency and Quality Outcomes in Canada.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
The relationship between drinking water regulatory stringency, water quality and health outcomes are not well understood. Systemic gaps in water quality data, underreporting of waterborne outbreaks, treatment processes and variations in water quality between regions make it difficult to determine whether regulatory levels play a causal role or not in improving water quality outcomes. This is particularly interesting in a water rich country like Canada.
Canadian drinking water regulation is unique among developed nations in that it is nonbinding at the Federal level. Provinces and territories have autonomy in determining which contaminants (if any) to regulate, and to what level, giving rise to heterogeneous levels of water regulation. This diversity in regulation allows us to explore the relationship between water regulation, quality outcome and effects of both short term exposure to biological contaminants and long term exposures to chemical contaminants. This thesis serves as a first approximation of the relationships between drinking water standards, health and water quality outcomes. We use Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), a multi-criteria decision analysis method to evaluate the efficiency of provinces and territories.


identifier: Stoyanova, Zornitsa  (2013) Effect of air, peroxides and diabetes on antioxidant enzyme localization in red blood cells.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Red blood cells (RBCs) circulate through the lung and capillaries during their 120-day life span, transporting oxygen and carbon dioxide. They are exposed continuously to reactive oxygen species (ROS) derived from hemoglobin autoxidation. Protection of the RBC membrane from ROS is critical since on oxidation the cell loses its ability to deform in narrow capillaries. We investigated by Western blotting and confocal microscopy membrane recruitment of the key antioxidant enzymes, CuZn-superoxide dismutase (CuZnSOD), catalase, peroxiredoxin-2 (Prx2) and glutathione peroxidase-1 (Gpx1).
 Prolonged air exposure of human RBCs, which likely increases their O2●¯ levels, resulted in less membrane-associated CuZnSOD but more membrane-associated catalase and Gpx1. Prx2 membrane levels remained unchanged.
 Challenge with H2O2 or cumene hydroperoxide recruited Gpx1 to the membrane to metabolize lipid peroxides. Localization of catalase, which is always present at the membrane, remained unchanged but membrane-associated Prx2 decreased after peroxide treatment.
We also investigated membrane recruitment of the antioxidant enzymes in diabetic vs control rat RBCs. Notably, CuZnSOD increased at the RBC membrane in control animals at 2 versus 4 weeks. We attributed this to the observed increase in PTP1B activity, suggesting that CuZnSOD membrane localization is regulated by phosphorylation of the cytoplasmic domain of Band-3 (CDB3). Catalase decreased at RBC membranes of 4-week diabetic rats whereas Prx2 levels increased. Gpx1 membrane levels did not change in diabetic RBCs suggesting that its membrane binding sites are always saturated to protect against lipid oxidation. Our results provide evidence that CuZnSOD, catalase, Prx2 and Gpx1 respond to damaging ROS in RBCs.


identifier: Hanley, David  (2013) Chinese Diasporic Films: A Case Study in Transnational Cinema.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
ABSTRACT
Chinese Diasporic Films: A Case Study in Transnational Cinema
David Hanley
In the 1980s and 90s, the mobile populations that have characterized our increasingly globalized world and the resultant creation of diasporic communities has been reflected in a large number of transnational films that challenge the model of national cinema.  Diasporic films, which are acutely concerned with identity and examine the tension between assimilation and retention of the immigrant’s home culture are transnational as they belong entirely neither to the adopted country in which they are made nor the homeland which they look back to.  This study examines films made in roughly the same period that belong to a pan-Chinese diaspora, but are produced in the distinct geographical and cultural contexts of Taiwan and North America.  Using a model influenced by the work of Hamid Naficy, this thesis performs a close analysis of these films by exploring the differing ways in which they represent “home” space (the ethnic enclave which can serve as either fortress or prison), “host” space (the often hostile area dominated by the host community) and “intermediate” space (the borderline territory where competing ethnicities interact) in expressing the strategies and negotiations central to the immigrant experience.  In this way, this thesis aspires to map out the process in which the global is transformed into a multitude of hybrids through contact with local contexts.


identifier: Zenger, Nancy  (2013) APPropriate Fitness and the CyberRunner: Governing the body through mobile media.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: The primary purpose of this thesis is to critically analyze mobile media and self quantification practices within the context of running and discourses of health. By focusing on mobile running applications I observe how one is called through an app’s feedback mechanisms and interfaces to quantify, measure, control and continually improve. The apps work as a tool to discipline the body into becoming a better body. Drawing on interviews with runners who use these apps, the thesis contextualizes the discussion by using the framework of governmentality, of which gamification is a part. I question how personal data is generated and given meaning in an individual’s life. As a modern and neoliberal subject, the runner engages with the apps as a technology of self, a tool of governmentality. An important point of inquiry regards the implications of breaking down a person into metrics for thinking about identity. As the ubiquity of mobile media increases, the ability to generate and share intimate personal data increases and this information is shaped by discourse as it is circulated through multiple interfaces. In the first chapter, I focus on the individual who becomes a calculable subject and in the second I look at the effects of social interfaces and disembodied information as they become a part of how we interact with ourselves and others. By studying runners, I attempt to better understand how locative mobile media and quantification become a part of the discourse of health and think of potential implications of ubiquitous data collection.


identifier: Das, Swagata  (2013) INSTANT MESSAGING SPAM DETECTION IN LONG TERM EVOLUTION NETWORKS.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: The lack of efficient spam detection modules for packet data communication is resulting to increased threat exposure for the telecommunication network users and the service providers. In this thesis, we propose a novel approach to classify spam at the server side by intercepting packet-data communication among instant messaging applications. Spam detection is performed using machine learning techniques on packet headers and contents (if unencrypted) in two different phases: offline training and online classification. The contribution of this study is threefold. First, it identifies the scope of deploying a spam detection module in a state-of-the-art telecommunication architecture. Secondly, it compares the usefulness of various existing machine learning algorithms in order to intercept and classify data packets in near real-time communication of the instant messengers. Finally, it evaluates the accuracy and classification time of spam detection using our approach in a simulated environment of continuous packet data communication. Our research results are mainly generated by executing instances of a peer-to-peer instant messaging application prototype within a simulated Long Term Evolution (LTE) telecommunication network environment. This prototype is modeled and executed using OPNET network modeling and simulation tools. The research produces considerable knowledge on addressing unsolicited packet monitoring in instant messaging and similar applications.


identifier: Wang, Bao Zhen  (2013) Spatial Information Technology Based Modeling Approach for Air Pollution Assessment.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
It is an accepted fact that our atmosphere bears an increasing load of pollutants: carbon dioxide, ozone, oxides of nitrogen and sulfur, volatile organic compounds (VOCs), particulates, and heavy metals. The adverse health and environment effects of air pollution have been a major concern in shaping our environmental quality. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 1.5 billion people living in the urban areas throughout the world are exposed to dangerous levels of air pollution and 2 million premature deaths occur annually. A year shortening of life expectancy by an average is also the result of air pollution. Air pollution risk assessment, especially in urban areas, is currently one of the most important environmental issues for human health.
        Air quality model is a useful tool to simulate the complex dispersion of pollutants in the atmosphere and to predict the long-term effects on ground and spatial levels, and it plays an important role in air pollution risk assessment. Since there are inherent complexities and uncertainties associated with land use information, meteorological conditions, emission spatial allocation, as well as physical and chemical reactions in air quality modeling, it still needs to be further explored. The emergences of new spatial information technologies, such as satellite remote sensing technology and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) open a new era for air quality modeling and air pollution risk assessment, making it possible to predict the spatial concentration distributions of air pollutants on larger scales with finer details.
        The objectives of the work in this thesis include the development of GIS-based air quality modeling system to predict the spatial concentration distributions of ambient air pollutants (PM2.5, NO2, SO2, and CO), the development of satellite remote sensing approach to retrieve aerosol optical depth (AOD) and to derive ground-level pollutant concentrations (PM2.5 and NO2), and the development of fuzzy aggregation risk assessment approach to evaluate the health risks of multiple air pollutants.
        A GIS-based multi-source and multi-box (GMSMB) air quality modeling approach is developed to predict the spatial concentration distribution of four air pollutants (PM2.5, NO2, SO2, and CO) for the state of California. A satellite remote sensing approach is investigated to derive the ground-level NO2 concentrations from the satellite Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) tropospheric NO2 column data for the same location and same period. The GMSMB modeling and satellite-derived results are cross-verified through comparing with each other and with the in-situ surface measurements. Furthermore, a fuzzy aggregation-ordered weighted averaging (OWA) risk assessment approach is developed to evaluate the integrated health risks of the four air pollutants.
        An improved aerosol optical depth (AOD) retrieval algorithm is proposed for the MODIS satellite instrument at 1-km resolution. In order to estimate surface reflectances over variable cover types, including bright and dark surfaces, a modified minimum reﬂectance technique (MRT) is used. A new lookup table (LUT) is created using the Second Simulation of the Satellite Signal in the Solar Spectrum (6S) Radiative Transfer Code for the presumed aerosol types. The MODIS-retrieved AODs are used to derive the ground-level PM2.5 concentrations using the aerosol vertical proﬁles obtained from the GEOS-Chem simulation. The developed method has been examined to retrieve the AODs and evaluate the concentration distribution of PM2.5 over the city of Montreal, Canada in 2009. The satellite-derived PM2.5 concentrations are ranging from 1 to 14 µg/m3 in Montreal, which are in good agreement with the in-situ surface measurements at all monitoring stations. This suggests that the method in this study can retrieve AODs at a higher spatial resolution than previously and can operate on an urban scale for PM2.5 assessment.
        Furthermore, the ground-level PM2.5 concentrations and corresponding health risks are investigated using the retrieved AOD from the satellite instruments of MODIS and MISR for the extended East Asia, including China, India, Japan, and South Korea. The results are validated with the monitoring values and literatures. Depending on the regression analysis, the GDP growth rates, population growth rates, and coal consumptions are the main reasons of the higher PM2.5 concentrations in Beijing. Some mitigating measurements are then proposed and the future trend is predicted. The developed method can be used to other regions for making cost-effective strategy to control and improve air pollution.


identifier: Perkins, David  (2013) Ethics as Fetish: Toward a Theory of Ethical Consumer Consciousness.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: This thesis analyses the relationship between ethical consumption and morality in a contemporary context of neoliberalism. Following Carrier (2012), ethical consumption is defined as an ambiguous mechanism through which social value and economic choice are brought together in order to affirm both. Tim Hortons’ (2012) Coffee Partnership Program, an initiative that takes place under the company’s “Making a True Difference” campaign, serves as a case study of the form that contemporary ethical consumption takes. Though theorists of risk society (Beck 1992, Giddens 1991) and governmentality (Rose 1999, Miller and Rose 1997) have argued that neoliberalism coincides with greater experiences of anxiety due to increased knowledge of risks and pressures of responsibilization, ethnographies of ethical consumers (such as Connolly and Prothero 2008, Adams and Raisborough’s 2010) have indicated that ethical consumption tends to mitigate the anxieties associated with consuming by guaranteeing the sustainability of the commodity in question. I argue that by guaranteeing the extent to which a commodity is ethical, such consumption paradoxically lessens the extent to which individual consumers experience the psychic turmoil of social and political responsibility to others. I use the concept of “commodity fetishism” from Marx (1990 [1867]) nuanced with a contemporary psychoanalytic notion of fetishism (Edelman 2005 [2004], and Žižek 2006, 2008, 2008 [1989], 2012) to explain the phenomenon of this mitigation.


identifier: Motamedi, Ali  (2013) Improving Facilities Lifecycle Management Using RFID Localization And BIM-Based Visual Analytics.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Indoor localization has gained importance as it has the potential to improve various processes related to the lifecycle management of facilities, such as the manual search to find assets. In the operation and maintenance phase, the lack of standards for interoperability and the difficulties related to the processing of large amount of accumulated data from different sources cause several process inefficiencies. For example, identifying failure cause-effect patterns in order to prepare maintenance plans is difficult due to the complex interactions and interdependencies between different building components and the existence of the related data in multiple, fragmented sources.
Building Information Modelling (BIM) is emerging as a method for creating, sharing, exchanging and managing the information throughout the lifecycle of buildings. Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), on the other hand, has emerged as an automatic data collection technology, and has been used in different applications for the lifecycle management of facilities. The previous research of the author proposed permanently attaching RFID tags to assets where the memory of the tags is populated with their accumulated lifecycle information taken from a standard BIM database to enhance various lifecycle processes. This thesis builds on this framework and investigates several methods for supporting lifecycle management processes of assets by using BIM, RFID and visual analytics. It investigates the usage of location-related data that can be retrieved from a BIM and are stored on RFID tags. It also investigates the usage of RFID technology for indoor localization of RFID-equipped assets using handheld readers. The research proposes using the location data saved on the tags attached to fixed assets to locate them on the floor plan. These tags also act as reference tags to locate moveable assets using received signal pattern matching and clustering algorithms. Additionally, the research investigates extending BIM to incorporate RFID information. It provides the opportunity to interrelate BIM and RFID data using predefined relationships. For this purpose, a requirements’ gathering is performed to add new entities, data types, relationships, and property sets to the BIM. Moreover, the research investigates the potential of BIM visualization to help facilities managers make better decisions in the operation and maintenance phase of the lifecycle. It proposes a knowledge-assisted BIM-based visual analytics approach for failure root-cause detection in facilities management where various sources of lifecycle data are integrated with a BIM and used for interactive visualization exploiting the heuristic problem solving ability of field experts.


identifier: El-Swais, Heba  (2013) Temporal bacterial community dynamics in the coastal northwest Atlantic Ocean.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Temporal bacterial community dynamics in the coastal northwest Atlantic Ocean
Heba El-Swais

Marine microbial communities are essential drivers of globally important processes, including carbon, nitrogen, iron and sulfur cycles. Because these diverse bacteria play crucial roles, understanding the structure of microbial communities across space and time is important. This will allow better comprehension of the earth’s response to global change. In this study, we used 16S rRNA sequencing to investigate the temporal shifts in bacterial community structure in surface communities in a coastal inlet in the Northwest Atlantic Ocean (Bedford Basin). We demonstrated that in the spring the dominant bacterial groups were the Bacteroidetes, particularly Polaribacter and Cytophaga. The nutrient-poor summer is associated with the alpha-proteobacterial oligotrophic lineage SAR11. Alteromonadales and SAR11 characterize autumn, and winter is strongly associated with Gamma-proteobacterial sulfur oxidizers (GSO) group. We have established that bacterial richness is highest in winter, which is consistent with global latitudinal studies of bacteria. We further demonstrated that similarity between surface bacterial communities varied according to different time-scales. We showed that high-frequency sampling can reveal episodic blooms from the rare bacterial biosphere. In summary, we used a multi-scale study to reveal the temporal dynamics of bacterial community structure in the temperate North Atlantic coastal ocean.


identifier: Venkatesh, Srivas  (2013) Aspect-Oriented Modeling for Representing and Integrating Security Aspects in UML Models.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Security is a challenging task in software engineering. Traditionally, addressing security concerns are considered as an afterthought to the development process and security mechanisms are fitted into pre-existing software without considering the consequences on the main functionality of the software. Enforcing security policies should be taken care of during early phases of the software development life cycle; this benefits the development costs and reduces the maintenance time. In addition to cost saving, this encourages development of reliable software. Since security related concepts will be considered in each step of the design, the implications of inserting such concepts into the existing system requirements will help mitigate the defects and vulnerabilities present in the system. Although integrating security solutions into every stage of the software development cycle, results in scattering and tangling of security features across the entire design. The traditional security hardening approaches are tedious and prone to many errors as they involve manual modifications. In this context, the need for a systematic way to integrate security aspects/mechanisms into the design phase of the development cycle should be considered.
In this work, an aspect-oriented modeling approach for specifying and integrating security aspects in to Unified Modeling Language (UML) design model is presented. This approach allows the security experts to specify generic security aspects and weave them into target software base model early in the software development phase. In contrast to traditional approaches, model-to-model transformation mechanisms discussed in this approach are designed to have an efficient and a fully automatic weaving process. This work further discusses additional components that are introduced into the weaving process. These newly introduced components allow the security experts to provide more appropriate security hardening concepts. Furthermore, the additional components are designed based on object-oriented principles and allow the security experts to exercise these principles in the model-to-model transformation. The additions to the weaver application are tested using the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) communicator as a base model. The description of the additional components and the results of testing of the weaving process are discussed further in this thesis.


identifier: Forster, Andrew  (2013) Public Spaces - The Architecture and Landscape Architecture of Vito Acconci: Critical Motion between Art & Design.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: This thesis investigates the distinction between high-art and applied-art in the frame of the avant-garde’s relation to modernity. It takes the practice of Vito Acconci (a performance artist who became an architect) as an example of the viability of art and design to engage with important questions in a culture determined by ‘functionality.’ It proposes questions about the nature of ‘criticality’ in the interstices between high-art and applied-art as they have been institutionalized as distinct disciplines in schools of art and design, where the ‘and’ has become a term of separation rather than complicity. This separation is interrogated in the light of avant-garde art practices and their relationship to ‘technicity’. I look at the unfolding of a ‘Bauhaus project’ that constructs a divide between applied and high art by merging goals of utility and aesthetics while superseding the radical conjecture of the ‘irrational’ avant-garde. This ‘Bauhaus project’ is then juxtaposed to critical theory in art criticism (via Hal Foster and Benjamin Buchloh) which fixes a place for art in society and fixes the limits of what criticality can mean. I suggest that, taken together, the Bauhaus project and critical theory have served to create and reinforce a binary between ‘pure’ and ‘applied’ which is self-fulfilling, self-limiting and self-regulating. In discussing how Acconci’s practice encounters and ‘unfixes’ this binary, I draw from Craig Dworkin (who asserts that Accconci’s practice continues poetry by other means), Grace McQuilten (who asserts a contrarian ‘mis-design’ as a way of opening up commercial culture to critical practice) and Krzysztof Ziarek (who, through an exploration of Adorno and Heidegger, asserts a relevance for avant-garde practices as gestures of post-aesthetic nonpower). In brief, this thesis asks if, in consideration of these positions, we can begin to define a criticality between art and design that supersedes the binary as described.


identifier: Kacem, Anis  (2013) Geometric Approaches for 3D Shape Denoising and Retrieval.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
A key issue in developing an accurate 3D shape recognition system is to design an efficient shape
descriptor for which an index can be built, and similarity queries can be answered efficiently. While
the overwhelming majority of prior work on 3D shape analysis has concentrated primarily on rigid
shape retrieval, many real objects such as articulated motions of humans are nonrigid and hence
can exhibit a variety of poses and deformations.
Motivated by the recent surge of interest in content-based analysis of 3D objects in computeraided
design and multimedia computing, we develop in this thesis a unified theoretical and computational
framework for 3D shape denoising and retrieval by incorporating insights gained from
algebraic graph theory and spectral geometry. We first present a regularized kernel diffusion for
3D shape denoising by solving partial differential equations in the weighted graph-theoretic framework.
Then, we introduce a computationally fast approach for surface denoising using the vertexcentered
finite volume method coupled with the mesh covariance fractional anisotropy. Additionally,
we propose a spectral-geometric shape skeleton for 3D object recognition based on the second
eigenfunction of the Laplace-Beltrami operator in a bid to capture the global and local geometry
of 3D shapes. To further enhance the 3D shape retrieval accuracy, we introduce a graph matching
approach by assigning geometric features to each endpoint of the shape skeleton. Extensive experiments
are carried out on two 3D shape benchmarks to assess the performance of the proposed
shape retrieval framework in comparison with state-of-the-art methods. The experimental results
show that the proposed shape descriptor delivers best-in-class shape retrieval performance.


identifier: Cajiao Gouthro, Stephanie  (2013) Understanding and Communicating Risk Factors Affecting Youth in Comuna 13 Through Participatory Action Research.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Abstract
Understanding and Communicating Risk Factors Affecting Youth in Comuna 13 Through Participatory Research
Stephanie Cajiao

Each community defines the meaning of risk according to its history, social-economic concerns and current lived realities.  I went in to Comuna 13 having a historical and sociopolitical understanding of the area, which shaped my ideas of what the risks were for the youth in such an environment, as well as what my role should be, having done my best to familiarize myself with Freire’s and Fals Borda’s ideas of popular education and participatory action research (PAR).  I was aware, however, that my ideas didn’t go beyond assumptions, and these assumptions changed considerably as I got to know the participants and the research we did as a collective.
This thesis details my attempt to use participatory action methodology in order to have the youth themselves investigate and reflect on their own realities to explain the main risk factors that plague their community and peers.  This thesis asks: Using a PAR methodology, how can youth investigate what the main risk factors in Comuna 13 are for them and their peers?  How do they want to communicate these factors and to whom?


identifier: Shafiei, Arash  (2013) Modeling, Analysis, and Design of a PV-Based Grid-Tied Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicle Battery Pack Charger.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Ever-increasing fossil fuels consumption in recent decades has emitted tremendous amounts of greenhouse gases, a big part of which cannot be absorbed by natural processes happening in nature. These gases have increased earth temperature by absorbing extra radiations from sunlight and turning them into heat. Global warming has had terrible effects for all creatures around the world and can threat life on Earth in future. Utilization of green or renewable energies during the recent years is getting more popular and can be a solution to this serious problem. A big source of these pollutants is transportation sector. Electrification of transportation can noticeably reduce greenhouse gasses if the electricity is obtained using renewable energy sources. Otherwise, it will just shift the problem from streets to fossil fuel power plants. Electric vehicles (EVs) were introduced around one century ago; however, they were replaced by internal combustion engine cars over time. Nevertheless, recently they are getting more interest because of their superior performance and clean operation.
Solar electricity which can be obtained using photovoltaic panels is one of the easiest ways as long as sun is available. They can be easily mounted on the roofs of buildings or roof tops of parking slots generating electric power to charge the battery pack of the EVs while providing shade for the cars. Since solar energy is intermittent and variable, power grid should be involved to ensure enough power is available. Conventional solar chargers inject power to the grid and use grid as the main source because of its reliability and being infinite. Hence, they use grid as a kind of energy storage system. This approach can lead to problems for grid stability if solar panels are utilized in large scales and comparable to the grid.
In this work, a solar powered grid-tied EV/PHEV charger is introduced which uses all the available power from PV panels as the main energy source and drains only the remaining required power from the grid. The proposed configuration provides great flexibility and supports all the possible power flows. To design an efficient system the load should be known well enough first. A comprehensive study has been done about behavior, characteristics and different models of different chemistries of batteries. Specific phenomena happening in battery packs are outlined. A novel maximum power point tracking (MPPT) technique has been proposed specifically for battery charging applications. A specific configuration involving DC link coupling technique has been proposed to connect different parts of the system. Different possible topologies for different parts of the proposed configuration have been considered and the suitable ones have been selected. Dual active bridge topology is the heart of this configuration which acts as the bidirectional charger. A detailed state space modeling process has been followed for the power converters and various small signal transfer functions have been derived. Controllers have been designed for different power converters using SISO design tool of Matlab/Simulink. Different modes of operation for the charger including constant current mode (CCM) and constant voltage mode (CVM) have been analyzed and appropriate cascade controllers have been designed based on required time domain and frequency domain characteristics. Finally, simulation tests have been conducted and test results have been graphed and analyzed for different modes of operation, all possible power flows and various voltage and current set points.


identifier: Pashanasangi, Ghazal  (2013) Modeling the Influence of Drinking Water Quality on Residential Property Value.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
ABSTRACT
Modeling the Influence of Drinking Water Quality on Residential Property Value
Ghazal Pashanasangi

This thesis is an endeavor to study the influence of drinking water quality on residential property value in the United States. Bayesian inference method is used to model the influence of water pollution on property value. Hierarchical Bayesian inference method is used when different levels of pollution are considered. Number of types of chemicals detected in water utilities of each state, amount of total trihalomethanes (TTHMs) and total haloacetic acids (HAAs) in big cities drinking water, average property value in each state and big cities, and population are the data used in analyses. Results show that water pollution has a negative impact on the average property price in state level. Both TTHMs and HAAs, which are the most important pollutants in big cities, also have negative impact on residential property price in big cities. The impact of TTHMs pollution is more than HAAs pollution. Results of the hierarchical analyses show the state that each big city belongs to, determines the effect of TTHMs and HAAs pollution on residential property price.


identifier: Nguyen, Tuan  (2013) Symplectic Structures on Spaces of Polygons.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
A symplectic form on a smooth manifold is a differential 2-form on pairs of tangent vectors of the manifold which is closed and non-degenerate. A polygon in threedimensional space is a closed polygonal line, or, more precisely, a polygon of m sides is a map ρ from the set of the first m integers into Euclidean vector space R3, such that the sum ρ1 + ρ2 + · · · + ρm equals to the zero vector. The vectors ρ1, ρ2, . . . , ρm are called the sides of the polygon ρ, and their lengths are called its side lengths. All polygons of fixed side lengths make up a space, and one may put symplectic structures on this space. In this text we shall describe two ways to do this; these ways, making use of a method called symplectic reduction, are due to Haussmann-Knutson [5] and independently to Kapovich-Millson [7], and have been shown to be equivalent by Hausmann-Knutson [5]. We begin in the first chapter with a compilation of the necessary definitions and results of group action and symplectic manifolds, including Hamiltonian action and symplectic reduction. In the second chapter we define precisely the space of polygons and describe the aforementioned symplectic forms on them.

There may be some group action on a symplectic manifold. If the group is a torus whose dimension is half of that of the manifold, and if the action is an effective Hamiltonian action, then the manifold corresponds to a figure in three-dimensional space called a Delzant polytope; in fact, Delzant polytopes completely classify such manifolds. By a result of Kapovich-Milllson [7], on the space of polygons of m sides of fixed side lengths, one may construct such a torus action if the m−3 diagonals of the polygons, namely the lengths |ρ1+ρ2|, . . . , |ρ1+· · ·+ρm−2|, do no vanish. The space of polygons then corresponds to a Delzant polytope, and may then be identified with other symplectic manifolds corresponding to the same polytope. We shall describe in this text the case where polygons have 4 sides or 5 sides. Thus, in continuation of the second chapter, we start in the third chapter a compilation of necessary definitons and results on torus action and Delzant polytopes. Because in the case of polygons of 5 sides there appears an operation on the Delzant polytopes called blow-up, we describe briefly this concept in the same chapter. In the fourth chapter we describe torus action on the space of polygons due to Kapovich-Millson [7]; this action means geometrically rotations about the diagonals, and this idea is also described in the same section. We then apply the results to the case of polygons of 4 or 5 sides.
Finally, we compile in the appendix a more detailed list of certain definitions and results that appear in the text.


identifier: Madden, David  (2013) Cross-dressing to Backbeats: An Exploration of the Practices, Wo/men Producers, and History of Electroclash.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
This research-creation dissertation focuses on the emergence of electroclash as a dominant form of electronic dance music in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Electroclash combines the extended pulsing sections of techno, house and other dance musics with the trashier energy of rock and new wave. The genre signals an attempt to reinvigorate dance music with a sense of sexuality, personality and irony. Electroclash also emphasizes, rather than hides, the European, trashy elements of electronic dance music. This project addresses the following questions: what is distinct about the genre and its related practices, both in and out of the studio? Why do rock and electro come together at this point and in this way? Why is electroclash affectively powerful for musicians, audiences and listeners? And, what does the genre portend in terms of our understandings of the politics of electronic music?
The coming together of rock and electro is examined vis-à-vis the ongoing changing sociality of music production/distribution and the changing role of the producer. Numerous women, whether as solo producers or in the context of collaborative groups, significantly contributed to shaping the aesthetics and production practices of electroclash, an anomaly in the history of popular music and electronic music where the role of the producer has typically been associated with men. These changes are discussed in relation to the way key electroclash producers often used a hybrid approach to production involving the integration of new(er) technologies, such as laptops containing various audio production software with older, inexpensive keyboards, microphones, samplers and drum machines to achieve the ironic backbeat laden hybrid electro-rock sound.


identifier: Mosleh, Ali  (2013) Novel Video Completion Approaches and Their Applications.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Video completion refers to automatically restoring damaged or removed objects in a video sequence, with applications ranging from sophisticated video removal of undesired static or dynamic objects to correction of missing or corrupted video frames in old movies and synthesis of new video frames to add, modify, or generate a new visual story. The video completion problem can be solved using texture synthesis and/or data interpolation to fill-in the holes of the sequence inward. This thesis makes a distinction between still image completion and video completion. The latter requires visually pleasing consistency by taking into account the temporal information. Based on their applied concepts, video completion techniques are categorized as inpainting and texture synthesis. We present a bandlet transform-based technique for each of these categories of video completion techniques. The proposed inpainting-based technique is a 3D volume regularization scheme that takes advantage of bandlet bases for exploiting the anisotropic regularities to reconstruct a damaged video. The proposed exemplar-based approach, on the other hand, performs video completion using a precise patch fusion in the bandlet domain instead of patch replacement. The video completion task is extended to two important applications in video restoration. First, we develop an automatic video text detection and removal that benefits from the proposed inpainting scheme and a novel video text detector. Second, we propose a novel video super-resolution technique that employs the inpainting algorithm spatially in conjunction with an effective structure tensor, generated using bandlet geometry. The experimental results show a good performance of the proposed video inpainting method and demonstrate the effectiveness of bandlets in video completion tasks. The proposed video text detector and the video super resolution scheme also show a high performance in comparison with existing methods.


identifier: Fang, yuan  (2013) Synthesis and Self-Assembly of Quinoidal Molecules at the Liquid-Solid Interface – An STM Investigation.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: An exploration of the 2D supramolecular self-assembly of benzoquinone derivatives at the liquid-solid interface using scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) is presented. In the 30 years since its discovery, STM has emerged as one of the most powerful and unique surface characterization techniques. We have applied a versatile transamination reaction of 2,4-diaminoresorcinol to synthesize zwitterionic meta-diaminobenzoquinones (Cnm) with the ability to form robust charge-assisted hydrogen bonded arrays. Charge-assisted hydrogen bonding, where traditional hydrogen bonding is accompanied by Coulombic interactions, leads to exceptionally strong and inherently flexible interactions between oppositely charged or zwitterionic components. The typical energy of a NH···O charge-assisted hydrogen bond is 4 times as strong as that of normal hydrogen bond. We also have easy access to para-aminobenzoquinones (Cnp) which have the ability to form a conventional hydrogen-bond network. Formation and self-assembly of the 2:1 metal complex of C18m with Ni(II), (C18m)2Ni, was investigated and conglomerate chiral domains were observed in contrast to the pseudoracemic domains of C18m. In this thesis, synthesis of the above mentioned compounds under both solvent and solvent-free conditions are described. In addition, factors governing morphology, chirality and multilayer formation are discussed, presenting an important foundation for understanding the properties of a large family of related molecules with interesting potential in supramolecular design. Controlling well-defined 2D structures provides important insight into crystallization and is an essential step in the rational design of solid-state materials for interfacial applications.


identifier: alwan, hind  (2013) QoS-Based and Secure Multipath Routing in Wireless Sensor Networks.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
With the growing demand for quality of service (QoS) aware routing protocols in wireless networks, QoS-based routing has emerged as an interesting research topic. A QoS guarantee in wireless sensor networks (WSNs) is difficult and more challenging due to the fact that the available resources of sensors and the various applications running over these networks have different constraints in their nature and requirements. Furthermore, due to the increased use of sensor nodes in a variety of application fields, WSNs need to handle heterogeneous traffic with diverse priorities to achieve the required QoS.
In this thesis, we investigate the problem of providing multi-QoS in routing protocols for WSNs. In particular, we investigate several aspects related to the application requirements and the network states and resources.
We present multi-objective QoS aware routing protocol for WSNs that uses the geographic routing mechanism combined with the QoS requirements to meet diverse application requirements by considering the changing conditions of the network. The protocol formulates the application requirements with the links available resources and conditions to design heuristic neighbor discovery algorithms. Also, with the unlimited resource at the sink node, the process of selecting the routing path/paths is assigned to the sink. Paths selection algorithms are designed with various goals in order to extend network lifetime, enhance the reliability of data transmission, decrease end-to-end delay, achieve load balancing and provide fault tolerance.
We also develop a cross-layer routing protocol that combines routing at network layer and the time scheduling at the MAC layer with respect to delay and reliability in an energy efficient way. A node-disjoint multipath routing is used and a QoS-aware priority scheduling considering MAC layer is proposed to ensure that real time and non-real time traffic achieve their desired QoS while alleviating congestion in the network.
Additionally, we propose new mechanism for secure and reliable data transmission in multipath routing for WSNs. Different levels of security requirements are defined and depending on these requirements, a selective encryption scheme is introduced to encrypt selected number of coded fragments in order to enhance security and thereby reduce the time required for encryption. Node-disjoint multipath routing combined with source coding is used in order to enhance both security and reliability of data transmission.  Also, we develop an allocation strategy that allocates fragments on paths to enhance both the security and probability of successful data delivery.
Analysis and extensive simulation are conducted to study the performance of all the above proposed protocols.


identifier: Iacono, Vanessa  (2013) Inhibition of personally-relevant angry faces moderates the effect of empathy on interpersonal functioning.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Empathy has been linked to the accurate perception and understanding of another’s emotions. As such, empathy is typically assumed to promote effective social interactions. However, empathy can sometimes hinder interpersonal functioning when it is unrestrained and overgeneralized. In the present study, we sought to examine whether cognitive inhibition would moderate the effect of empathy on the quality of social functioning both concurrently and over time. Eighty healthy young adults (ages 18-32; 50 females) underwent two assessments six months apart. Participants’ ability to suppress interference from distracting emotional stimuli was assessed using a Negative Affective Priming Task that included both generic and personally-relevant facial expressions of emotion (i.e., anger, sadness, and happiness). The UCLA Life Stress Interview and Empathy Quotient were administered as measures of interpersonal functioning and trait empathy respectively. Multilevel modeling demonstrated that higher empathy was associated with better concurrent interpersonal outcomes, but only for those who were able to successfully inhibit the distracting personally-relevant depictions of anger (b = -.555, SE = .206, t(75) = -2.691, p =. 007). These data suggest that cognitive inhibition might be necessary to restrain excessive empathizing with others and ensure adaptive social functioning. Implications regarding our understanding of empathy and the social skills deficits that characterize certain clinical populations (i.e., depression) are discussed.


identifier: Fazili, Mohammad Amin  (2013) Vibration Analysis of Thickness- and Width-Tapered Laminated Composite Beams using Hierarchical Finite Element Method.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Tapered laminated composite beams provide stiffness-tailoring and mass-tailoring design capabilities. They are increasingly and widely being used in engineering applications including robotic manipulators, aircraft wings, space structures, helicopter blades and yokes, turbine blades, and civil infrastructure. In the present work, the free and the forced vibration response of symmetric linear-thickness-and-width-tapered laminated composite beams are considered. Considering a variety of tapered configurations according to different types of plies drop-off configurations both conventional and hierarchical finite element formulations are developed based on cylindrical laminated beam bending theory. Natural frequencies, mode shapes and forced vibration response of different types of internally-tapered composite beams are determined. Comparison of the hierarchical finite element solution with the Rayleigh-Ritz and a higher-order finite element solution is performed. A parametric study is conducted to investigate the effects of boundary conditions, width-ratio, taper configurations, thickness-tapering angle, laminate configuration, compressive axial force and damping on the free and forced vibration response of thickness- and width-tapered laminated composite beams.


identifier: Khan, Md. Imran  (2013) Influence of cooling rate on microsegregation behavior of magnesium alloys.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Magnesium castings are widely used in the automotive sectordue to their high strength to weight ratio. Solidification of these alloys always results in inhomogeneous distribution of alloying elements (microsegregation), which can have adverse effects on the microstructure. To control the microstructure obtained from different solidification conditions, and thus attain desired properties, in-depth understanding of the microstructure evolution and the resulting microsegregationis of paramount importance.
The effect of cooling rate on microstructure and microsegregation of three commercially important magnesium alloys was investigated in the current research. Wedge (‘V’ shaped) castings of AZ91D, AM60B and AE44 alloys were made using a water-cooled permanent copper mold to obtain a range of cooling rates from a single casting. Variation of microstructure and microsegregation was studied using a combination of experiments and thermodynamic modeling. Chemical inhomogeneities of alloying elements at the dendritic length scale at different cooling rates were examined using scanning electron microscopy. Solute redistribution profiles were drawn from the experimentally obtained data and then compared with established models.Microstructural and morphological features such as dendrite arm spacing andsecondary phase particle size were also analyzed using both optical and scanning electron microscopy. Thermodynamic calculations were performed using FactSage to obtain data regarding two solidification extremities- equilibrium and non-equilibrium Scheil cooling. Dendrite arm spacing and secondary phase particle size have an increasing trend with decreasing cooling rate for the three alloys. Area percentage of secondary phase particles decreased with decreasing cooling rate for AE44 alloy. The trend was different for AZ91D and AM60B alloys, for both alloys, area percentage of β-Mg17Al12 increased with decreasing cooling rate up to location 4 and then decreased slightly. The tendency for microsegregation was more severe at slower cooling rate, possibly due to prolonged back diffusion. At slower cooling rate, the minimum concentration ofaluminumat the dendritic core was lower compared to faster cooled locations. The segregation deviation parameter and the partition coefficient were calculated from the experimentally obtained data. These data would be valuable input for solidification modeling of microstructure of these alloys and can also be used to validate present models.


identifier: Wood, Megan  (2013) Friendship Security and Intimacy Moderate the Stability of Anxiety During Early Adolescence.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: The goal of this study was to identify whether friendship quality could serve as a protective factor for anxious preadolescents longitudinally. It was expected that by having high levels of intimacy and security within the friendships of anxious youth feelings of anxiety would decrease to a greater extent than those with low levels of said friendship factors. Preadolescents (N = 430) in grades 5 and 6 (ages 10-13) were tested within their classrooms. Two time points were used in this study, which were approximately six months apart. Measures of peer-rated anxiety, self-rated anxiety, and friendship quality (i.e., the Network of Relationships Inventory) were administered and analyzed via confirmatory factor analyses (CFA). Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to test the hypotheses of this study. Results demonstrated that both intimacy and security within close relationships could predict a significant decrease in anxiety in the self-rated anxiety measures, with security having a stronger effect than intimacy. Conversely, preadolescents who were considered anxious by their peers were perceived as anxious at the second time point even if they possessed intimate and secure friendships. Gender differences were not found. The findings of this study suggest that anxious preadolescents benefit from having intimate and secure close friendships given that they are found to be significantly less anxious over time compared with their anxious peers without such relationships. In contrast, being anxious seems to have a lasting impression since peer-rated anxious individuals were not perceived as being less anxious over time, despite their reduced feelings of anxiety. A similar effect was discovered for both boys and girls.


identifier: Poterasu, Anamaria  (2013) Experimental investigation on passive earth pressure on walls retaining collapsible soil.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Collapsible soil is one of the problematic soils in geotechnical engineering. They are known for their strength when they are dry and their sudden and excessive loss of volume when they are inundated.
The present study presents the results of experimental investigations on passive earth pressure acting on walls retaining dry and wet collapsible soils. The objective of these investigations was to study the effect of inundation due to the rise of the ground water table on the earth pressure. Lab Tests were carried out on a prototype set-up which was developed to simulate the movement of a retaining wall towards the collapsible backfill, meaning the passive pressure state. The experiments were conducted on collapsible soil with various collapse potentials to study this variation effect on the results.
The results of the experimental investigation were used to validate the results of the numerical model developed in this investigation. The numerical model was used to generate results for a wide range of parameters, which believe to govern this complex soil.


identifier: Salvatore, Vanessa  (2013) The Mobility and Embodiment of Modern Yoga.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: This thesis examines a yoga collective of primarily students and teachers in Montreal with attention to the circuits of mobility as well as broader interconnections and disjunctures created by global cultural flows. Varying forms of mobility within yoga are identified and studied such as, spatial, bodily, cognitive and conceptual mobility. Within these patterns of mobility the joining of ideas and practices as well as the contradictions that emerge from them are explored, for example between commercialism and the intended spirituality of yoga practice. This research project focuses on common modern postural and meditational yoga practices of today, and briefly looks at the teaching methods and learning practices within the kinesthetic culture of yoga. Further, the ways in which practitioners embody yoga is investigated.


identifier: Persram, Ryan  (2013) The Use of Cooperative and Surrogate Alliances during Naturalistic Polyadic Family Conflicts.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Polyadic family conflicts and the use of alliances were examined in 39 families during naturalistic home observations of mothers (M age = 32.8 years), fathers (M age = 34.6 years), older (M age = 6.3 years) and younger siblings (M age = 4.4 years). The data included transcripts of audio-recorded researcher notes and family member verbalizations for each of the six 90-minute sessions. Using these transcripts, conflict initiators, topics, and resolutions, as well as additional party roles (e.g., alliance, mediator; Black & Baumgartner, 1983) were coded. To distinguish between the amount of support that allies provided to the conflict, alliances were separated into two categories: Cooperative and surrogate alliances. The findings revealed that despite all family members being involved in polyadic conflicts, children tended to be initiators, while parents became involved as additional parties. Alliances occurred more often than the other additional party roles, were likely to be formed when conflicts arose about obnoxious behaviours, and often resulted in the alliance achieving their goals and winning the conflict. Intergenerational alliances (i.e., parent-child) were more likely to be formed than intra-generational alliances (e.g., parental). A preliminary content analysis found that cooperative and surrogate alliances were quantitatively different with respect to the number of turns that allies used when supporting a combatant. Moreover, rule enforcement, control, informational, repetition, and induction were identified as resources that allies used to support their side. Results are discussed relative to literature and theory, with respect to understanding each family member’s social and metacognitive skills and understanding.


identifier: Yektaii, Mahdi  (2013) Feature Selection in Image Databases.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

title: Feature Selection in Image Databases

abstract:
Even though the problem of determining the number of features required to provide an acceptable classification performance has been a topic of interest to the researchers in the pattern recognition community for a few decades, a formal method for solving this problem still does not exist. For instance, the well-known dimensionality reduction method of principal component analysis (PCA) sorts the features it generates in the order of their importance, but it does not provide a mechanism for determining the number of sorted features that need to be retained for a meaningful classification. Discrete wavelet transform (DWT) is another linear transformation used for data compaction, in which the coefficients in the transform domain can be sorted in different orders depending on their importance. However, the question of determining the number of features to be retained for a good classification of the data remains unanswered.

The objective of this study is to develop schemes for determining the number of features in the PCA and DWT domains that are sufficient for a classifier to provide a maximum possible classifiability of the samples in these transform domains. The energy content of the DWT and PCA coefficients of practical signals follow a specific pattern. The proposed schemes, by exploiting this property of the signals, develop criteria that are based on maintaining the energy of the ensemble of the feature vectors as their dimensionality is reduced. Within this unifying theme, in this thesis, the problem of dimension reduction is investigated when the features are generated by the linear transformation techniques of the discrete wavelet transform and the principal component analysis, and by the nonlinear technique of kernel principal component analysis.

The first part of this study is concerned with developing a criterion for determining the number of coefficients when the features are represented as wavelet coefficients. The reduction in the dimensionality of the feature vectors is performed by letting the matrices of the wavelet coefficients of the data samples to undergo the process of Morton scanning and choosing a set of a fixed number of coefficients from these matrices whose energy content approaches to that of the original set of all the samples.

In the second part of the thesis, the problem of determining a reduced dimensionality of feature vectors is investigated when the features are PCA generated. The proposed method of finding a reduced dimensionality of feature vectors is based on evaluating a cumulative distance between all the pairs of distinct clusters with a reduced set of features and examining its proximity to the distance when all the features are included.

The PCA methods for data classification work well when the distinct clusters are linearly separable. For clusters that are nonlinearly separable, the kernel versions of PCA (KPCA) prove to be more efficient for generating features. The method developed in the second part of this thesis for obtaining the reduced dimensionality of the PCA based feature vectors cannot be readily extended to the kernel space because of the lack of availability of the feature vectors in an explicit form in this space. Therefore, the third part of this study develops a suitable criterion for obtaining reduced dimensionality of the feature vectors when they are generated by a kernel PCA.

Extensive experiments are performed on a series of image databases to demonstrate the effectiveness of the criteria developed in this study for predicting the number of features to be retained. It is shown that there is a direct correlation between the expressions developed for the criteria and the classification accuracy as functions of the number of features retained. The results of the experiments show that with the use of the three feature selection techniques, a classifier can provide its maximum classifiability, that is, a classifiability attained by the uncompressed feature vectors, with only a small fraction of the original features. The robustness of the proposed methods is also investigated by applying them to noise-corrupted images.


identifier: Jahangiri, Soran  (2013) Theoretical Investigation of Ion Hydration in Clusters and Solutions.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: The aim of this work is to develop and implement efficient theoretical approaches based on first-principles to investigate key features of ion hydration in clusters and solutions. For this purpose, the parameter set of the self-consistent-charge density-functional tight-binding (SCC-DFTB) model, an approximate version of (first-principles) density-functional theory, has been extended to include halogen atoms and used to describe the interatomic interactions in molecular dynamics (MD) simulations performed to investigate the hydration features of halides. The results of these first-principles-based simulations unambiguously demonstrate the higher affinity of the larger halides for the cluster surface, hence resolving a long-standing controversy. Given the accuracy and computational efficiency of SCC-DFTB in describing halide cluster hydration, the model was further validated against high-level quantum-chemistry data and employed to investigate ionic clusters containing the polyatomic anions of the Hofmeister series: different hydration extents were found for the anions investigated, consistent with their order in the series. For instance, kosmotropic ions, i.e. those favoring water structure, tend to adopt fully hydrated structures, while chaotropic ions, i.e. those that disrupt hydrogen-bonded water networks, tend to be expelled from the water droplet and adopt surface hydration structures. Turning our attention to cations, the hydration behavior of alkyl diammonium of varying alkyl chain length was also investigated in clusters by MD simulations with empirical force fields validated against SCC-DFTB. In light of the increased surface propensity of longer dications found in water clusters, the relationship between the hydration extent of these ions and their effect on the salting out of organic molecules in aqueous solvent mixtures was also investigated: while fully hydrated shorter dications promote phase separation, partially hydrated longer dications have a stabilizing effect on organic aggregates in the mixture. These findings helped rationalize previous experimental data on environmentally-friendly “switchable” solvents, the design of which could be greatly assisted by further such simulations. The methodology developed, based on first-principles, not only allowed studies that helped unveil a possible relationship between the hydration extent of ions and their specific effect in solutions, but should also find a broad range of applications.