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In-Between: An Autoethnographic Inquiry into the Notion of Home amongst Palestinians living in the Diaspora
Get PDFThis thesis uses research-creation, autoethnography and collaborative research-for-creation to explore the notion of home amongst Palestinians living in the diaspora. It is centered on the involvement of five participants, including myself, who guided the creation of an art installation combining participants’ videos, accompanying text, postcards and oranges scattered on the floor of the gallery. This project allowed participants to use research-creation to conceptualize and represent their experiences through video and storytelling.
Using the framework of diaspora studies and identity, In-Between employed creative practices, self-reflective texts, collaborative exchanges with participants, and academic writing, to explore the way Palestinians use their memories and imagination to make sense of their personal and collective identities. Throughout the process I focused on fostering a collaborative and caring researcher-participant relationship to examine the pedagogical implications art practices have on art education.
The value of this research lies in grounding our lived experiences as Palestinians in creation and in theory. In relation to art education, this study shows educators how memory and imagination can be used to foster students’ collaborative processes. It is my hope that this thesis would inform Autoethnographic researchers of Palestinian communities in exile in the future and encourage art students to use their respective socio-political location as an advantageous position for their research
Dim-Light Melatonin Onset as a Circadian Marker in Children and Adolescents: Quantification of Melatonin Dynamics
Get PDFQuantifying melatonin, specifically dim-light melatonin onset (DLMO), in pediatric populations allows us to better understand the implications of circadian rhythm on health. However, current melatonin metrics were developed for adult populations and melatonin collection is typically time and resource intensive. The first goal of this thesis was to identify melatonin metrics traditionally used in pediatric literature and to examine alternative metrics. Data extracted from twenty-two articles identified via scoping review revealed that the most common DLMO metrics focused on a single melatonin dynamic: timing (i.e., the time melatonin concentration surpasses a predetermined threshold). Thus, alternative metrics to quantify timing, concentration, and rate dynamics, such as total melatonin output and rate derived by linear regression, were proposed, and applied to a pediatric secondary dataset. Traditional and alternative timing (ravg=.86) and concentration (r=.93) metrics where highly correlated, while rate metrics were moderately correlated (r=.38). The second goal was to explore potential proxy variables to estimate DLMO. This was achieved by augmenting the secondary dataset using multiple imputation, then by conducting a Classification and Regression Tree analysis to estimate DLMO dynamics. Sleep midpoint and bedtime measured by actigraphy were some of the best proxies for the timing dynamic (R2=.91) but not for concentration (R2=.50) and rate (R2=.41). Thus, other proxies to estimate concentration and rate dynamics, such as temperature, diet, or race, should be explored. Results of this thesis highlight the lack of melatonin metrics for youth populations in the literature and the need to better quantify melatonin and circadian rhythms
Links Between Adolescents’ Moral Mindsets and Narratives of their Inconsistent and Consistent Moral Value Experiences
No full textPast work on moral mindsets has largely overlooked the adolescent developmental period, a time when adolescents are navigating the complexities of moral life and experiencing tensions between important moral principles and their own actions. This study investigated how moral incrementalism and essentialism are linked to how adolescents construct meanings about their moral experiences. The sample included 96 Canadian adolescents (12- to 15-years of age; M = 13.5 years). Adolescents generated written narratives of times when they acted inconsistently and consistently with a moral value, and completed a vignette-based measure of moral mindsets. Moral incrementalism was associated with references to the psychological and emotional facets of experiences and engaging in meaning-making processes in narratives. Adolescents who endorsed incrementalism disengaged less only when narrating a self-discrepant experience, indicating some context-specificity across moral event types. Overall, results contribute to scholarship on moral mindset and narrative identity construction. Findings illuminate how individual differences in youth’s views of moral traits and behavior may be associated with important aspects of moral identity development such as delving into the psychological and emotional facets of their experiences and engaging in meaning-making processes
Measuring, modeling and assessing evaporative fluxes over an integrated lake-wetland system in Southern Quebec
Get PDFEvapotranspiration (ET) is the second largest component of the hydrological cycle globally and a major factor in surface energy balance. Despite its importance, quantifying evapotranspiration presents high uncertainties due to limitations in available data and modeling approaches. This thesis provides – for the first time – a temporally high-resolution ET dataset (30 minutes) using Eddy Covariance method for a lake-wetland duo in Southern Québec during 2020’s growing season, during the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown. In addition, this thesis benchmarks the performance of 40 existing ET models – the largest number of empirical ET models intercompared to date – across different time scales, times of the day and times of the season. The benchmarking effort uses a non-dominated sorting framework with multiple goodness-of-fit measures to rank models. In general, the most non-falsified models in the marsh are Carpenter (aerodynamic), McMillan (aerodynamic), Kimberley-Penman (combination) and Stephens-Stewart (temperature-hybrid). In the lake, Hamon’s (temperature) equation remains non-falsified across most scenarios. Comparing continuous simulations in the two landscapes, the expected Nash-Sutcliffe Efficiency of non-falsified models is consistently higher in the marsh across all timescales from half-hour to one month and different times of the season. Considering different diurnal segments, the performance of non-falsified models becomes comparable in daytime and strictly better in the lake during nighttime. ET was better estimated during daytime and nighttime separately than full days. Overestimation of ET was observed during local temperature peaks preceded by prolonged net radiation peaks without precipitation, which potentially points at models’ inability to capture the effect of stomata closure of the canopy during heatwaves. Capturing evapotranspiration in wetlands and lakes requires more physically-based parameterizations to represent thermal and biological dynamics at weekly and finer scales. This study also provides evidence for the necessity of using multi-objective ranking to benchmark evapotranspiration and points at strategic directions for future developments
Dependability Analysis Methodology for FPGA-Based UAV Communication Protocols using UPPAAL-SMC
Get PDFUAVs are multifaceted devices that have enormous versatility and flexibility in a plethora of various fields. Year over year, UAVs see a tremendous amount of research invested in it to make them more efficient and autonomous when performing a task. This increase in autonomy requires the UAVs to have a dependable link between them to exchange crucial information like current position and speed. These messages are transmitted to avoid collisions and perform missions efficiently. The communication between UAVs depends on several factors like the used telemetry device, distance between the UAVs, speed of the UAVs, and application environment. Hence, an UAV designer must analyze the reliability of the communication based on the desired application environment and necessary communication components in the UAV.
Faults can also propagate in UAV components built using the FPGA technology when they are placed in harsh radiation environments like radiation monitoring. These errors can lead to complications in the operation of an UAV communication component, and hence, FPGAs require techniques like blind scrubbing to mitigate these faults. The availability of the communication component can be impacted when using this mitigation approach. Therefore, investigating the optimal configuration to maintain high and consistent availability is crucial.
This thesis presents a methodology to perform high-level dependability analysis for UAV communication protocols using statistical model checking. First, we evaluate the reliability of a point-to-point UAV communication using the UAV-UAV framework. The main objective of this framework is to investigate the link reliability between UAVs based on the specifications of the telemetry device and the availability of the communication components. To accomplish this, we propose models to emulate the behavior of two UAVs in air, the condition of the transmitter and receiver, and the data exchange phase between two UAVs. Then, we analyze the availability of an UAV communication module in a harsh radiation environment using blind scrubbing as a mitigation approach. The peak availability of UAV-UAV and UAV-GCS communication components is investigated through the UAV-UAV and UAV-GCS frameworks. The two frameworks utilize the SEU rate computed from the RTL code of the communication component design. Then, implement crucial features like scrubbing interval and scrub time in the transmitter and receiver modules to find the optimal scrubbing interval when the UAV communications with other UAVs or the GCS. Finally, the effect of these faults and limitations of blind scrubbing is also investigated in our work
Sonorous Remnants of the Past: The Phonograph and the Making of Mexican Aural Modernity, 1878-1913
Get PDFSince its invention in 1877, the phonograph produced a torrent of speculation about its mechanism, capable of collecting and preserving the sounds that seemed lost forever. For the members of the Mexico’s industrial and political elites, this novel technology reinforced principles of modernization, cosmopolitanism, and progress that they sought to achieve in the country's capital.
This thesis turns to the reception of the phonograph in Mexico City between 1878 and 1913 by examining how the new recording technology altered the aural texture of Mexico City, in the process transforming both auditory and cultural practices. How did the residents of Mexico City contest and reconfigure the user protocols and presumed meanings that companies from the Global North had developed for the phonograph in the late nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries? What impact did the phonograph have on the reconfiguration of social and spatial listening practices in Mexico City? What, finally, can an emerging Mexican aural modernity tell us about the active adaptation of the talking machine to the social and economic practices of the urban poor between 1870 and 1913?
As this study posits, the development of sound technology in Mexico between 1878 and 1913 did not, by itself, usher in an era of modern aurality. Rather, a Mexican aural modernity emerged from the aural practices and embodied knowledge with which members of the lettered elites, middle- and working-class inhabitants, petty entrepreneurs and musicians approached the phonograph. The meanings of this new technology were shaped by local ontologies of listening which refined the concept of usage of imported mechanical production of sound in a living act of syncretism with local aural expressions. Ostensibly modern, this emerging twentieth-century Mexican soundscape carried traditional acoustic dimensions; etched into it were the vocalities of indigenous, Afro-descended, and mestizo peoples. Sonorous Remnants of the Past thus contributes to the study of aurality and sound recording in the Global South by critically examining the role of technological transmission and its interaction with social and cultural dynamics that then shaped its innovation, meaning, and use
Postmarginality: Ethical Relationality of Theatre Rehearsal Practice
Get PDFPostmarginality: Ethical Relationality of Theatre Rehearsal Practice
Peter Farbridge
As debates about the under-representation of marginalized communities grow in North America, identity-centred perspectives have had a polarizing effect on cultural relations (Preciado; Couturier). In the Canadian theatre community, the ideals of artistic freedom in theatre creation conflict with the need to achieve meaningful progress in Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI), and the results have proven painful for different communities (Gilbert; Martelly; Aguirre). New communication tools are required in theatre rehearsal practice to help negotiate between the welcome increase in the political representation and agency of marginalized artists and the ongoing need for creative liberty. With a cohort of ethnoculturally-diverse participants, I devised a one-hour performative inquiry (Fels) from excerpts of a written play and devised solo work from the participants. The objectives of the inquiry were threefold: (1) to explore how social norms driven by a ‘coloniality of power’ (Quijano and Ennis) manifest in the rehearsal process; (2) to examine if a posture of ethical relationality (Donald) can disrupt these social norms and lead to the rhizomatic connections of Tout-monde (Glissant) and Third Space (Donald; Ermine; Bhabha; Turnbull), and; finally (3) to evaluate if the psychophysical nature of theatre practice (Zarrilli) facilitates pathways towards intersubjectivity (Fuchs and Koch), empathy (Thompson), and generative dialogue (Scharmer). This project suggests that ethical relationality in theatre rehearsal practice would require less emphasis on hard-coded ethical approaches and embrace the dynamic, shifting nature of relationality in a way that generates spontaneous human agency and preserves the creative spirit of theatre practice
Comprehensive study of non-synoptic wind effects on buildings
Get PDFThe present study examines wind loads on flat roof low-rise buildings under the effect of the simulated wind speed profile of the downburst phenomena. Examination of buildings is necessary since very few studies have examined non-synoptic winds. Indeed, non-synoptic winds have not been considered in the wind provisions of codes and standards. As a result, the interaction between wind and buildings under these phenomena should be investigated as in the case for the assessment of current well-known Atmospheric Boundary Layer (ABL) winds.
Many trials have been carried out at the wind tunnel of Concordia University to simulate the downburst phenomena. Different configurations have been tried to simulate wind speed profile close to the available target full-scale data. The produced wind speed profile and turbulence intensity are presented in terms of comparisons among the target profile, the ABL profile and downbursts profiles of previous studies.
The size of roof pressure zones and the magnitude of pressure coefficients on flat roofs of low-rise buildings have been examined experimentally in the wind tunnel of Concordia University. Two building models were constructed at a length scale of 1:400 with identical plan dimensions (60 m x 60 m) and two building heights (10 m and 20 m). The models were tested for 7 wind directions: 0°, 15°, 30°, 45°, 60°, 75° and 90°. The pressure measurement results have been presented in terms of contours of enveloped local pressure coefficients. The results of the current study have been compared with those of ABL (same model dimensions) and downburst of previous studies.
It was found that the produced downburst wind speed profile of the current study agrees well with the target full scale data. The velocity increases at a low height and decreases going upwards.
The results of the present study show that the wind direction plays a main role in the pressure coefficient distributions, the most critical wind direction is different for the roof corner and the roof edge. In addition, it was found that the higher building heights experience higher wind loads
Quietly, Loving Everyone: Early Stories
Get PDFThe stories in my thesis collection, Quietly, Loving Everyone: Early Stories, explore characters at the beginning, middle, and end of relationships; with lovers, friends, family, and themselves. My collection explores a balance between the narrative arc of minimalist fiction with the content of existential-humanist stories, while also blending earnestness with humour. These stories raise questions about the growing concern with the Anthropocene, the shroud of mystery surrounding chronic illness, the rising rate of suicide, and modes of infidelity among polyamory and hook-up culture. In a mode that occasionally borders on the metafictional, this collection explores the potential of narrative, of how it can both shield us from reality, and shape it too.
In “Ulcers and Auras,” the protagonist, Purdy O’Connor, reimagines the grieving process and reconciles how little is known about autoimmune diseases with his recent diagnoses, all while daydreaming of a platoon of ulcers taking over the city of Montreal. In “Hotel Viviane,” the titular protagonist takes a road trip with her older sister to visit Race Point Lighthouse, then years later tries to make sense of her sister’s sudden suicide. Underlying all these stories is a sense that something imminent and foreboding is around the corner; yet I hope to create a respite for my readers with moments of levity and keen observation. Despite their flaws, shortcomings, and grievances, you may still come to quietly love these characters
Creativity, Adaptability, Transition: Advancing Sustainable Development in the Built Environment through Transdisciplinary Architectural Design
Get PDFThe link between creativity, design thinking, and interdisciplinarity has been explored by Darbellay
et al. (2017). They proposed that the three dimensions are not contradictory, but instead, they form triadicfeedback loops that cannot be resolved in a unified synthesis. This triadic model underscores that, in fact,
the creative, interdisciplinary (or transdisciplinary) design thinking is an outcome of dialectic, or even
dialogical (Lybeck, 2010), processes among disciplines, stakeholders, the problem at hand, and the variety
of possible design solutions. Harvey (2014) proposes that this type of creative synthesis can only generate
breakthrough ideas if it integrates multiple understandings for the same problem. Specifically, in Harvey’s
(2014) model, breakthrough ideas require a context where ideas are enacted, similarities are built upon, and
collective attention is secured – and it is only through a sort of reflection in action (Schön, 1984) that
creative synthesis can generate exemplars that are iteratively improved until breakthrough.
With global population growth and urbanization trends rising (Department of Economic and Social Affairs
(Population Division), 2017; United Nations - Department of Economic and Social Affairs Population
Division, 2018), it is now imperative that we move towards a state of creative sustainability in the built
environment. The publication of the 2030 Agenda and the sustainable development goals (SDGs) (United
Nations, 2015) has signalled a new course for practitioners, scholars, and designers by institutionalizing a
more comprehensive understanding of sustainable development, which is supported by clear targets and
indicators (Pedersen, 2018). While the SDGs are global in scope, their application requires action to be
taken on individual project levels, including building projects, on the local scale (T. Walker & Goubran,
2020). Most importantly, the SDGs enabled sustainability action to remain reliant on the interpretation of
the problems, along with the framing of the design problem (Goubran & Cucuzzella, 2019). Thus, it can be
argued that the SDGs have reframed the sustainable built environment challenge as a complex design
problem, open for interpretation, judgment, and theorization and leading to multiple solutions and
innovations (Nelson & Stolterman, 2012), that requires the synthesis of knowledge between a multitude of
disciplines (Kroes et al., 2008).
In this paper, we argue that architecture, as a field of research and practice, is both inductive and inclusive
of the creative transdisciplinary approaches needed to tackle sustainable development challenges in the
built environment (Goubran, 2018). The paper presents a theoretical development, followed by a synthesis
supported by published case studies. In essence, the paper capitalizes on the value of architecture as a transdisciplinary field that allows for transformative sustainable practices within the building and
construction industries. Thus, it establishes a scheme where architectural design, as a transdisciplinary field,
is an inclusive thinking process that has the potential to push boundaries of “just building” to “building
for”