Concordia University

About: Concordia University is a education organization based out in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Control theory & Population. The organization has 13565 authors who have published 31084 publications receiving 783525 citations. The organization is also known as: Sir George Williams University & Loyola College, Montreal.

Shiftwork and department‐type related to job stress, work attitudes and behavioral intentions: A study of nurses

Abstract: Summary The present study examined the relationship of shiftwork and department-type with employees' job stress, stressors, work attitudes and behavioral intention. Data were collected by means of a structured questionnaire from nurses (N= 1148) working in eight hospitals in a large, metropolitan city in eastern Canada. One-way ANOVA, MANOVA and two-way ANOVA were used to analyze data. Results generally support the prediction that nurses working on fixed shifts were better off than nurses working on rotating shifts in terms of the dependent variables of the present study. The prediction that nurses working in non-intensive care departments were better off than nurses working in intensive care departments received mixed support at best. A few interaction effects of shiftwork x department-type on dependent variables were also noted. The impact of socio-demographic variables - age, marital status, cultural background (English- versus French-speaking) on the above relationships were also analyzed. Results are discussed in light of the previous empirical evidence on shiftwork and department-type.

Impairing the useful field of view in natural scenes: Tunnel vision versus general interference

Abstract: A fundamental issue in visual attention is the relationship between the useful field of view (UFOV), the region of visual space where information is encoded within a single fixation, and eccentricity. A common assumption is that impairing attentional resources reduces the size of the UFOV (i.e., tunnel vision). However, most research has not accounted for eccentricity-dependent changes in spatial resolution, potentially conflating fixed visual properties with flexible changes in visual attention. Williams (1988, 1989) argued that foveal loads are necessary to reduce the size of the UFOV, producing tunnel vision. Without a foveal load, it is argued that the attentional decrement is constant across the visual field (i.e., general interference). However, other research asserts that auditory working memory (WM) loads produce tunnel vision. To date, foveal versus auditory WM loads have not been compared to determine if they differentially change the size of the UFOV. In two experiments, we tested the effects of a foveal (rotated L vs. T discrimination) task and an auditory WM (N-back) task on an extrafoveal (Gabor) discrimination task. Gabor patches were scaled for size and processing time to produce equal performance across the visual field under single-task conditions, thus removing the confound of eccentricity-dependent differences in visual sensitivity. The results showed that although both foveal and auditory loads reduced Gabor orientation sensitivity, only the foveal load interacted with retinal eccentricity to produce tunnel vision, clearly demonstrating task-specific changes to the form of the UFOV. This has theoretical implications for understanding the UFOV.

The effect of brand design on brand gender perceptions and brand preference

Abstract: Purpose – This research aims to examine the impact of brand design elements (logo shape, brand name, type font and color) on brand masculinity and femininity perceptions, consumer preferences and brand equity. Design/methodology/approach – This research empirically tests the relation between brand design elements, brand masculinity and femininity and brand preferences/equity in four studies involving fictitious and real brands. Findings – Brand design elements consistently influenced brand masculinity and femininity perceptions. These, in turn, significantly related to consumer preferences and brand equity. Brand masculinity and femininity perceptions successfully predicted brand equity above and beyond other brand personality dimensions. Research limitations/implications – Although this research used a wide range of brand design elements, the interactive effects of various design elements warrant further research. Practical implications – This research demonstrates how markers of masculinity and feminini...

Aerial Images-Based Forest Fire Detection for Firefighting Using Optical Remote Sensing Techniques and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

Abstract: Due to their fast response capability, low cost and without danger to personnel safety since there is no human pilot on-board, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) with vision-based systems have great potential for monitoring and detecting forest fires. This paper proposes a novel forest fire detection method using both color and motion features for processing images captured from the camera mounted on a UAV which is moving during the whole mission period. First, a color-based fire detection algorithm with light computational demand is designed to extract fire-colored pixels as fire candidate regions by making use of chromatic feature of fire and obtaining fire candidate regions for further analysis. As the pose variations and low-frequency vibrations of UAV cause all objects and background in the images are moving, it is challenging to identify fires defending on a single motion based method. Two types of optical flow algorithms, a classical optical flow algorithm and an optimal mass transport optical flow algorithm, are then combined to compute motion vectors of the fire candidate regions. Fires are thereby expected to be distinguished from other fire analogues based on their motion features. Several groups of experiments are conducted to validate that the proposed method can effectively extract and track fire pixels in aerial video sequences. The good performance is anticipated to significantly improve the accuracy of forest fire detection and reduce false alarm rates without increasing much computation efforts.