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The context of globalization facilitates the construction of social relations that transcend national boundaries. Based on the argument that diaspora provides a framework for understanding immigration processes within the dynamics of globalization, this paper explores the ways diaspora extends our understanding of immigrant communities. As a type of community, diaspora communities illustrate three-way relationships that include the homeland or country of origin, the host society or country of residence, and the larger diaspora community that extends over a number of nation-states. In this paper, I take the Lebanese diaspora in New York, Montreal, and Paris to illustrate that diaspora illuminates the understanding of global social networks and ties that are related to immigrant groups. Following a brief theoretical discussion of diaspora, this paper focuses on the analysis of Lebanese immigrant forms of attachment. Based on in-depth interviews and participant observation in three cities, this paper illustrates the forms of solidarity shared by Lebanese immigrants. First, the multiple forms of belonging that Lebanese immigrants have ? to their homeland, host society, and larger diaspora ? emphasize that immigrants share ?vertical connections? that exist simultaneously. The paper follows to illustrate the forms of global solidarity that members of the Lebanese immigrant community seek and maintain. Given their experience with migration, Lebanese immigrants believe that they are more capable of bridging the particular interests that are based on national or ethnic attachments and the universal ones that are not tied to a territory or a nation-state. That is, as immigrants consciously discard traditional forms of attachments to the homeland, they are propelled to advance universal legal and civil causes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines some of the more striking strategies put into play by individuals as they negotiate complex claims on their personal cultural identities in Anglophone and Allophone Montreal in Quebec. In the first part of the paper the author briefly considers how one's personal cultural identity may be experienced as a process involving multiple elements and layers, and embodying possible contradictions. Then, an analytical discussion of specific strategies used by participants to manage such identity issues is presented. Finally, the impact of such strategies on our overall understanding of identity will be discussed.

Smart freight platforms are emerging as a key component of the new sustainable and smart mobility paradigm. These platforms enable efficient and flexible matching of freight demand and supply, reducing costs and environmental impacts. However, the matching process is subject to various uncertainties, such as weather, traffic, and truck failures, which can affect the performance and reliability of the platform and provided services. In this study, we develop a two-stage stochastic optimization model for matching smart freight platform that considers these uncertainties. The model aims to maximize the matching rate of the platform while satisfying the service level requirements of the customers and minimizing the environmental impacts considering the consolidation. We apply the model to the case of Montreal, Canada, using a simulated data set that reflects the characteristics of the city’s freight market. The results show that the model can improve the matching quality and robustness of the platform under different scenarios of uncertainty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It has become common practice for audience members to use social media to connect, share, and communicate with each other during events (e.g., sport events, elections, award ceremonies). But how is this backchannel used during a musical event and what does it say about how people engage with the music and the artists performing it? In this paper, we present the result of a study of a dataset composed of 31,140 tweets posted during and around the 10th edition of Osheaga, an important music festival held annually in Montreal. A combination of statistics and qualitative content analysis is used to examine the postings. This allows us to describe the content of these postings (i.e., topics, shared media), the type of message being shared (i.e., opinion, expression, information), and who the authors of these tweets are. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper will use the quantitative and qualitative relational data collected from 50 public and private organizations delivering security in the city of Montreal to illustrate the main features of this specific security network. After having described the structure of the network, and in particular its high levels of density and connectivity, the paper will focus on the reasons behind these structural features. In a context of high uncertainty, security managers rely on their ties with other security entrepreneurs to reduce their exposure to risk and to ensure that they can mobilize a pool of security knowledge and resources at very short notices and minimum costs. Professional trade associations play the role of honest brokers to facilitate the diffusion of security expertise and facilitate the assessment of prospective partners' reputations. A privileged access to the public police is also paramount, but not all security nodes can claim such a privileged access. The paper will look at the attributes and relational practices that determine a higher or lower status in the security network, and will also examine the strategies deployed by various nodes in order to maintain or reach a more advantageous (ie. central) position. This knowledge should be helpful in understanding how security networks operate and how public security policies could be designed in order to leverage their resources, either through incentives or regulations. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We share our experience over the last 10 years for finding, deploying and evaluating software engineering (SE) technologies in an undergraduate program at the E' TS in Montreal, Canada. We identify challenges and propose strategies to integrate technologies into an SE curriculum. We demonstrate how technologies are integrated throughout our program, and provide details of the integration in two specific courses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A propensity score is designed to create balance between treated and untreated individuals on potentially confounding variables included in the score. Group-based trajectory modeling is designed to identify clusters of individuals following similar trajectories for some behavior or outcome. These clusters can be thought of as latent strata in the data. One of the most useful products of the group-based trajectory model is each individual's posterior probability of membership in each trajectory group. In this analysis we examine the degree to which inclusion of the posterior probabilities improves balance on the longitudinal sequence of outcomes they are clustering above and beyond the inclusion in the propensity score. We also test whether the inclusion of the posterior probabilities improves balance on other potential confounders. Our analysis is based on data from a large longitudinal study of males from Montreal, CA. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Citizens of a rough Montreal neighbourhood complained that drugs addicts and troublesome behaviour prevented them from taking advantage of the park sites during the summer. A municipal initiative enrolled students during the summer, gave them a uniform, and instructed them to patrol all park sites of the neighbourhood by bicycle (N=66). Because there was no data on affluence and disorderly incidents, students were asked to fill out a park-specific observation sheet twice a day throughout the summer. In order to assess the impact of these patrols on affluence and rates of disorder, we used a reversal design and instructed patrollers to continue their daily observations but to cease treatment by removing their uniforms (and making themselves invisible). Because rates of unruly behaviour varied across parks, time of day, day of week and a variety of other factors, we assessed the impact of civilian patrols by combining observations over time and across places (a pooled time series regression analysis). The experiment implemented in 2002 was repeated in 2003. Findings of both impact assessments are presented and discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the 1990s, homelessness increased considerably in Montreal, particularly amongst youths. Such change was met with a similar rise in penal repression of the homeless population. This study focuses on how the penal system became a key mechanism in managing homelessness in Montreal. Between 1993 and 2003, 23 000 tickets and fines were given to people who used social resources for the homeless. An analyses of these fines and the penal process that followed reveals the extensive social, economic, and judicial burden that confront not only homeless people, but also the wider society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Within North America, Quebec is a French-language society with its own distinct culture. Montreal is a large multi-cultural city and the University bearing the city's name is a large francophone institution. How do young adults living and studying in this milieu use the Internet to manage their personal lives and to sustain and develop their social networks? How is the Internet used as a resource for academic purposes? In what ways does the Internet intersect with their political and cultural practices? How are they similar or different in these respects from their fellow students in other societies? Major findings from a recent extensive survey from an international comparative study will be presented and related to the most significant contextual variables, including academic discipline and gender, and to the students' personal evaluations of their own practices. The relevance of the integrative framework will be discussed with regard to this particular group. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]