This dissertation consists of two essays dealing with the trends in industrial agglomeration and changes in the influence of micro-determinants of agglomeration due to globalization in the U.S. manufacturing agglomeration and the second essay discusses the impact of globalization on the micro-determinants of agglomeration. The first essay explores recent agglomeration trends in the U.S. manufacturing industries between 1988 and 2003 using employment and employment-based agglomeration measures such as Ellison-Glaeser Index and Gini index, and using Herfindahl index as a measure of industrial concentration due to scale economies. Between 1988 and 2003, forty two states lost and eight states gained manufacturing employment with a net loss of more than 5.13 million jobs nationwide. Middle Atlantic, New England, and South Atlantic are the three divisions with highest drops in manufacturing employment with Middle Atlantic division’s loss of 45 percent jobs, New England division’s loss of 44 percent and South Atlantic division’s loss of 28 percent of jobs in the manufacturing industries. Three states that experienced the most decrease in manufacturing jobs in 2003 measured in percent of their 1988 employment are New Jersey (51 percent), New York (51 percent), and Connecticut (48 percent). Textile and apparel industries, metal related industries and leather and leather goods industries etc. are among the industries that experienced relatively higher attrition in manufacturing jobs in 2003. Three trends are apparent. First, employment has declined across regions, years and industries. Second, the industries that were among the most agglomerated industries in 1988 have generally displayed decrease in agglomeration indices (both in terms of EGI and Gini measures) in later years including 2003. This trend may imply that for these industries, attrition of manufacturing employment in later years mainly occurred from the counties with relatively higher share of employment in the concerned industries in 1988. Third, industries that are found to be least agglomerated in 1988 have often displayed increase in agglomeration in later years including 2003. This trend may imply that for these industries, attrition of manufacturing employment in 2003. This trend may imply that for these industries, attrition of manufacturing employment in 2003 mainly occurred from the counties with lower employment share of the concerned industries in 1988. Similar trends are observed for the Herfindahl indices. Changes in the Herfindahl indices may be due to changes in traditional scale economies caused by advancements in the ICTs. The second essay explores the differential impacts of technological advancements and trade liberalization on the three Marshallian determinants of industrial agglomeration for U.S. manufacturing industries. These three micro-determinants of agglomeration are goods pooling (input sharing), labor pooling (availability of labor), and idea pooling (knowledge spillover). The impact of decrease in employment on industrial agglomeration is ambiguous, and warrants empirical investigation. An index of agglomeration is regressed on proxies for three micro-determinants of agglomeration, after controlling for transportation costs, natural advantage and other state level economic variables, and after inclusion of interaction variables for technological advancement and trade liberalization. The regression results for both the OLS and FE specifications are consistent with the hypothesis that there was a structural change in the effect of the micro-determinants of industrial agglomeration in the U.S. manufacturing industries beginning in 1995. In the second essay, we decompose the impact of globalization on three micro-determinants of agglomeration into two separate segments: impact of technological advancements and impact of trade liberalization. The findings are partially consistent with the hypothesis that globalization has attenuated the effect of micro-determinants of agglomeration as the influence of two out of three micro-determinants of agglomeration diminished in the post-1995 years relative to their pre-1995 levels. For example, in the post 1995 period in our base line model, influence of labor pooling is diminished by about 4 percent and influence of idea pooling has attenuated by about 1 percent from their pre-1995 levels. Contrary to our hypothesis, we find that the influence of goods pooling has increased as a micro-determinant of agglomeration in the post-1995 years relative to its pre-1995 levels. The attenuation in influence for labor pooling and increase in influence of goods pooling in the post-1995 period are statistically significant when attenuation of influence of idea pooling is not statistically significant. Also, when we decompose the total effect of globalization, we find the impact of technology to be greater than that of international trade. The key findings are robust to alternative specifications of the econometric model, particularly to changes in the proxies used for LP.

In this research, two-stage hydrotreating of bitumen-derived light gas oil (LGO) from Athabasca oil sands was studied. The objective was to catalytically upgrade the LGO by reducing the aromatics content and enhancing the cetane content via inter-stage removal of hydrogen sulfide. The impact of hydrogen sulfide inhibition on aromatics hydrogenation (HDA), hydrodenitrogenation (HDN) and hydrodesulfirization (HDS) activities was investigated. Experiments for this study were carried out in a trickle-bed reactor loaded with commercial NiMo/Al2O3 and lab-prepared NiW/Al2O3 in the stage I and stage II reactors, respectively. Temperature was varied from 350 to 390 oC at the optimum LHSV and pressure conditions of 0.6 h-1 and 11.0 MPa, respectively. The results from two-stage process showed significant improvement in HDA, cetane rating and HDS activities compared to the single-stage process after the inter-stage removal of hydrogen sulfide. Hence, the presence of hydrogen sulfide in the reaction retarded both the HDA and HDS processes in the single-stage operation. Negligible hydrogen sulfide inhibition was however, observed in the HDN process. <p>Prior to the two-stage hydrotreating study, single-stage hydrotreating reactions were carried out over commercial NiMo/Al2O3 catalyst to determine the optimum operating conditions for maximizing hydrogenation of aromatics. A statistical approach via the Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) technique was used to develop regression models for predicting the conversion of aromatics, sulfur and nitrogen in the LGO feed. Experiments were performed at the following operating conditions: temperature (340-390 oC); pressure (6.9-12.4 MPa) and liquid hourly space velocity, LHSV (0.5-2.0 h-1). Hydrogen-to-oil ratio was maintained constant at 550 ml/ml. The results showed that the two-level interaction between temperature and pressure was the only significant interaction parameter affecting HDA while interaction between temperature and LHSV was the most important parameter affecting both HDS and HDN activities. A maximum 63 % HDA was obtained at 379 oC, 11.0 MPa and 0.6 h-1. Experiments with NiW/Al2O3 were also performed in a single-stage reactor with LGO blend feedstock by varying temperature from 340-390 oC at the optimum pressure and space velocity of 11.0 MPa and 0.6 h-1, respectively. The following order of ease of hydrogenation was observed: poly- > di- >> monoaromatics. The order of ease of hydrogenation in other LGO feedstocks (atmospheric light gas oil, ALGO; hydrocrack light gas oil, HLGO; and vacuum light gas oil, VLGO) was studied and found to follow the order: VLGO > ALHO > HLGO. Studies on mild hydrocracking (MHC) in the gas oil feedstocks showed a net increase in gasoline with a corresponding decrease in diesel with increasing temperature. <p>Both the single and two-stage HDA and HDS kinetics were modeled using Langmuir-Hinshelwood rate equations. These models predicted the experimental data with reasonable accuracy. The degree of conversion of the gas oil fractions in ALGO, HLGO and VLGO via mild hydrocracking was best described by a pseudo-first order kinetic model based on a parallel conversion scheme.

In dogs, nutrition has been implicated in the development of numerous chronic diseases, including obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Health claims for dog food are not regulated in Canada, thus many claims do not have a scientific basis. The development of a pet food with proven health benefits is important to pet owners as well as the pet food industry. The purpose of this study was to develop a low glycemic canine diet that will provide health benefits for dogs, namely decreased serum insulin and glucose concentrations, reduced food intake and weight gain, and improved cardiovascular health. To achieve this objective, four studies were performed. These studies examined the acute and longer term health effects of feeding unprocessed as well as extruded carbohydrate sources as both single ingredients and in complete dog diets. In addition, metabolic and cardiovascular health parameters were measured in dogs when they were lean, obese and after weight loss. Post-prandial serum glucose and insulin responses were used to determine glycemic index of the carbohydrate sources and to evaluate glucose tolerance. Flow-mediated dilation, echocardiography and blood pressure were used to assess cardiovascular health. Computed tomography was performed to measure body fat amount and distribution. Leptin, adiponectin and C-reactive protein were also analyzed. The results of these studies found that peas had a lower glycemic index compared to barley and rice, but that after extrusion, the glycemic index of the pea diet was not different than the rice diet. Post-prandial hyperglycemia in dogs was associated with acute changes in endothelial function which may be related to increased methylglyoxal concentrations. However, several negative health effects were observed in dogs after only 12 weeks of obesity and weight loss reversed some, but not all, of these changes. The pea-based diet reduced post-prandial insulin response in obese dogs after 12 weeks on the diet even though no changes were observed in body fat amount or distribution. In conclusion, this research supports the usefulness of peas as an ingredient in canine diets and provides valuable data for the pet food and pulse industries, as well as for veterinarians and pet owners.

The S&P 500 Index is a leading indicator of U.S. equities and is meant to reflect the risk and return on the U.S. stock market. Many derivatives based on the S&P 500 are available to investors. The S&P 500 Futures of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and the S&P 500 Index Options of the Chicago Board Options Exchange are both actively traded. My thesis argues that the S&P 500 Index is only a summary statistic designed to reflect the evolution of the stock market. It is not the value of a self-financed tradable portfolio, and its modifications do not coincide with changes of the value of any mimicking portfolio, due to the particular way the S&P 500 Index is computed and maintained. Therefore, the Spot-Futures Parity and the Put-Call Parity do not hold for the S&P 500 Index and its derivatives. Furthermore, its derivatives cannot be priced by using the standard option pricing models, which assume that the underlying asset is tradable. Chapter One analyzes why the S&P 500 Index does not represent the value of a self-financed tradable portfolio and why it cannot be replaced by the value of a tracker such as the SPDR. In particular, we show that the nonlinear and extreme risk dynamics of the SPDR and of the S&P 500 Index are very different. Chapter Two provides empirical evidence that the non-tradability of the S&P 500 Index can explain the Put-Call Parity deviations. Even after controlling for the liquidity risk of the options, we find that the Put-Call Parity implied dividends depend significantly on the option strike. In Chapter Three, we develop an affine multi-factor model to price coherently various derivatives such as forwards and futures written on the S&P 500 Index, and European put and call options written on the S&P 500 Index and on the S&P 500 futures. We consider the cases when the underlying asset is self-financed and tradable and when it is not, and show the difference between them. When the underlying asset is self-financed and tradable, an additional arbitrage condition has to be introduced and implies additional parameter restrictions.

Hedge funds are private investment funds characterized by unconventional strategies. This thesis employed multi-factor CAPM to evaluate the performance, or manager skill of hedge funds investment segments by using CSFB/Tremont Hedge Fund Indices from January 1994 to September 2005. The performance evaluation is based on the concept of ¡°Jansen¡¯s alpha¡±, which is estimated by applying Generalized Method of Moment. The finding is that hedge funds industry in general displayed the ability to outperform market proxy. Global Macro shows the strongest manager skill, followed by Event Driven, Equity Market Neutral and Long/Short Equity. This thesis also investigates the consistency of hedge funds performance over market environment. It was discovered that the hedge funds industry in general and all the sub-category investment segments except Convertibly Arbitrage, Emerging Market and Fix income Arbitrage displayed the ability to cushion the impact of financial shocks.

In this research, two-stage hydrotreating of bitumen-derived light gas oil (LGO) from Athabasca oil sands was studied. The objective was to catalytically upgrade the LGO by reducing the aromatics content and enhancing the cetane content via inter-stage removal of hydrogen sulfide. The impact of hydrogen sulfide inhibition on aromatics hydrogenation (HDA), hydrodenitrogenation (HDN) and hydrodesulfirization (HDS) activities was investigated. Experiments for this study were carried out in a trickle-bed reactor loaded with commercial NiMo/Al2O3 and lab-prepared NiW/Al2O3 in the stage I and stage II reactors, respectively. Temperature was varied from 350 to 390 oC at the optimum LHSV and pressure conditions of 0.6 h-1 and 11.0 MPa, respectively. The results from two-stage process showed significant improvement in HDA, cetane rating and HDS activities compared to the single-stage process after the inter-stage removal of hydrogen sulfide. Hence, the presence of hydrogen sulfide in the reaction retarded both the HDA and HDS processes in the single-stage operation. Negligible hydrogen sulfide inhibition was however, observed in the HDN process. <p>Prior to the two-stage hydrotreating study, single-stage hydrotreating reactions were carried out over commercial NiMo/Al2O3 catalyst to determine the optimum operating conditions for maximizing hydrogenation of aromatics. A statistical approach via the Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) technique was used to develop regression models for predicting the conversion of aromatics, sulfur and nitrogen in the LGO feed. Experiments were performed at the following operating conditions: temperature (340-390 oC); pressure (6.9-12.4 MPa) and liquid hourly space velocity, LHSV (0.5-2.0 h-1). Hydrogen-to-oil ratio was maintained constant at 550 ml/ml. The results showed that the two-level interaction between temperature and pressure was the only significant interaction parameter affecting HDA while interaction between temperature and LHSV was the most important parameter affecting both HDS and HDN activities. A maximum 63 % HDA was obtained at 379 oC, 11.0 MPa and 0.6 h-1. Experiments with NiW/Al2O3 were also performed in a single-stage reactor with LGO blend feedstock by varying temperature from 340-390 oC at the optimum pressure and space velocity of 11.0 MPa and 0.6 h-1, respectively. The following order of ease of hydrogenation was observed: poly- > di- >> monoaromatics. The order of ease of hydrogenation in other LGO feedstocks (atmospheric light gas oil, ALGO; hydrocrack light gas oil, HLGO; and vacuum light gas oil, VLGO) was studied and found to follow the order: VLGO > ALHO > HLGO. Studies on mild hydrocracking (MHC) in the gas oil feedstocks showed a net increase in gasoline with a corresponding decrease in diesel with increasing temperature. <p>Both the single and two-stage HDA and HDS kinetics were modeled using Langmuir-Hinshelwood rate equations. These models predicted the experimental data with reasonable accuracy. The degree of conversion of the gas oil fractions in ALGO, HLGO and VLGO via mild hydrocracking was best described by a pseudo-first order kinetic model based on a parallel conversion scheme.

The purpose of this thesis is to  examine the education level and its role on income distribution in the member states of the European Union (EU). The data are assembled given the period between 2005 and 2009 with a cross- country data analysis. Knight &amp; Sabot argue that high schooling level narrows income distribution, due to "wage compression". Our analysis denotes that education is an important contributor to changes in income distribution. Higher educational levels usually refer to more equal distribution, and vice versa. Also, welfare regimes role on distribution of income is an important factor. The results indicate that higher education leads o narrower income distribution between the rich and poor. It is significant without taking into account the socialdemocratic welfare regimes. This can be explained by the benefits reccieved by the unemployed citizens, whicch increase the consumption of the quartile with lower average income level. Yet, education increases the income level of the poor and decreases the income level of the higher income quartile due to the availability of more specialized labor, the "wage compression" effecct.

In this study, DLC thin films were electrodeposited at low DC potential using a mixture of acetic acid and DI water with different ratio. The parameters of DLC thin film deposition include the DC potential, deposition temperature, concentration of electrolyte solution, were correlated to the growth mechanism. The amount of nitrogen incorporated into DLC thin films were varied with the deposited temperature. The characteristics of DLC films by various measurements such as : the I-t curves of DLC film growth, SEM, AFM, FTIR, XPS, Raman and N&K spectroscopy, were investigated in detail. Experimental results showed that the surface roughness decreased, and sp3/sp2+sp3 value of DLC increased with the deposition temperature and deposition time. Optical properties showed that the refractive index, optical energy gap increased with the deposition temperature. For SEM cross-section measurement, it showed that the thickness of DLC films decreased due to the erosion process. However, the N-DLC films become graphitization. According to our study, we find that the surface morphology of the N-DLC films are homogeneous and compact. However, with the increase of the deposition temperature, the ratio of sp3-C-N bonds increase and the ratio of sp2-C-C bonds decrease, and these lead to the increase of refractive index and optical energy gap.

This thesis is an investment strategy that seeks to profit from increases in market volatility. There have been several boom and bust cycles during the past fifteen years and volatility is projected to continue forward as a result of global asset misallocation and challenges stemming from debt liquidity. Volatility is measured by the Chicago Board of Options Exchange VIX volatility index. A proposed mean reversion strategy uses the VIX as a contrarian indicator of hope and fear to time decisions at extreme levels that have been determined through statistical analysis. This thesis found through back testing that market timing is possible at extreme levels of fear but is less reliable during extreme levels of hope and complacency. This strategy that utilizes measures of sentiment does however outperform the general market despite being active only five months on average per year. By synthesizing a broad range of fundamental, technical, and behavioral research, this thesis develops a unique contribution and practical set of market trading guidelines. The significance of these findings will help the individual investor to make better decisions during times of increased volatility.

The dissertation studies the relationship among durable goods, price indexes and monetary policy in two sticky-price models with durable goods. One is a one-sector model with only durable goods and the other is a two-sector model with durable and non-durable goods. In the models with durable goods, the COLI (Cost of Living Index) and the PPI (Producer Price Index) identical to the CPI (Consumer Price Index) measured by the acquisitions approach are distinguished, and the COLI/PPI ratio plays an important rule in monetary policy transmission. The welfare function based on the household utility can be represented by a quadratic function of the quasi-differenced durables-stock gaps and the PPI inflation rates. In the one-sector model, the optimal policy maximizing welfare is to keep the (acquisition) price and the output gap at a constant rate which does not depend on the durability of consumption goods. In the two-sector model with sticky prices, the central bank has only one policy instrument, so it cannot cope with distortions in both sectors. Simulation results show that the PPI is an adequate price index for monetary policy and that a policy of targeting core inflation constructed by putting more weight on prices in the sector producing more durable goods is near optimal.