Chemical modeling has become an important subject of research in applied thermodynamics for designing, developing, optimizing and controlling of different industrial processes. In this work, a new database for successful modeling of solid-aqueous phase equilibria in specific hydrometallurgical processes was developed using the Mixed Solvent Electrolyte (MSE(H3O+)) model of the OLI Systems software. The ionic interaction parameters between dominant species in the solution were determined by fitting available binary and ternary experimental data such as mean activity, heat capacity and solubility data; then they were validated in multi-component systems. Developed model predicted the phase behaviour in ammoniacal solutions containing cobalt, nickel, copper, and zinc in the Copper Boil process. New sets of double-salt solubility data were measured and used for accuracy validation of the model. Using HSC 6.1 software linked with MSE model, the copper boil processes was simulated successfully to provide some practical recommendations for the optimum process operation.

Chemical modeling has become an important subject of research in applied thermodynamics for designing, developing, optimizing and controlling of different industrial processes. In this work, a new database for successful modeling of solid-aqueous phase equilibria in specific hydrometallurgical processes was developed using the Mixed Solvent Electrolyte (MSE(H3O+)) model of the OLI Systems software. The ionic interaction parameters between dominant species in the solution were determined by fitting available binary and ternary experimental data such as mean activity, heat capacity and solubility data; then they were validated in multi-component systems. Developed model predicted the phase behaviour in ammoniacal solutions containing cobalt, nickel, copper, and zinc in the Copper Boil process. New sets of double-salt solubility data were measured and used for accuracy validation of the model. Using HSC 6.1 software linked with MSE model, the copper boil processes was simulated successfully to provide some practical recommendations for the optimum process operation.

The global flows of foreign direct investment (FDI) to Africa have increased steadily in recent years but the research on what determines the location of these investments is scarce. Research focusing on FDI flows from small and open economies such as Sweden is even more uncommon. From the locational factors found in the OLI paradigm we developed a model that was tested on a dataset of 25 African countries over the period of 2007 to 2010. The model proved inadequate in explaining the African inward FDI flows from Sweden. However, it well explains the aggregated inward FDI flows from firms around the world to Africa. Our results implies that the locational determinants derived from the OLI paradigm are inadequate in explaining Swedish FDI flows to Africa and maybe even in explaining flows from a small and open economy to developing countries. The answer to the question of what locational determinants are important for Swedish companies investing in African countries should perhaps be sought for elsewhere.

Foreign Direct Investment is seen as a critical source of capital inflow and a stimulant of economic growth in many developing nations. It brings with it benefits such as job creation, technology and knowledge transfers just to mention a few. Thus many African countries are keen in finding ways of attracting FDI. The main objective of this paper is to empirically examine the determinants of foreign direct investment (FDI) by incorporating an econometric method based on cross-sectional data from 41 African countries over the period 2002-2007. More precisely, this research intends to answer the following question: what are the relevant determinants that promote FDI inflows in Africa? Among the several determinants of FDI, the finding suggests that market size and natural resource predominance are the main determinants of FDI into Africa.

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<p><p>The thesis examines the foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region and, in order to achieve a better understanding of how MENA economies may attract FDI, attempts to identify their possible location-specific de-terminants. The analysis is based on the results of the cross-section OLS regression meth-od. The examined empirical model is based on the eclectic theory developed by John Dun-ning and the previous empirical studies. To test the relevant location-specific determinants of FDI inflows into MENA region, eighteen countries are sampled for the period 1996-2006. The results of the regression analysis show that physical infrastructure and trade openness are significant determinants of FDI in the MENA countries.</p></p>

Arsenic (As) poses a significant water quality problem and it is a big challenge for all coal-based power plant industries worldwide. Currently most of the researches on the leaching behavior of arsenic from fly ash are based on the titration experiments. In this study a simulation method is used to study on the pH effect on the arsenic separation of coal-based power plants. Both single point and composition survey simulation of the OLI stream analyzer are used in the study. The simulation results of single point calculation indicates that for the fly ash which has high lime weight percent and equilibrium fly ash solution pH is over 11 and between 7 and 9, that is, Type C fly ash, the simulation results for equilibrium pH in fly ash solutions have great accuracy compared to actual experiment results. Based on the results obtained from single point simulation, both acid and base titrations of composition survey are simulated and the output results suggest that for the same type of fly ash, the simulation results proves the general trend of arsenic solubility in fly ash solutions. The solubility of arsenic decreases with the increase of pH value. It is also noted that at the equilibrium pH fly ash solutions, the maximum solid/liquid ratio of arsenic concentration is observed for type C fly ash. For other fly ashes which have low lime weight percent, the simulation results have discrepancy compared to actual experiment results. This work is important in offering an alternative way of analyze the reasonable output species and relative concentrations for type C fly ash in the waste water storage pond under specific pH conditions, which can be of great importance for the power plants to monitor and minimize the environment pollution in order to meet the future federal regulations.

Turkey’s strategic geographical location, the country’s unique Customs Union with the EU and its growing market potential are all factors that create market opportunities for foreign investors. However, despite the presence of necessary economic prerequisites and a diminishing number of barriers to entry, FDI in Turkey has remained quite low. Further, this area has not been covered extensively in the past and has therefore been of interest to study. The purpose of this study has been to identify the determinant factors behind Swedish firms’ investment decisions in Turkey and thus find the advantages that Turkey provides for Swedish firms. The motives and advantages form a proposal for how to best promote Turkey as an interesting market for Swedish firms interested in FDI. A list of Swedish subsidiaries in Turkey was provided by the Swedish Trade Council in Istanbul and came to represent the selected population. The firms were contacted, using both e-mail and telephone, and were requested to respond to an e-mail survey. The final response rate was 22%. The firms’ responses were then analysed together with secondary data such as general facts about Turkey as well as a business climate report about Turkey made by the Swedish Trade Council in November 2005. Regarding the firms’ ownership-specific advantages, the results showed that firm size is irrelevant to the investment decision, while research and development expenditure as well as a long international experience is a condition. Concerning Turkey’s location-specific advantages, market potential, the country’s geographic position, its labour costs and its educational level, are important determinant factors as well as the business climate and the economic climate in Turkey. Agglomeration benefits, in business areas where they exist, and the possibility to receive assistance from external actors when entering a foreign market are also important determinant factors. Furthermore, infrastructure is an important determinant factor, but not of a conclusive significance to the investment decision. In addition to the specified variables, the political situation in Turkey was cited as an important determinant factor. The cultural distance between Turkey and Sweden was the only location-specific factor that proved not to be a determinant factor at all. Conclusively, the Turkish market offers several advantages to Swedish firms wanting to engage in foreign direct investments. First, Turkey has a strategic geographic position that offers proximity to many other markets. Second, the Turkish market potential is alluring and offers opportunities of long term growth. Third, there are possibilities to receive assistance from external actors which facilitates overcoming probable obstacles that might occur when entering the Turkish market. Fourth, the process of establishing a labour force is freed from complications since labour costs are lower in Turkey than in Sweden and the access to highly educated personnel is good. Last, ongoing development in Turkey’s business and economic climate decreases the investment risk involved when entering the Turkish market.

La tesis consta de 4 proyectos: dos estudios de intervención, aleatorizados, paralelos y controlados, uno sobre los efectos de productos del cacao y otro sobre los de fibra soluble, Plantago ovata husk (Po-husk), sobre biomarcadores de enfermedad cardiovascular (ECV) en sujetos hipercolesterolémicos. El tercero es la identificación de compuestos fenólicos del aceite de oliva virgen (AOV) en plasma humano (en ayunas y en fase postprandial) y el cuarto, el desarrollo de una aplicación informática para implementar los criterios CONSORT.Los productos del cacao y Po-husk reducen las concentraciones plasmáticas de c-LDL y ejercen efectos beneficiosos sobre otros biomarcadores de ECV.Además se han detectado hasta 10 compuestos fenólicos del AOV, incluido el 3,4-DHPEA-EDA, en plasma humano postprandrial.Finalmente, la incorporación de productos del cacao o Po-husk o el AOV o su combinación a una dieta cardiosaludable se adecuará al perfil de biomarcadores de riesgo de ECV de cada paciente. / The thesis is based on 4 projects: 2 randomised, controlled, interventional studies, one of the cocoa cream products and the other of the soluble fibre (Plantago ovata husk (Po-husk) on biomarkers of CVD. Third, the virgin olive oil (VOO) phenolic compounds identification in fasting and postprandial human plasma, and fourth, designed a technology application to facilitate the implementation of criteria CONSORT statement.The cocoa cream products and Po-husk reduced in plasma LDL-c and also, had beneficial effects on other CVD biomarkers and risk factors.Also, had been detected until 10 phenolic compounds from VOO, including 3,4-DHPEA-EDA, in human postprandial plasma.Finally, applying cocoa products or Po-husk or VOO or in combination in a cardio-protective diet warrants consideration as individualised therapeutic measures based on the individual's CVD risk factor profile.

Els olis d'oliva contenen espècies fluorescents, com la vitamina E, les clorofil·les i productes d'oxidació formats degut a la seva degradació. Això fa que es pugui obtenir informació sobre la composició dels olis a partir de mesures de fluorescència. Aquesta informació es pot obtenir a partir de mesures directes, sense necessitat de realitzar cap etapa prèvia de dilució o addició de reactius. Això suposa grans avantatges respecte a altres tècniques que requereixen aquestes etapes, com les cromatogràfiques, ja que no es generen residus addicionals i es redueix el temps d'anàlisi. Tot i això les possibilitats de la fluorescència en l'anàlisi d'olis no estan molt estudiades i aquesta tècnica normalment no s'utilitza en els laboratoris de control de qualitat d'olis. L'actual instrumentació permet enregistrar un conjunt d'espectres de fluorescència a diferents longituds d'ona d'excitació en una única mesura. D'aquesta manera s'obté el que s'anomena matriu d'excitació-emissió de fluorescència. Matemàticament les matrius de fluorescència són matrius de números i s'anomenen dades de segon ordre. Els mètodes quimiomètrics que s'apliquen a les dades de segon ordre reben el nom de mètodes de tres vies, perquè les dades estan disposades en una estructura tridimensional. L'objectiu d'aquesta tesi ha estat caracteritzar olis d'oliva a partir de l'espectroscòpia de fluorescència d'excitació-emissió (EFEE) i de mètodes de tres vies.La primera part de la tesi inclou l'aplicació de mètodes d'anàlisi exploratòria de tres vies a un conjunt d'olis comercials (verges, purs i de sansa d'oliva). Concretament es van aplicar els mètodes anàlisi de components principals sobre la matriu desplegada (unfold-PCA), anàlisi paral·lela de factors (PARAFAC) i anàlisi d'agrupacions jerarquitzada (HCA). Aquests mètodes van permetre diferenciar entre els tipus d'olis en funció de les seves matrius de fluorescència. PARAFAC té l'avantatge que permet extreure els espectres subjacents de les principals famílies de compostos fluorescents.A continuació es va utilitzar un segon conjunt d'olis per a relacionar les seves matrius de fluorescència amb dos paràmetres de qualitat: l'índex de peròxids i K270. L'estudi es va fer comparant dos mètodes quimiomètrics: PARAFAC combinat amb regressió lineal múltiple i regressió per mínims quadrats parcials multi-via (N-PLS). N-PLS va proporcionar ajustos millors i errors de predicció més baixos. També es va veure que l'EFEE permet detectar olis verges degradats.La darrera part de la tesi conté l'aplicació de diversos mètodes de classificació de tres vies per a detectar adulteracions i discriminar olis en funció dels seu origen i tipus. En primer lloc es va estudiar la detecció d'adulteracions d'oli d'oliva verge extra amb olis de sansa (al 5%). Es van aplicar els estadístics Hotelling T2 i Q i els mètodes anàlisi discriminant lineal de Fisher (Fisher's LDA) i N-PLS discriminant. N-PLS discriminant va discriminar entre olis verges i adulterats amb un 100% de classificació correcta. A continuació es mostra que les diferències d'estabilitat entre els olis de les dues subregions de la denominació d'origen protegida "Siurana" es poden detectar a partir de les seves matrius de fluorescència. El mètode unfold-PLS discriminant va permetre discriminar entre els olis de les regions Camp de Tarragona i Montsant amb classificacions superiors al 90%.Finalment, es va aplicar l'algorisme factorització de matrius no negativa (NMF) a les matrius de fluorescència de tres conjunts d'olis diferents. En aquest estudi es mostra que aquest mètode és capaç de descompondre les matrius de fluorescència dels olis en parts positives que es poden relacionar amb algunes espècies fluorescents dels olis. També es van estudiar les possibilitats de NMF combinat amb Fisher's LDA per a classificar olis. Es van obtenir classificacions entre 90-100%. / Olive oil contains fluorescent species, such as vitamin E, chlorophylls and oxidation products produced due to degradation. For this reason, fluorescence measurements can be used to obtain information about oil composition. This information can be obtained from direct measurements without needing any prior step of dilution of addition of reagents. This has great advantages with respect other techniques that require these steps, such as chromatographic, because no additional residues are generated and time of analysis is reduced. However the possibilities of fluorescence applied to olive oil analysis are not well studied and this technique is not normally used by the laboratories of olive oil quality control. The current instrumentation allows recording a set of fluorescence spectra at several excitation wavelengths in one measure. As a result, a fluorescence excitation-emission matrix is obtained. Mathematically, fluorescence matrices are matrices of numbers and are called second-order data. Chemometric methods applied to second-order data are called three-way methods, because the data are arranged in a three-dimensional structure. The objective of this thesis has been to characterize olive oils on the basis of excitation-emission fluorescence spectroscopy (EEFS) and three-way methods.The first part of the thesis includes the application of three-way exploratory methods of analysis to a set of commercial oils (virgin, pure and olive-pomace). The methods applied were unfold principal component analysis (unfold-PCA), parallel factor analysis (PARAFAC) and hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA). These methods enabled to distinguish between the oil types on the basis of their fluorescence matrices. PARAFAC has the advantage of providing the underlying spectra of the main families of fluorescent compounds.Next a second set of oils was considered for relating their fluorescence matrices with two quality parameters: peroxide value and K270. The study involved comparing two chemometric methods: PARAFAC combined with multiple lineal regression and multi-way partial least squares regression (N-PLS). N-PLS provided the best fits and the lowest prediction errors. It was also observed that EEFS can detect degraded virgin oils.The last part of the thesis contains the application of several three-way classification methods for detecting adulterations and discriminating between oils on the basis of their origin and type. Firstly, we studied the detection of extra virgin olive oil adulterations with olive-pomace oils (at 5% level). We applied Hotelling T2 and Q statistics and the methods Fisher's linear discriminant analysis and discriminant N-PLS. Discriminant N-PLS differentiated between virgin and adulterated oils with a 100% of correct classification. Next, it is shown that the different stability of the oils from the two subregions of the protected denomination of origin "Siurana" can be detected from their fluorescence matrices. The method discriminant unfold-PLS enabled to discriminate between the oils from the regions "Camp de Tarragona" and "Montsant" with classifications above 90%.Finally, we applied the algorithm non-negative matrix factorization (NMF) to the fluorescence matrices of three sets of olive oils. In this study it is shown that this method is able to decompose the fluorescence matrices of oils into positive parts that can be related with some fluorescence species of oils. We also studied the possibilities of NMF combined with Fisher's LDA for olive oil classification. We obtained classifications between 90-100%.