This article investigates agglomeration processes in aging societies by introducing an overlapping generation structure into a New Economic Geography model. Whether higher economic integration leads to spatial concentration of economic activity crucially hinges on the economies' demographic properties. While population aging as represented by declining birth rates strengthens agglomeration processes, declining mortality rates weaken them. This is due to the fact that we allow for nonconstant population size. In particular, we show that population growth acts as an important dispersion force that augments the distributional effects on agglomeration processes resulting from the turnover of generations. (author's abstract) / Series: Department of Economics Working Paper Series

Im Rahmen dieser Arbeit sollten Einsatzmöglichkeiten und -grenzen von kompostierten und durch Agglomeration oder Pelletierung weiter aufbereiteten Bioabfall-Gärresten untersucht werden. Außerdem sollte geprüft werden, ob durch verschiedene Zuschlagstoffe die Eigenschaften der Produkte so verbessert werden können, dass ein marktfähiges Düngeprodukt entsteht. Dazu wurden ein Feldversuch, Gefäß-, Rhizoboxen- und Bodenatmungsversuche, phytotoxikologische Tests und Regenwurm-Vermeidungstests durchgeführt. Die Ergebnisse können wie folgt zusammengefasst werden: Die Stickstoffverfügbarkeit von kompostierten Gärprodukten aus Bioabfällen ist gering, der Gehalt an Phosphor und Kalium aber hoch. Langfristig sind so der Aufbau eines Nährstoffdepots im Boden und die Einsparung anderer Dünger möglich. Die Produkte enthalten zudem basisch wirksame Bestandteile, welche die Kalkung teilweise ersetzen können. Komposte und Gärprodukte aus Bioabfällen können zur Steigerung der Humusgehalte im Boden beitragen. Ca. 80 % des enthaltenen Kohlenstoffs liegt in stabilisierter Form vor und kann im Boden sequestriert werden. Problematisch sind hohe Schwermetall- und Störstoffgehalte. Die gesetzlich vorgegebenen Grenzwerte wurden in 50 % der getesteten Chargen überschritten. Phytotoxische Effekte wurden nur in Einzelfällen festgestellt und waren nicht dosisabhängig, sondern traten punktuell auf. Die Aktivität der Mikroorganismen im Boden wurde durch Anwendung der Gärprodukte gefördert. Der Einfluss der Gärprodukte auf Regenwürmer konnte nicht eindeutig bestimmt werden. Eine Einschränkung der Habitatfunktion nach Gärproduktanwendung wurde nicht festgestellt. Die Aufbereitung durch Agglomeration oder Pelletierung ist möglich, ohne dass die wesentlichen positiven Eigenschaften davon beeinträchtigt werden. Durch Beimengung von Zuschlagstoffen können die Düngewirkung und die physikalischen Eigenschaften der Produkte verändert werden. Dies reduziert jedoch auch den Gehalt an stabiler organischer Substanz. / The scope of the present work was to determine the possibilities and limits for the application of composted digestates from biowaste on agricultural land. Furthermore it was tested whether it is possible to enhance the properties of the products by adding different amendments and to thereby create a marketable fertilizer product. A field trial, pot and rhizobox experiments, phytotoxicity tests and avoidance tests with earthworms were carried out. The results can be summarized as follows: The nitrogen availability of composted biowaste digestates is limited but they have high contents of phosphorus and potassium. Repeated application of biowaste digestate can help to establish a stable nutrient pool in the soil save up on other fertilizers. In addition, the products are characterized by basic constituents who can partly replace liming. Composts and fermentation products made from organic waste can contribute significantly to the increase of humus content in the soil. Approx. 80 % of the contained carbon is in stabilized form and can be sequestered in the soil. High concentrations of heavy metals and other contaminants are problematic. The legal limits were exceeded in 50 % of the tested batches. Phytotoxic effects were observed only in isolated cases and were not dose-dependent. The activity of the microorganisms in the soil was significantly promoted by the application of the digestates. The influence of the digestate products on earthworms could not be determined unequivocally. A restriction of the habitat function after digestate application was not detected. Processing by agglomeration or pelletizing to increase transportability and storage stability is possible without impairing the essential positive properties of the digestates. The addition of amendments can be used to adjust the fertilizing and physical properties of the products. This, however, reduces the content of stable organic matter.

This thesis consists of four essays, covering four different topics. The first essay investigates the relationship between inter-firm labor mobility and regional productivity growth. Previous studies have shown that density is positively correlated with growth. I claim that it is not density in itself, but rather the attributes associated with it that drives economic growth. One such attribute is the increased possibility for labor mobility and knowledge diffusion that follows when firms and individuals locate in close proximity to each other. This hypothesis is tested using density as an instrument for labor mobility. The result shows that labor mobility increases regional growth rates. The second essay examines the relationship between agglomeration economies and relative wage costs in influencing location of multinational corporations. An inflow of firms to certain regions and industries is likely to increase demand for labor. If mobility of labor is low increased costs can be expected to deter additional inflows of firms, albeit agglomeration economies may compensate for higher wages. The empirical analysis finds that FDI has become increasingly sensitive to differences in wage costs across industrialized countries, but also that agglomeration economies related to knowledge externalities positively influences higher costs. The third essay looks at the impact of FDI on home country investments. Previous research has been inconclusive as regards the effects on domestic investments. In this article, we show that this inconclusiveness can be explained at a disaggregated level as a function of the way industries are organized. We argue that a complementary relationship can be expected to prevail in vertically integrated industries, whereas a substitutionary relationship can be expected in horizontally organized production. The empirical analysis confirms a significant difference between the two categories of industry as regards the impact of outward FDI on domestic investment. The fourth, and final, essay of this thesis analyses how increased R&D expenditures and market size influence the distribution of comparative advantage. Previous studies report ambiguous results and also refer to periods when markets were much more segmented and production factors less mobile. The empirical analysis comprises 19 OECD-countries and spans the period 1981 to 1999. It is shown how an increase in R&D-expenditures by one percentage point implies a three-percentage point increase in high-technology exports, whereas market size fails to attain significance. In addition, institutional factors influence the dynamics of comparative advantage.

Univ., Diss.--Göttingen, 2003.

Agglomerative Clustering techniques work by recursively merging graph vertices into communities, to maximize a clustering quality metric. The metric of Modularity coined by Newman and Girvan, measures the cluster quality based on the premise that, a cluster has collections of vertices more strongly connected internally than would occur from random chance. Various fast and efficient algorithms for community detection based on modularity maximization have been developed for static graphs. However, since many (contemporary) networks are not static but rather evolve over time, the static approaches are rendered inappropriate for clustering of dynamic graphs. Modularity optimization in changing graphs is a relatively new field that entails the need to develop efficient algorithms for detection and maintenance of a community structure while minimizing the “Size of change” and computational effort. The objective of this work was to develop an efficient dynamic agglomerative clustering algorithm that attempts to maximize modularity while minimizing the “size of change” in the transitioning community structure. First we briefly discuss the previous memoryless dynamic reagglomeration approach with localized vertex freeing and illustrate its performance and limitations. Then we describe the new backtracking algorithm followed by its performance results and observations. In experimental analysis of both typical and pathological cases, we evaluate and justify various backtracking and agglomeration strategies in context of the graph structure and incoming stream topologies. Evaluation of the algorithm on social network datasets, including Facebook (SNAP) and PGP Giant Component networks shows significantly improved performance over its conventional static counterpart in terms of execution time, Modularity and Size of Change.

As a post-Soviet economy, Ukraine has inherited substantial production assets and qualified personnel. However, the economy was dominated by large-scale enterprises designed for much bigger markets. After the collapse of the Soviet Union Ukrainian firms faced lack of planning, breaks in contacts with their former suppliers and customers, and distortion of prices. There was a clear need in restructuring of the entire economy. Restructuring included splitting firms into smaller parts and privatization. The first phase of transition was completed by 2000 when the output grew for the first time after a long recession in nineties, and most firms became private property. In this work I explore trends in geographic and industrial concentration of Ukrainian manufacturing firms over the period of 2001 to 2005. I found that this period was characterized by relocation of firms between sectors and between regions, as well as by an increase in economic concentration of industries. The speed of adjustment was different for various sectors and even for different industries within manufacturing. Even though the economy is still dominated by large firms, the average firm size decreases due to a rapid growth in the number of new firms. Geographically, manufacturing tends to increasingly concentrate mostly around a few big cities, apparently at the expense of other regions. I also estimate the external scale effects and compare them with Western studies. In particular I focus on machinery and high tech. I found strong localization and urbanization effects in both industry groups. An important contribution of this work is the analysis of the effect of ownership structure on agglomeration economies. I found that private firms tend to enjoy external scale effects to a greater extent than state owned, and foreign owned firms appear to be the most efficient in extracting benefits form agglomeration. Aggregation of the data may distort the estimates of agglomeration effects. I show that most effects take place at the nearest neighborhoods. When the physical distance between firms increases agglomeration effects attenuate quickly. However, localization effects reveal themselves at different level of industrial aggregation for various industries. This may reflect more complicated relationships within sectors and requires further analysis.

Lung diseases such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are major health burdens on the global population. To treat diseases of the lung, topical therapies using dry powder inhalers (DPIs) have been employed. However, a relatively small amount of dose (5.5 - 28 %) reaches the lung during DPI therapy leading to high inter-patient variability in therapy response and oropharyngeal deposition. Strategies were assessed to take patient variability in inhalation performance into account when developing devices to reduce throat deposition and to mitigate flow rate dependency of the emitted aerosol. A cyclone-spacer was manufactured and evaluated with marketed and in-house manufactured formulations. An in vivo study showed that a high resistance inhaler would produce longer inhalation times in lung disease patients and that a spacer with high resistance may prove a suitable approach to address inter-patient variability. Two spacer prototypes were evaluated with cohesively- and adhesively-balanced particle blends. The data suggested that the throat deposition dramatically decreased for the emitted particles when the spacers were used with the inhalers (e.g. 18.44 ± 2.79% for salbutamol sulphate, SS 4 kPa) due to high retention of the formulation within the spacer (87.61 ± 2.96%). Moreover, variation in fine particle fraction and dose was mitigated when increasing the flow rate (82.75 ± 7.34 %, 92.2 ± 7.7 % % and 77.0 ± 10.1 % at 30, 45 and 60 Lmin-1, respectively). The latter was an improvement over previous proposed DPI spacers, where variability in emitted dose due to airflow rate was a major issue. Due to the different physicochemical properties of the active pharmaceutical ingredients used in the formulation, throat deposition and respirable fraction for adhesively-balanced particles (e.g. SS) were double that of the cohesively- balanced particles (salmeterol xinafoate, SX) (e.g. 65.83 ± 8.99 % vs. 45.83 ± 5.04 % for SS:Coarse Lactose (CL) and SX:CL, respectively). Scanning electron microscopy revealed that surface-bound agglomerates were more freely removed from the carrier, but subject to decreased impaction-type deagglomeration forces in the spacer than for carrier-bound drug. An ex vivo study using breath profiles from healthy volunteers identified the minimization of differences between adhesively- and cohesively-balanced blends when full breath profiles were studied compared to square-wave airflow. Therefore the use of constant flow for in vitro testing should not be the sole flow regime to study aerosolization when developing new inhalation devices and formulations.

In this thesis, both the wettability and the agglomeration characteristics of non-metallic inclusions in liquid iron/steel were studied by using both experimental results and thermodynamic considerations. The mechanisms of the wettability of different types of inclusions were discussed. Also, the agglomeration behaviors of the inclusions were analyzed. Firstly, the wettability of different types of inclusions (including Al2O3, MgO, Ti2O3, TiO2 and TiN) in contact with the liquid iron/steel was studied. For the TiNcase, there is no reaction formation at the interface between TiN and pureiron/steel. In the caseo f pure Fe, the oxygen increase is the main factor for a contact angle decrease. As for the steel case, a sharp decrease of the contact angle is due to the effects of both an increased oxygen content in the liquid steel and a formation of a Ti(N,C,O) phase at the interface. For the Al2O3 and MgO cases, the formation of a FeAl2O4 and a MgO-FeO reaction layer at the interface, respectively, lead to a contact angle decrease. In the case of the Ti2O3/pure Fe case, the reaction at the interface cannot be identified. For the Ti2O3/steel case, the formation of an Al2TiO5 reaction layer is the main reason for a steep decrease of the contact angle. In the TiO2 case, the melting region appears at the temperature below the melting point of pure iron. This is due to the strong formation of a solid solution TiOx-FeO. The main source of the oxygen for the solid solution formationis due to a TiO2 substrate decomposition and a low partial pressure of oxygen in the chamber. Regarding to the non-metallic particle additions (TiO2 and TiN) into the molten steel, the steel composition should be controlled to have a small Al content (&lt;0.005mass%) and a high Ti content (&gt;0.035mass%), so as togeta high number of Ti-rich oxide inclusions with a small size. This conclusionis supported from the view point of the van der Waals force, liquid-capillary force and wettability. Regarding the Ti/Al complex deoxidation in the melt, the “mainly occupied clustered inclusions” with spherical shape is due to a TiOx-FeO liquid inclusion precipitation after an addition of Ti as a pre-deoxidizer. The much lower cluster number in the Ti/Al case than that in the Al case is mainly due to a coagulation of single TiOx-FeO liquid inclusions. Also, the cluster formation in a complex Ti/Al deoxidation is started after an Al addition rather than after a Ti addition. Regarding the Al2O3 cluster formation in deoxidation, the cavity bridge forceis larger than the van der Waals force. However, the difference between them is smaller than 7 times. In the reoxidation process, the influence of the cavity bridge force due to the wettability decreased, and became similar to that of the liquid-capillary force. / <p>QC 20160301</p>

Since the 21st century, with the further development of globalization, innovation resources came into an open innovation era. Innovation resources can flow freely in a global scale. In the process of flow, innovation resources agglomeration in some cities, makes these cities become the global science and technology innovation center. Innovation has become the most important source of competitive advantage, and building innovative capacity can provide a strong impetus for the comprehensive competitiveness and economic prosperity (Porter &amp; Stern, 2001). Innovation resources agglomeration makes innovation happen continuously, thus makes the global science and technology innovation center becomes the new engine and important support of national comprehensive strength. After two major industrial structure shift, the traditional development advantages are vanishing. The current economic growth of Shanghai is below the national average; the traditional development advantage is gradually weakening. At the same time, China's economy is faced with an L-shaped recession (Lei, 2016). Therefore, to become the global science and technology innovation center is not only necessary for Shanghai’s own transformation and development, but also accordance with the national development strategy. The aim of the Chinese government is to preliminarily finishes the work of develop Shanghai into the global science and technology innovation center during the period of 13th Five-Year Development Plan1 (from 2016 to 2020). Improve the innovation resources agglomeration capacity of Shanghai, and maximum accumulate innovation resources is the key to success. The existing studies have shown that innovation resources agglomeration has the characteristic of self-organizing, and there is the Matthew effect in this process: the better the innovation foundation, the more obvious the agglomeration effect, and vice versa. This research will from the perspective of the innovation system theory, using DEA method to study the R&amp;D resources utilization efficiency of Shanghai’s industrial enterprises above designated size, demonstrates the deficiencies of Shanghai’s innovation resources agglomeration foundation, and put forward suggestions for improvement.

O amido de milho é uma importante fonte de energia para os seres humanos e é muito utilizado em preparos de diversos pratos. Os grânulos de amido possuem estrutura semicristalina que sofre degradação em elevadas temperaturas e com presença de água. Com o objetivo de alterar a microestrutura dos grânulos de amido de milho, principalmente quanto à sua temperatura de gelatinização, foram realizados processos de aglomeração de três diferentes métodos e avaliadas as modificações ocorridas. Todas as partículas produzidas passaram por análises de DSC, FT-IR, DRX e MEV. O trabalho foi divido em três diferentes estudos. No Estudo I, foi realizada a aglomeração do amido de milho com solução de alginato de sódio por \"high shear\" com posterior secagem em leito fluidizado. A partícula depois de seca teve 99,5% de amido em sua composição. Os resultados mostraram que houve aglomeração nos grânulos de amido de milho; porém, devido à baixa fração de alginato de sódio nas partículas, elas não apresentaram diferenças significativas quanto à sua temperatura de gelatinização, sua estrutura e suas ligações, quando comparadas ao amido nativo. No Estudo II, em que foi realizada a aglomeração dos grânulos de amido de milho com solução de alginato de sódio e cloreto de cálcio, por \"dripping\", foram obtidas partículas com frações de (0, 50, 60, 70, 80 e 90)% de amido. As modificações aconteceram à medida em que se aumentou a quantidade de alginato de sódio da partícula. As partículas com maiores frações de amido não apresentaram alterações significativas em sua microestrutura e temperatura de gelatinização, quando comparadas ao amido de milho nativo. As partículas com menores frações de amido, ou seja, maiores teores de alginato de sódio, apresentaram alterações em sua microestrutura e cristalinidade, além de maiores temperaturas de gelatinização. No Estudo III, foi realizada a aglomeração do amido de milho com quitosana por \"dripping\" em soluções de diferentes molaridades de de hidróxido de sódio (NaOH). Dentre as principais modificações observadas, destaca-se o aumento da temperatura de gelatinização, em partículas que foram precipitadas em soluções alcalinas de NaOH com molaridade de (0,10 e 0,12) M. Para as concentrações molares de (0,14, 0,16, 0,18 e 0,20) M, de NaOH, observou-se que parte dos grânulos de amido de milho foram solubilizados pela solução alcalina, e que as frações sólidas remanescentes apresentaram-se na forma de partículas precipitadas de amido-quitosana, com aparência transparente e amarelada. Os processos de aglomeração do amido de milho nativo pelos métodos \"high shear\" e \"dripping\", utilizando-se soluções de alginato de sódio e quitosana, podem resultar em partículas resistentes à gelatinização, devido à atribuição de uma barreira física por estes ligantes, após as etapas de secagem. O aumento da concentração de alginato resultou em um aumento da temperatura de gelatinização, produzindo partículas de amido resistentes à degradação térmica. Adicionalmente, observou-se que o uso de soluções alcalinas diluídas de NaOH, também permitiu a produção de partículas resistentes à degradação térmica, por meio da precipitação da quitosana. O método \"dripping\" permitiu a produção de partículas com elevadas concentração de alginato ou quitosana, e foi o método mais indicado para a produção de partículas de amido resistentes à degradação térmica. As partículas aglomeradas pelo método \"high shear\" tiveram concentração de ligante (alginato de sódio) limitada a 0,5%, e não resultaram em partículas resistentes à degradação térmica. / Corn Starch is an important source of energy for humans and is widely used in food preparations. Starch granules exhibit a semicrystalline structure which undergoes degradation at high temperatures and the presence of water. In order to change the microstructure in corn starch granules, especially regarding its gelatinization temperature, three diferente methods of agglomeration processes were performed and changes of starch particles were studied. Every produced particle were analysed by DSC, FT-IR, XRD and SEM. The work was divided into three different studies. In Study I, agglomeration of corn starch was carried out with sodium alginate solution by \"high shear\" with subsequent fluidized bed drying. The dry contained was 99,5% starch in its composition. The results showed that the cornstarch granules agglomerated; however, due to the low fraction of sodium alginate in the particles, they showed no significant differences in gelatinization temperature, its structure and interactions when compared to native starch. In Study II, was performed the agglomeration of corn starch granules with sodium alginate solution and calcium chloride by dripping method and particles obtained contained (0, 50, 60, 70, 80 and 90)% (w/w) of starch. Modifications occurred with increasing the amount of sodium alginate in the particle. Particles with higher starch fractions showed no significant changes in its microstructure and gelatinization temperature, compared to the native corn starch. Particles with lower starch fraction, and higher concentrations of sodium alginate, showed changes in their microstructure and crystallinity, and higher gelatinization temperatures. In Study III, the agglomeration of cornstarch with chitosan by dripping in sodium hydroxide (NaOH) solutions of different molarities was evaluated. Among the main changes increases on the gelatinization temperature of particles precipitated in alkaline NaOH solutions with molarity (0,10 and 0,12) M was observed. For the molar concentrations (0,14, 0,16, 0,18 and 0,20) M NaOH, it was observed that some of granules corn starch were solubilised by the alkaline solution and the remaining solid fraction presented the form of precipitated particles of starch-chitosan with transparent and yellowish appearance. The native corn starch agglomeration processes by the methods \"high shear\" and \"dripping\", using solutions of sodium alginate and chitosan, can result in particles resistant to gelatinization due to the formation of a physical barrier of these ligands, after drying steps. Increasing the alginate concentration resulted in increase in the gelatinization temperature of starch, resulting in particles resistant to thermal degradation. Additionally, it was observed that the use of dilute alkaline solutions of NaOH allowed the production of thermal degradation resistant particles through precipitation of chitosan. The \"dripping\" method enabled the production of particles with higher concentrations of alginate or chitosan, and was the most suitable method for the production of starch particles resistant to thermal degradation. The particles agglomerated by \"high shear\" had binder concentration (sodium alginate) limited to 0,5%, and didi not result in particles resistant to thermal degradation.