One of important issues of the policymakers is to improve output and/or productivity growth associated with information and communication technology (ICT) adoption, where total factor productivity (TFP) growth related with ICT in the 1990s appeared in the US but not in the UK (Jorgenson and Stiroh, 2000; Oliner and Sichel, 2000). The general agreement is that ICT can raise output and/or productivity growth via an increase in productivity growth in the ICT-producing sectors due to rapid technological progress, through capital deepening driven by high levels of investment in ICT equipments, and via increases in efficiency in ICT-using sectors that successfully adopt this new technology by ICT spillover effects (David, 1990). Due to the small size of ICT-producing industries and relatively low level of ICT investments in the UK (Colecchia and Schreyer, 2001; Daveri, 2002; Vijselaar and Albers, 2002), the utilization of ICT spillover effects was crucial to improving output and/or productivity growth for the UK. However, in most of the previous studies, while many concluded ICT spillover effects existed in the US, they had mixed results as to whether ICT spillover effects existed in the UK (Schreyer, 2000; Basu et al., 2003; Inklaar et al., 2005; Jorgenson et al., 2005). The objective of this thesis is to contribute to the existing literature by investigating the existence of ICT spillover effects in the US and the UK and exploring the reasons for the different effects between them. This thesis argues that the mixed findings in the previous studies are due to the ignorance of the General-purpose technology (GPT) theory and weakness in methodology. Thus, the first step is to build a new framework of measuring ICT spillover effects to solve the problems from the existing studies. The main ignorance of the GPT theory is the lack of guidance for the proxy of co-invention related to ICT investments and for the length of lag. The new framework no longer has this ignorance because it uses efficiency as a proxy of co-invention and captures the length of lag by years with negative return on ICT capital. The methodology employed in the previous studies was inappropriate mainly because of the small sample size taken in the ICT study, the two-stage approach used to explore the effect of the environmental variables on efficiency and the linear and concavity assumptions on the frontiers without taking account of ICT as a GPT. The new framework uses Bayesian technique, one-stage approach and non-parametric frontiers to avoid these three drawbacks. In addition, the new framework introduces the persistent level of inefficiency, using a first-order autoregressive (i.e. AR(1)) structure of inefficiency itself, as one of factors that influence ICT spillover effects. In order to model the new framework which takes into account the non-parametric frontiers for capturing negative return of ICT capital, an AR(1) structure of inefficiency, the small sample size and factors that influence ICT spillover effects, this thesis has developed two non-parametric dynamic stochastic frontier analysis (SFA) models with an AR(1) structure and performed the analysis via Bayesian inference. The first model was a semi-parametric dynamic stochastic frontier with a time-variant non-parametric frontier at the basic level along with a time-invariant linear function for the technical inefficiency at the higher-level. The second model relaxed the time-invariant linear functional form for technical inefficiency at the higher level. The results of the new framework showed strong ICT spillover effects in the US with a lag of about 6-8 years during 1982-83 to 1988-89, while relatively weaker ICT spillover effects in the UK. This can be evidenced by the fact that the UK has been in the process of organizational adjustment up to 2000 due to a longer lag. Thus, in the 1990s, there was a lack of TFP growth in the UK. Related to the different ICT spillover effects between the US and the UK, the results from the new framework suggested that the various persistent levels of inefficiency between the two countries was important, apart from the different levels of ICT investment between them mentioned in the previous studies (Inklaar, O Mahony and Timmer, 2003). JEL Classifications: C51, E13, O30, O33

Managing anthropogenic emissions in urban areas is a major challenge in sustainable environmental development for cities, and future changes and increasing urbanisation may increase this challenge. Systems perspectives have become increasingly important in helping urban managers understand how different changes may alter future emissions and whether current management strategies can efficiently manage these emissions. This thesis provides some systems perspectives that have been lacking in previous studies on modelling and managing future anthropogenic emissions in urban areas. The city of Stockholm, Sweden, was selected as the study site and studies about nitrogen, phosphorus and carbon were chosen, given world-wide urban eutrophication and global concerns about climate change. A substance flow analysis (SFA) structured model, comprising a source model coupled with a watershed model in an SFA structure, was developed to investigate future nutrient loading scenarios under various urban changes in small urban lake catchments. The results demonstrated that climate change potentially posed a greater threat to future nutrient loads to a selected lake catchment in Stockholm than the other scenarios examined. Another SFA-based study on future phosphorus flows through the city of Stockholm indicated that the best management option may depend on the perspective applied when comparing future scenarios of phosphorus flows and that both upstream and downstream measures need to be considered in managing urban phosphorus flows. An evaluation approach for examining current management plans and low-carbon city initiatives using the Driving forces-Pressure-States-Impact-Response (DPSIR) framework, was formulated. With such an evaluation approach, investigation of how well selected plans cover different aspects of the DPSIR framework and whether root causes and systematic measures are highlighted is possible. The results revealed that the current low-carbon city initiative in Stockholm falls within pressure-based, driver-orientated plans and that technical, institutional and cognitional measures are generally well covered. / <p>QC 20160510</p>

Sandvik AB är en industrikoncern med verksamheter i hela världen. Ett av företagets tre affärsområden, Sandvik Materials Technology, utvecklar och tillverkar produkter av rostfritt stål. Inom produktionen strävar de efter att byta ut farliga material/sub-stanser mot mindre farliga alternativ eller minimera användningen av farliga ämnen. Ett misstänkt miljöfarligt ämne som används inom industrin är klorparaffiner. Sand-vik AB tillverkar sömlösa rostfria rör med stegvalsning, där används klorparaffiner (klorolja) som smörj-, och kylmedel och dessa har en viktig roll för produktionen och för produktiviteten. Sandvik AB använder sig av klorolja innehållande lång-kedjiga klorparaffiner. Vid stegvalsning adderas smörjmedlet i samband med de akti-viteter som gör att stålrören kommer i kontakt med stålverktygen. Syftet med stu-dien var att utföra en kartläggning över flödet av klorparaffiner på ett av Sandviks rörverk, Rörverk 98. Detta har utförts genom att applicera metoden substansflö-desanalys (SFA), som är ett verktyg som används för analysera en enskild substans i ett givet system. I denna studie tillämpandes SFA genom sex steg. I steg 1 och 2 de-finierades studiemål samt system. Målet var att förmedla nya dimensioner av in-formation till företaget samt att tillvägagångssättet skulle redovisas tydligt och utför-ligt. Systemdefinitionen var att undersöka klorparaffinflödet, på Rörverk 98, under 28 månader. I steg 3 och 4 genomfördes en inventering och design av flödesschema. Inventeringen har utförts genom en litteraturöversikt av Sandvik ABs rapportering samt studiebesök med intervjuer på rörverket. Med uppgifter från inventeringen skapades ett flödesschema och flöden kvantifierades. I steg 5 beräknades massbalan-sen mellan inkommande flöden och utgående flöden med la-ger, detta är det pri-mära flödet. I sista steget, steg 6, tolkades resultatet genom att applicera HS-metoden som används för att beräkna resultatens osäkerhetsintervall. Osäkerhetsin-vervallen används för att beräkna ett minsta möjligt flöde samt ett största möjligt flöde. Resultatet av kartläggningen har visualiserats genom att skapa en överskådlig bild över systemet och klorparaffinflödet samt risk för spill på/från rörverket. Inom studiens systemgräns identifieras det att det finns risk för spridning via emissioner till luft samt vid dropp från kranar utanför anläggningen. Massbalansen resulterade i ett primärt flöde med differens på 2,2 % kg Cl mellan inkommande flöde och utgå-ende flöde med lager. Differensen kan bero på inkorrektheter i inventerad data eller kunskapsluckor såsom okända utsläpp av substansen. Förbättringsförslag har lagts fram för att tillit till resultatet ska bli större i framtiden. Förbättringsåtgärderna in-nebär att Sandvik AB ska genomföra regelbunden dokumenterad inventering av flö-den och lager, och därigenom få en större insikt i klorparaffinflödet. Bristande till-gång till information om substansen gjorde det svårt att avgöra hur substansen kan reagera vid olika förhållanden i rörverkets produktion. Det krävs framtida studier som fastställer långkedjiga klorparaffiners egenskaper och miljöpåverkan. / Sandvik AB is an industrial group with operations throughout the world. One of the company's three business areas, Sandvik Materials Technology, develops and manu-factures stainless steel products. In production, they seek to replace hazardous mate-rials/substances with less hazardous alternatives or minimize the use of them. A sus-pected environmentally hazardous substance used in industry is chloroparaffins. Sandvik AB manufactures seamless stainless steel tubes with pilgering, where chlo-roparaffins (chlorine oil) are used as lubricants and coolants and these have an im-portant role for the production and for productivity. Sandvik AB uses chlorine oil containing long-chain chloroparaffins. During pilgering, the lubricant is added in conjunction with the activities that make the steel pipes come into contact with the steel tools. The purpose of the study was to carry out a survey of the flow of chloro-paraffins on one of Sandvik's tube plants, Rörverk 98. This has been done by apply-ing the substance flow analysis method (SFA), which is a tool used for analyzing a single substance in a given system. In this study, SFA was applied through six steps. In steps 1 and 2, study objectives and systems are defined. The aim was to convey new dimensions of information to the company and that the approach would be clearly and comprehensively reported. The system definition was to investigate the chlorine paraffin flow, at Rörverk 98, for 28 months. In steps 3 and 4, an inventory and design of the flow chart were carried out. The survey has been carried out through a literature review of Sandvik AB's reports and visits with interviews at the plant. With information from the inventory, a flow chart was created and flows were quantified. In step 5, the mass balance between incoming and outgoing flows was calculated using layers, this is the primary flow. In the last step, step 6, the re-sult was interpreted by applying the HS-method used to calculate the uncertainty of the results. The uncertainty factor is used to calculate a possible minimum and max-imum flow. The result of the survey has been visualized by creating a clear picture of the system and the chlorine paraffin flow and the risk of spillage on/from the pipeline. Within the study's system boundary, it is identified that there is a risk of spreading via emissions to air as well as by drips from cranes outside the plant. The mass balance resulted in a primary flow with a difference of 2.2% kg Cl between in-coming flow and outgoing flow with bearing. The difference may be due to inaccu-racies in inventory data or knowledge gaps such as unknown emissions. The im-provement measures recommended that Sandvik AB shall carry out regularly docu-mented inventory of flows and stocks, thereby gaining a greater insight into the chlorine paraffin flow. Lack of information about the substance made it difficult to determine how they can behave in the system. Future studies are required to deter-mine the environmental impact of long-chain chlorinated paraffins.

This thesis analyzes the profit efficiency of the Turkish banking sector after the restructuring program by using Stochastic Frontier Approach. 28 banks are included in the analysis and the data belongs to the period 2002-2009. Profit efficiency scores of 28 banks are estimated by SFA. When the efficiency scores are analyzed according to the ownership status, profit efficiency scores of the state owned banks are found higher than other bank groups. Moreover, according to the asset size, large scale banks&rsquo / profit efficiency scores are found to be higher than the medium and small scale banks.

The aim of this thesis was to investigate how dietary fatty acids affect the risk for cardiometabolic disease, i.e. cardiovascular disease (CVD), type 2 diabetes and obesity. The overall hypothesis was that unsaturated fatty acids and especially the predominant polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) linoleic acid (LA), 18:2n-6, would decrease cardiometabolic risk compared with saturated fatty acids (SFAs), in line with current recommendations to partly replace dietary SFA with PUFA. Papers I and V were observational studies based on the community-based cohort Uppsala Longitudinal Study of Adult Men (ULSAM). Adipose tissue fatty acid composition was determined as biomarker for dietary fat intake. Studies II, III and IV were randomised short-term interventions on human volunteers, in which different dietary fats were provided to the participants. In 71-year-old men, adipose tissue LA and α-linolenic acid (18:3n-3) were associated with insulin sensitivity (euglycaemic clamp), although this association was diminished for LA after adjusting for lifestyle variables. Different SFA displayed divergent associations; only palmitic acid (16:0) was inversely associated with insulin sensitivity (Paper I). In Cox regression analyses, LA was modestly associated with decreased all-cause mortality, but not CVD mortality during 15 years follow-up (Paper V). In a 3+3-week cross-over study on 20 weight-stable volunteers with dyslipidaemia, all foods were provided. A rapeseed oil-based diet distinctly lowered low-density lipoprotein cholesterol and triglycerides compared with a dairy-fat based diet (butter, cream and fatty cheese). Insulin sensitivity or coagulation factors were not affected (Paper II). In a 10-week randomised trial on 67 abdominally obese participants, PUFA (mostly sunflower oil) decreased liver fat compared with SFA (mostly butter) under isocaloric conditions. In individuals considered highly compliant to study diets, lipoproteins were also decreased during the PUFA diet (Paper III). In a 7-week double-blind randomised trial on 41 healthy volunteers, PUFA (sunflower oil) decreased the total:HDL cholesterol ratio compared with SFA (palm oil) during moderate weight gain (1.5 kg) (Paper IV). In conclusion, LA (PUFA) intake is associated with decreased cardiometabolic risk compared with higher SFA intake, overall supporting a beneficial role of non-tropical vegetable oils in place of solid fats in preventing fatty liver and cardiometabolic disorders.

This diploma thesis deals with the issue of fatty acids containing distribution, metabolism, physiological properties and effects on health. In the experimental part there is detail descripiton of the experiment, where the amount of dietary fatty acids in the liver and visceral fat in rats was determined. Rats were divided into five groups, each of that was fed with mixture with 8% oil addition (palm oil, fish oil, safflower oil and Schizochytrium extract). The last group was fed with the mixture without any oil addition. The results of the experiment point to a high SFA content in feed with 8% fish oil addition. Although fish oil contains a significant amount of n-3 PUFA, high deposition of SFA could have negative effects on plasma lipid and lipoprotein levels. The most suitable oil is Schizochytrium microalga extract, which has a positive effect on EPA and DHA deposition, but does not contain significant amount of SFA, MUFA and PUFA n 6. Regarding the ratio of PUFA n-6/n-3, fish oil appears to be the second most suitable. The least suitable PUFA n-6/n-3 ratio is observed in safflower and palm oil.

No description available.

Cette étude se propose de mesurer la performance, l’efficience et la concurrence des banques islamiques et conventionnelles dans la région de MENA et ses déterminants. Nous utilisons à cet effet le ROAA et ROAE pour appréhender la rentabilité globale et la méthode de l’enveloppement des données (DEA) et la méthode de l’analyse de la frontière stochastique (SFA) pour calculer les scores d’efficacité technique. Les résultats révèlent des évolutions semblables des deux types de mesure de performance. L’analyse par catégorie de banques révèle que les banques conventionnelles sont plus performantes que les banques islamiques. Malgré les changements technologiques qu’a connu le système bancaire de la région MENA, l’analyse de l’efficience montre que l’inefficience technique provient de l’inefficience technique pure. Enfin, l’efficacité des banques de la région MENA est sensible aux variables telles que la crise, les dépôts, la capitalisation et notamment les variables liées aux lignes de métiers. / This thesis addressed the subject of "Operational Efficiency of Islamic Banks : A Comparative Empirical Study", in order to assess the efficiency of Islamic banks in controlling costs as compared to those of conventional banks. This Search has been divided into five chapters as follows :Chapter I : General concepts and principles;Chapter II : Competition between banks Islamic and conventional banks in opticalefficiency;Chapter III : Banking efficiency: concepts and approaches to measure;Chapter IV : Framework for analysis and research methodology;Chapter V : An Econometric Study of the operational efficiency of Islamic banks andconventional banks;The study found a set of results, including: that the traditional banks are more efficient than Islamic banks, both in the exploitation of the resources available or in a combination of these resources optimally and then to control costs, and that the conventional banks and Islamic banks are more efficient in utilization of available resources to reach output from the use of the optimal mix of these resources.

<p>Ett växande problem i världen idag är att nå en hållbar matproduktion. Världens befolkning växer stadigt och miljontals människor lever på gränsen till svält. Fosfor är en icke-förnyelsebar resurs på jorden och ett av de näringsämnen jorden behöver för att ge bra avkastning. Fosfor förekommer i alla växter, djur och människor och kan återvinnas av naturen på egen hand. Ibland när människor och den moderna teknologin påverkar den naturliga cykeln så förändras den till ett öppet system där resurser överutnyttjas.</p><p>I den här uppsatsen har fyra fallstudier från Sverige, Ghana, Thailand och Zimbabwe jämförts med fokus på hur organiskt hushållsavfall hanteras i de olika länderna. Resultatet visar inte på några större skillnader mellan utvecklingsländer och industrialiserade länder, vilket kan bero på tillgänglig data. Alla länder i studien har förutsättningar att använda sig av olika återvinningsmetoder av organiskt avfall, både med och utan exkrementer. Genom att använda olika tekniska lösningar, som exempelvis rötning och olika typer av kompostering, kan förlusterna av fosfor minskas ordentligt. Ofta kostar teknik och den nödvändiga kunskapen pengar, men i många fall kan återvinning av organiskt avfall vara en ekonomisk vinst då mindre kemiska gödningsmedel behöver importeras.</p><p>För att nå en hållbar matproduktion bör fosfor från alla olika utflöden användas; organiskt avfall (från kök och trädgård), avloppsvatten (från bad, kök och tvätt), och från exkrementer (urin och fekalier).</p> / <p>Sustainable food production is an important issue in a world with a rapidly growing population and millions of people living on the verge of starvation. Phosphorus is a non-renewable resource and one of the nutrients needed for soil to give good crop outcomes. Phosphorus is essential to all plants, animals and humans, and can be recycled by nature itself within the phosphorus cycle. Problems could arise when humans and modern technology interfere with this cycle and turn it into an open-ended system.</p><p>In this thesis four case studies from Sweden, Ghana, Thailand and Zimbabwe are compared with focus on how organic waste is handled in the different countries. There results show no big differences between developing and developed countries. This might depend on the data used for the study. All countries show potential for using different recycling methods to increase the reuse of organic waste, both including and excluding excreta, but lacks technology and knowledge. By using technology, for example anaerobic digestion or composting, phosphorus losses could be reduced substantially. Technology costs money and needs knowledge, but in many cases these costs could probably be offset by not needing chemical fertilizers, or less of these.</p><p>To reach a sustainable food production, phosphorus from all outflows needs to be considered for reuse: solid organic waste (food waste and garden waste), greywater (water from kitchen, bath and laundry) and excreta (urine and faeces).</p>

Cette thèse de doctorat présente une étude expérimentale des propriétés rhéologiques d’électrolytes confinés et de la mécanique des doubles couches électrostatiques.Afin d’étudier simultanément les propriétés d’équilibre et de transport d’électrolytes confinés proches de parois électriquement chargées, nous avons développé un appareil à forces de surfaces dynamique. Cette technique combine à la fois des mesures à l’équilibre, à l’instar des appareils à forces de surfaces classiques, et des mesures dynamiques permettant de caractériser les phénomènes de transport.Nous avons tout d’abord étudié le cas d’électrolytes très dilués. Nous avons montré l’existence d’une sur-dissipation induite par les ions issus des électrolytes par rapport à un comportement newtonien classique. De plus, nous avons mis en évidence un comportement élastique des doubles couches électrostatiques dépendant de la fréquence. Une approche théorique vient compléter et expliquer en partie les résultats expérimentaux.Enfin nous nous sommes intéressés à la dynamique d’électrolytes concentrés : les liquides ioniques. Nous avons étudié l’influence, sur la viscosité et les propriétés du liquide à l’interface solide-liquide, d’un champ électrique intense appliqué perpendiculairement à l’écoulement, comme rencontré dans les super-condensateurs. / This thesis presents an experimental study of rheological properties of confined electrolytes and mechanics of electric double layer.In order to study simultaneously equilibrium and transport of confined electrolytes nearby charged surfaces, we developed a dynamic surface force apparatus. This technique enables both steady state measurements, as provided by common surface forces apparatus, and dynamic measurements that allow characterizing the transport phenomenona.First, we showed the existence of an over-dissipative behavior of weak electrolytes compared to a classical newtonian fluid. Furthermore we highlighted a frequency dependence of the EDL elastic behavior. Alongside, a theoretical approach completes and explains partially the experimental observations.Finally we studied the dynamics of ionic liquid, a type of concentrated electrolytes. We looked at the influence of a huge electric field, applied perpendicularly to the surfaces, on the viscosity and the properties of the liquid nearby the surfaces, as found in super-capacitors.