The era of globalization has created a proverbial ‘rush’ to utilize trade and investment in developing nations. Growing fear over the abuse of developed nations’ bargaining power in these areas led the WTO to adopt remedial measures ensuring the protection of developing nations during disputes. The WTO’s dispute settlement system is unequivocally the most comprehensive form of the resolution of disputes among its Member States. Despite the numerous privileges and safeguards offered to developing Members States, reluctance and a lack of understanding in using the WTO dispute resolution process remain within these nations. This paper explains the options available to these nations, in an attempt to attract to use the dispute resolution process, and offers key insight on future amendments that can facilitate developing Member’s participation in the future. It will further articulate the statutory safeguards and favors provided to developing countries in DSS.

The paper presents the results of a multi-criteria comparative evaluation of 12 feasible Russian nuclear energy deployment scenarios with thermal and fast reactors in a closed nuclear fuel cycle. The comparative evaluation was performed based on 6 performance indicators and 5 different MCDA methods (Simple Scoring Model, MAVT / MAUT, AHP, TOPSIS, PROMETHEE) in accordance with the recommendations elaborated by the IAEA/INPRO section. It is shown that the use of different MCDA methods to compare the nuclear energy deployment scenarios, despite some differences in the rankings, leads to well-coordinated and similar results. Taking into account the uncertainties in the weights within a multi-attribute model, it was possible to rank the scenarios in the absence of information regarding the relative importance of performance indicators and determine the preference probability for a certain nuclear energy deployment scenario. Based on the results of the uncertainty/sensitivity analysis and additional analysis of alternatives as well as the whole set of graphical and attribute data, it was possible to identify the most promising nuclear energy deployment scenario under the assumptions made.

Less mature nuclear reactor technologies are characterized by a greater uncertainty due to insufficient detailed design information, operational data, cost information, etc., but the expected performance characteristics of less mature options are usually more attractive in comparison with more mature ones. The greater uncertainty is, the higher economic risks associated with the project realization will be. Within a comparative evaluation of less and more mature nuclear reactor technologies, it is necessary to apply economic risk measures to balance judgments regarding the economic performance of less and more mature options. Assessments of any risk metrics involve calculating different characteristics of probability distributions of associated economic performance indicators and applying the Monte-Carlo method. This paper considers the applicability of statistical risk measures for different economic performance indicators within a trial case study on a comparative evaluation of less and more mature unspecified LWRs. The presented case study demonstrates the main trends associated with the incorporation of economic risk metrics into a comparative evaluation of less and more mature nuclear reactor technologies.

We present the analysis of KMT-2016-BLG-0212, a low flux-variation (Iflux−var ∼ 20 mag) microlensing event, which is in a high-cadence (Γ = 4hr −1) field of the three-telescope Korea Microlensing Telescope Network (KMTNet) survey. The event shows a short anomaly that is incompletely covered due to the brief visibility intervals that characterize the early microlensing season when the anomaly occurred. We show that the data are consistent with two classes of solutions, characterized respectively by low-mass brown-dwarf (q = 0.037) and sub-Neptune (q < 10−4) companions. Future high-resolution imaging should easily distinguish between these solutions.

This paper proposes a fusion controller combing an anti-windup PID controller and BELBIC (Brain Emotional Learning Based Intelligent Controller) for controlling the position and vibration of a robot system having a single flexible manipulator. A finite element model of the flexible manipulator is developed. The reliability of it is verified by comparing the natural frequencies computed using the finite-element method with the experimentally measured ones. An MSC.ADAMS computational model of the robot system is interfaced with the proposed controller in MATLAB/Simulink, for carrying out a simulation. The simulation is performed with various references inputs and endpoint masses. The effectiveness and robustness of the proposed controller for control of the position and vibration of the flexible manipulator is shown through the simulation.

In this paper we explore the concept of gamification and its business applications in the Russian companies. Gamification has been introduced in 2003 and since that time it has acquired a wide recognition as an efficient tool to enhance front-office and back-office business processes increasing performance and boosting engagement of the participants. Gamification refers to the use of game elements and designs in non-game environments. As a result customers and employees involved stay more focused and motivated to accomplish the chosen goal. We explore customer engagement practices (gamification) of the Russian companies including application areas, funding and perceived efficiency of these initiatives and their shifts over time. Our analysis is based on two waves of data collection: 2015 and 2018, as the result we outline four groups of practices based on the scope of the gamification techniques used and variety of the business processes involved. Also we provide comparative analysis and observe changes in gamification use over time.

Elder consumers are important consumer segment because of baby boomers and incoming aging societies in many countries. MacInnis and Mello (2005) indicate that hope is an important construct to influence consumer decisions. For many elder people who rely on others to lead a life gradually lose control of making consumption decision for themselves. If autonomy is one of the important value for elder people as Leventhal (1997) proposed, the moderating effect of decision autonomy to counterbalance the effect of hope is discussed in this study if it can enhance elder consumers’ SWB. This study firstly explored the antecedent factors of hope by adopting subjective evaluation from elder consumers. Then, hope was further manipulated in terms of goal importance and goal uncertainty to investigate the mechanism on consumption decision and SWB. A between-subjective experiment manipulated hope in two dimensions, goal importance (high / low) and goal outcome certainty (certainty / uncertainty), invited 142 consumers aged above 65 years old to participate. Result indicates that better mental health and financial ability as well as younger cognitive age relate to the hope of elder consumers and influence SWB. Hope is partially the psychological mechanism to influence more on SWB. Decision autonomy is not found its moderating effect on hope to SWB.