The primary purpose of this research is to propose the solution to the current crisis of the WTO dispute settlement system focusing on Article 25 of the WTO Agreement. The Dispute Settlement Understanding is one of the significant successes of the WTO. Recent years, however, have witnessed the difficulties and challenges facing the multilateral trading system along with rising anti-globalization and trade protectionism. The Appellate Body (AB) has been experiencing an unprecedented crisis of dysfunction mainly due to the US’s boycott of appointing the new members. The WTO Members, including China, have thus proposed various reforms in response to the crisis. However, they have not touched the core demands of the US. Because of the imminent crisis that the AB is about to stop operating, China should take urgent action with other WTO members, consider launching a majority voting program, design and use alternative appeal arbitration, and combine international rules with domestic deepening reforms.

An increasing number of women are becoming empowered with changing cultural dynamics, gender equality, education and technology. The use of Internet and social media platforms by businesses at various stages is on the rise. Despite its benefits, women entrepreneurs in developing countries are less inclined towards using the online mediums for their business in comparison to men. This study observes activities where women entrepreneurs use online mediums for business purposes, understands challenges faced in doing so, reasons behind such challenges and how do they deal with them. Qualitative research is conducted via semi-structured interviews with women entrepreneurs at India. Findings indicate that there are commonly prevalent issues faced by Indian women entrepreneurs while using online mediums. As a way out, they either choose to shy away from digital mediums or seek external help. They are more comfortable using digital mediums where the communication and onus is one way, there is limited need to trust the other person or there is less possibility of receiving damaging comments in public. For interactive activities, women refrain from using online mediums. Financial, social and cultural factors also play a role in keeping women entrepreneurs behind from using online mediums for their business.

The ASEAN charter is a treaty established by ten member countries in the Southeast Asia founded on December 2008. Prior to the establishment of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) charter, the Maritime Professional Education and Training Development Program was facing a challenge of disruptions relative to maritime events. Due to the disruptions of maritime events, challenges such as gap in international relations, lack of database integration in the field of maritime education and training, lack of knowledge transfer and no effective and proper framework of future development particularly in the areas of maritime education and training among the ASEAN countries existing. The goal of this paper is to motivate professionals and the relations society to collaborate in the Maritime Professional Education and Training Development: Today and Tomorrow, to be able to fill the gaps presented to this paper. In order to ensure this study can be completed in the right ways and times, the Critical Path Method (CPM) is used. As a finding of this study, all professional maritime members are expected to strengthening the international professional relations in maritime education and training system among the ASEAN region.

A warehouse is more than just a place to store goods but also creates a time utility gap between production and consumption that is important in the development of trade and commerce. Malaysia has a high aspiration to be the most popular gateway in Asia. However, Malaysia Productivity Corporation has claimed that particularly in efficiency and productivity aspects, the warehouse industry is less incline to innovate and make improvement to increase. There are ten failure factors that had been identified during literature survey affecting to the warehouse operations efficiency. Therefore, this study intends to analyse and select the main failure factors that mostly affecting the warehouse operations efficiency. A Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process (FAHP) technique has been used in this study to calculate the weight value of each variable through a pair-wise comparison method. The finding highlighted the four main failure factors which are ‘equipment’, ‘environment concern’, ‘special handling consideration’ and ‘human factor’ that influence directly to the warehouse operations efficiency. This paper has contributed to a new knowledge of complex warehouse operation area with recommendations action that shall be taken to manage the possible risk in future, which will also contribute to achieve the government goals.

Recently, the migration of refugees has been drastically increasing and became a global issue which indirectly affects the shipmasters, authorities and shipowners during rescue operations. The objective of this paper is to study the challenges or difficulties in rescuing refugees at sea from the perspectives of shipmasters, authorities and shipowners in Malaysia. In this study, the key challenges faced by these three groups of individuals are collected and classified based on the primary data reviewed. The interview sessions were conducted with selected expertise and the data collected are analyzed based on the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) or precisely the pair-wise comparison methods. Through the calculations, the challenges are ranked from the most important challenges to the least important challenges. Furthermore, the data is analyzed by using expert judgments focusing on the relatively most important challenges faced by the three groups of individuals. Finally, the most important challenge faced by shipmasters is the safety of ships and crews, while for authorities, the most important challenge faced is delays in the initiation of rescue operations. For ship-owners, the most important challenge faced is time sensitive cargo loss. Ultimately, two suggestions have been proposed to encounter the most important challenge faced by these groups.

Oral mucosa is made of stra tifi ed oral epithelium(that forms the surface) and subjacent connective tissues Alt hough oral mucosa lines the oral cavity, and thus provides a barrier between external and inte1'na l(tissue) envi1'onment, it exp1'esses regional va1'ia tions in its clinical appearance based on its structu1'e(ker atini zation/ non- ke1'atini zation; nature of connective tissues ; vascul arity, etc.) . The structu1'e of or al mucosa a lso reflects its flln ctional adapta ti on. Available liter ature indicates t hat oral mucosa may be viewed as masticat ory, lining 0 1' specialized types, aJl of which remains continuously moist and unexposed to light. Oral mucosa, however, is subj ected to daily wear and tear due t o the natllre of food , environmental chernicals , t oxins and met abolites. Hence, an understanding of the biological behavior of its constituents cells and ext1'acellular matrice s , tha t• are in constant s tate of adapt ive changes, is usefll l. Oral epithelium is a multi - Iayered and multi - functional dynarnic system that separates the o1'al environment f1'om the va1'ied nature of the s llbj acent connective tlsslles The connective tissue is eithe1' loose or dense collagen ous, muscula r or osseous, and may contain glands. Thus,oral epithelia play a critical 1'ole in the mainten ance of homeost atic effi ciency of the environment of both the o1'al cavi ty and subj acent connective tisslles. The structure and fllncti ons of the oral epithelial cells are regulated by a complex interplay between genetic and environmental fa cto1's, the knowl edge of which is unfolding only recently. The fundamental prernise on whi ch 3-dimensional organization of oral epithelial integrity and st a bility are maintained is the principl e of st eady-state syst em. The basic featU1'e of the steady- st ate syst em is t he 1'egulation of cellula1' and t issue homeost atic mechanisms. Since during its ontogeny, oral epithelial cells are subj ect ed to daily wear and tear , resulting from external mechanical and chernical facto1's, a 1'eservoi1' of cells, with regene1'ative capacity(va1'iously labeled in lite1'ature as p1'ecurso1' ceJls, p1'ogeni tor cells OI‘ stem cell s) that can maintain the steady-state system of oral epi thelia, are 1'equired. Such a reservoir of cells are located in the basal layer of oral epithelia. These cells proliferates, differentiate into ker atinocyt es, and are lost through desquamation or a poptosis to maintain the steady-state syst em and thus equilibrium of tissue homeostasis

The binder phase for TiC reinforced steel matrix composite was added in the form of elemental powders and master alloy powders. The microstructures, binder phase variation with TiC content and mechanical properties were evaluated. The addition of a type of binder phase largely effects the microstructure and mechanical properties. The binder phase variation from starting composition was observed with increase in wt% TiC content and this variation was higher when the master alloy powders were used as a binder. The response to heat treatment was decreased with an increase in TiC content due to the shift of binder phase from the starting composition.

The setting and hardening process of concrete can be considered as the most critical time period during the life of a concrete structure. To assure high quality and avoid problems in performance throughout the life of the material, it is essential to have reliable information about the early age properties of the concrete. This paper presents a new method to monitor the hydration process of cementitious materials at early ages. The technique is based on the measurement of the reflection coefficient (or reflection loss) of high frequency shear waves at an interface between a steel plate and e.g. concrete. Several experimental studies that examine the ability of the wave reflection method to qualitatively and quantitatively describe the setting and hardening process of cement paste, mortar and concrete are presented. The results show that parameters such as setting time, compressive strength, elastic and visco-elastic moduli and degree of hydration of cementitious materials can reliably monitored with the wave reflection method. The relationship between the measured reflection loss and the compressive strength was successfully used in a first field trial of the method to determine the inplace strength of precast concrete elements.

Globalization has led to an increase in foreign banks’ penetration. It is argued that the presence of foreign banks may affect the banking sector of the host countries in several ways including their competition level. It is mentioned that the presence of the foreign banks could heightened the level of competition in the banking sector. Nonetheless, the impact of the foreign banks on competition could be influenced by the degree of information sharing in the banking industry. This study investigates the role of information sharing in moderating the impact of foreign bank penetration on host banking sector competition in selected developing countries. We employ panel data samples of 54 developing countries during the period from 1998 to 2016. The estimation is carried out using the two-step system of the Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) regression technique. This technique is adopted due to its robustness to all forms of endogeneity. The findings of this study show that the presence of information sharing could affect the relationship between foreign banks’ penetration and competition. They suggest that improvement in information sharing by a host country may help foreign banks to improve monitoring and reduce the moral hazard and adverse selection problem.

This study is designed to investigate the impact of China exchange rate policy on its trading partners by using a country multi-dataset GVAR model. Our model includes samples of 30 countries, six from high-income, six from middle-income and eighteen from low-income countries. This study used annual time series data over the period 1992 to 2017. We constructed currency misalignment index and it provided some interesting features about the currency undervaluation and overvaluation. The results of the currency misalignment shows that China’s Renminbi is structurally more undervalued over the sample period as compared to other countries, and fluctuation in major currencies effects the global trade around the world. The overall empirical results of the GVAR model indicate that RMB undervaluation affects the trade pattern and macroeconomic performance of China’s trading partners. Overall, China’s exchange rate undervaluation has mixed effects on trading partner’s GDP, exports and imports. The devaluation of China’s RMB efficiently stimulated China’s exports and reduced imports. While, in some countries, this effect is reverse, the RMB undervaluation increases the GDP of partner countries and also increases their exports to China. The results confirm the strong and leading role of the Chinese Renminbi in the global trade.

Religious intolerance has become a common feature of many countries in recent times. Studies have revealed a worldwide increase in government regulations and social hostilities against religious beliefs and practices. The stifling impact of both government and society on the market for religion, warrants closer scrutiny. This study examines the relationship between government regulations and social hostilities towards religious beliefs and practices, for the period of 2001-2011 for a sample of 45 European countries. The Generalized Method of Moments dynamic panel estimation technique is employed to analyze the micro panel dataset of 45 European countries, to establish the possible relationships that may exist between these variables. The theoretical framework for this study is based on the Religious Economies Theory and the Supply Side Theory of Religion. The results of this study show evidence of the positive relationship between government regulations and social hostility. Interestingly, the study also revealed that the impact of social hostility on the level of government restrictions is smaller in magnitude compared to the reverse impact of government restrictions on social hostilities, indicating the dangerous role played by governments in inciting social hostilities, when they regulate or restrict religious beliefs and practices.

The objective of this study is to investigate the effect of HR practices such as (Recruitment, empowerment, working condition and compensation) on Job satisfaction in the prospects of Hotel Industry of Pakistan. The sample size for this study was 100 employees who were selected through convenience sampling techniques. This study was restricted to 10 Hotels of Peshawar. Hypotheses of the study were tested through correlation and regression analysis to inspect the employee’s satisfaction. The findings investigates that there is significant relationship between HR practices and job satisfaction. Moreover Recruitment and selection, empowerment and working condition have positive effect on job satisfaction, while compensation has negative effect on job satisfaction, which indicates that most of employees are not satisfied from payment of employer. Empirical findings concluded that best HR practices have significant and positive effect on employees job satisfaction. Therefore, it is suggested for HR manager to understand and implement the HR practices correctly to take good work from their employees.