Bilateral investment treaties treatment of international capital movement: time for reform?

PhDWhile the freedom to move capital is necessary for foreign investors, the power of the state to regulate capital transfers is necessary to prevent volatile capital from causing financial crises as well as to mitigate such crises when they occur. Thus, in regulating international capital movement, a balance should be made between the right to transfer funds and the state’s right to protect the stability of its economy. It is in relation to achieving this balance that this thesis argues that bilateral investment treaties’ (BITs) regulation of capital transfers is deficient, both substantively and procedurally. On substance, this thesis identifies three substantive defects that affect obligations under BITs: absoluteness, immediacy, and breadth. First, many BITs adopt an absolute approach in liberalizing capital that does not permit any restrictions or exceptions, nor does it distinguish between different kinds of capital, or between the right to import capital and the right to repatriate capital. Second, the obligation to permit transfers is immediate and does not allow for a gradual liberalization of capital. Third, many BITs’ terms and obligations are broad and therefore vague, such as the broad definition of investment, or the obligation to grant fair and equitable treatment, which is also broad and interpreted in a manner that restricts the regulatory powers of the host state. Such results could have been partly mitigated if there were a dispute settlement mechanism with the power to create precedent and with it a clearer and more coherent body of rules. But BITs’ investor-state arbitration is also deficient since it consists of ad hoc tribunals, which are not bound by precedent; and their decisions are not generally subject to substantive review. This leads to an inconsistent and incoherent body of law that protects neither the state’s regulatory powers nor the legitimate expectation of investor

New Triterpene from Conyza aegyptiaca L

From the large genus Conyza (tribe Astereae, family Compositae) about 10% of the approximately 2000 species in this tribe have been subjected to chemical scruting. However, work has been confined largely to root constituents. Among these, polyacetylenes, polyenes and related substances and, in certain groups, coumarins are very characteristic. Less widely distributed, perhaps because they are less intensively searched for, are diterpenoids, so far largely of the labdane and clerodane type

On the controllability of Hilfer-Katugampola fractional differential equations

By employing Kuratowski's measure of noncompactness together with Sadovskii's fixed point theorem, sufficient conditions for controllability results of Hilfer-Katugampola fractional differential equations in Banach spaces are derived

Factors Influencing Intention To Consume Herbal Supplement

The recent growth of herbal industry in Malaysia intensifies the challenges among market players. The main ingredient to be successful in the competitive industry is to be customer-oriented and market-driven. This research aims to contribute to the general understanding of consumer behavioral intention towards choice preferences, and to assist marketers in determining factors that influence consumers’ intention towards herbal supplement

Assessment of Insulin Stability Inside Diblock Copolymer PEG-PLA Microspheres

Insulin-loaded PEG2-PLA40 and PEG5-PLA20 microspheres containing 5% bovine insulin were manufactured using single emulsion and w/o/w multiple emulsion-solvent evaporation techniques. Microspheres were characterized for their insulin encapsulation efficiency and release characteristics in phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) at pH 7.4 and 37 °C. Moreover, the stability of the peptide during 18 days of release was evaluated using HPLC and HPLC-MS techniques. The results showed that the loading efficiencies were higher in case of insulin loaded PEG2-PLA40 and PEG5-PLA20 microspheres prepared by single emulsion emulsion-solvent evaporation technique. Insulin release was characterized by an initial burst, which was attributed to the amount of protein located on or close to the microsphere surface. The total ion chromatogram (TIC) of insulin samples extracted after 6, 12 and 18 days of PEG2-PLA40 microspheres erosion showed that insulin was intact inside the eroding microspheres. In addition, only small amounts of protein undergo degradation under these conditions (only 11.69% ± 1.13 of the initially loaded insulin loading were detected as degradation products after 18 days. Mass spectra recorded at these retention times confirmed the presence of insulin with a molar mass of 5734 Da and other two products of molar masses of 5587 Da and 5487 Da

Synthesis of Manufacturing Systems Using Co-Platforming

Modern manufacturing environment is characterized by frequent changes within product design in order to satisfy evolving customer requirements. Various strategies are implemented in order to efficiently manage the consequences arising from the product design changes starting from design of the product, planning, manufacturing…etc. This dissertation focuses mainly on the manufacturing phase in which a new concept in manufacturing system synthesis is proposed. A new concept in manufacturing system synthesis has been introduced and coined as “Co-platforming”. Co-platforming is the synthesis of manufacturing systems through mapping product platform features and components to platform machines on one side, and non-platform product features and components to non-platform machines on the other side, in order to reduce the manufacturing system investment cost and prolong the manufacturing system useful life as product variants evolve and change. Tools and methods are developed to synthesize the manufacturing system based on Co-platforming within functional and physical levels. At the functional level, the group of platform and non-platform machines and the number of each machine type are determined. A new matrix based mapping model is proposed to determine the platform and non-platform machines candidates. A ranking coefficient is formulated which ranks the platform machines according to their machining capabilities in order to assist manufacturing firms in decision making concerning which type of platform machine to choose. Furthermore, a new mathematical programming optimization model is proposed in order to provide the optimum selection of machine types among machine candidates and their numbers. Moreover, a new mathematical programming model is proposed which synthesizes manufacturing systems taking into consideration machine level and system level changes based on co-platforming. At the physical level, the manufacturing system configuration is determined which is concerned with determining the number of stages, types of machines in each stage and the number of machines in each stage. A new mathematical programming optimization model is proposed which determines, in addition to the type and number of each machine, the optimal manufacturing system configuration based on co-platforming. The Co-platforming methodology is being applied in two case studies from automotive industry. The first case study is concerned with machining of automotive cylinder blocks taken from Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and the second case study is concerned with the assembly of automotive cylinder heads taken from ABB flexible automation. The results obtained from the co-platforming methodology indicate that cost reduction can be achieved when synthesizing the manufacturing system based on co-platforming

Susceptibility of Economic Dipteran Fruit Flies to Entomopathogenic Nematodes

The present review article demonstrates laboratory and field evaluations of entomopathogenic nematodes (EPNs) against different developmental stages of fruit flies. The virulence of the EPNs  differed clearly  even on the same insect species and / or by the same nematode species. Such differences might be attributed  to some reasons such as the method of treatment as well as the concentrations of the tested nematodes. Fruit flies are among the most important insect pests infesting vegetables and fruits causing considerable losses in the yields worldwide. In laboratory studies, the tested nematodes proved to be highly virulent to larvae as  percentage of  mortality may reach 100 %.  As for treated pupae, at different ages, the results are variable and controversially; some studies revealed their moderate or high susceptibility to nematode infection and others indicated low susceptibility or resistance to infection .Treated adults, or those emerged from treated larvae or pupae,  are also susceptible to infection.  In semi-field and field trials, EPNs proved to be successful for reducing the populations of some fruit flies with up to 85 % at concentrations not less than 100 infective juveniles (IJs) / cm2 of soil. However, the field applications of commercial EPNs have been recommended to be 2.5 – 5 x 109 IJs / ha (25-50 IJs/cm2 of soil)