The Curve Of Cross Border Cartel Enforcement (Challenges and Remedies in Global Business Environment)

The purpose of this article stated that the global economic arena has taken new insights across the shore of nations.  THE new economic challenges are waiting for the anti-trust enforcers to make sure strict compliance with the antitrust laws and in addition this dissertational work highlights the incipient violations across the borders and suggests its possible legel outcoms in the near future in order to make the economic market a level playing field for any business entrants. It particularly shed light on the cross border cartels and their effects on the relevant market, additionally we have taken the global view of the legislative aspects along with their de jure appliances and improvements for the proper economic growth under the auspices of legal framework. The ramification of cross border cartel enforcement has surfaced astoundingly between 1998 to 2015, underlining the earnest and prompt action to strengthen and revisit the competition law enforcement tools and proficiency. The technological advancements and liberalization of trade has risen significant challenges which includes the enforcement of cross border cartels and mergers. The globalization of corporate activities and deregulation of business markets and numerous industrial sectors has endangered the theoretical foundation of domestic and international competition enforcement regime. The transnational anticompetitive practices like monopolization of markets, collusive price fixing, vertical restraints of trade and international cartels currently challenged the jurisdiction and policies of OECD, WTO, UNCTAD, and ICN. This frightening situation necessarily be regularized by establishing worldwide competition policy and globally admirable enforcement standard. The weaknesses of unilateral, bilateral, and multilateral compacts be re-examined in order to cope with the cross- border competition challenges efficaciously. The extraterritorial, jurisdictional, and investigative mechanisms could be enclosed with binding nature of legal structures to deter cross border antitrust violations for smooth economic growth. The EU and US actively pursuing to establish the unanimous international antitrust regime instead of discrepancies to integrate WTO and ICN being multilateral cooperation forum. Currently, US, CANADA, EU, JAPAN and CHINA across the globe become more engaged in international cartels evidence gathering and investigations. The developments in information sharing, private enforcement, follow on civil litigation, dawn raids, extraterritorial reach of enforcement watchdog is yet to be established

Conversion of Waste Marble Powder into a Binding Material

In the marble industry, a lot of marble is wasted in the form of odd blocks of various sizes and slurry consisting of water and micro-fine particles. The slurry on drying converts into powder. Both slurry and powder have adverse effects on the environment. This research is focused on the gainful utilization of waste marble powder (WMP) by converting it into a valuable binding material. For this purpose, WMP and clay were collected, and their physical and chemical properties were determined. A mix of WMP and clay was prepared and burnt at a temperature around 1300 oC. The burnt mix was ground to powder form to get marble cement (MC). The MC was then used in mortar. The compressive and flexural strengths of mortar cubes and prisms were determined. Apart from this, X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis, thermo-gravimetric analysis (TGA) and scanning electron microscopic (SEM) analysis were also carried out. The chemical composition showed that the MC has 52.5% di-calcium silicate (C2S) and 3.5% tri-calcium silicate (C3S).The  compressive strength of MC mortar after 28 days curing is 6.03 MPa, which is higher than M1 mortar of building code of Pakistan (5 MPa). The compressive strength of MC mortar after one year is 20.67 MPa, which is only 17% less than OPC mortar

Development of Environment-Friendly Concrete through Partial Addition of Waste Glass Powder (WGP) as Cement Replacement

This paper presents the study carried out on the utilization of Waste Glass Powder (WGP) as supplementary cementitious material in concrete. The evaluation of the influence of WGP on the mechanical properties of concrete was carried out by casting and testing of concrete samples as per ASTM standards (cylinders and beam elements). The control samples were designed to represent field conditions with a target compressive strength of 20,000 kPa. The Portland cement in concrete was substituted with WGP in proportions of 0%-35% by weight, in increments of 5%. Two curing domains were adopted in the preparation of the test samples to evaluate the effect of pozzolanic material wherein the tested samples were cured for 28, 56, and 84 days. The study results indicated a reduction in compressive strength of concrete up to 10% with partial replacement of cement with 25% of WGP when standard curing of 28 days was adopted. Furthermore, with the same replacement proportion and prolonged curing for 84 days, the gap in strength reduction was reduced by 5%. However, a significant decrease in workability was noted between the control concrete samples and glass powder infused concrete. Furthermore, the Waste Glass Powder Concrete (WGPC) exhibited an improved flexural strength with the modulus of rupture for WGPC being 2% higher than control concrete at the age of 84 days. Based on the results of this study it was concluded that 25% replacement of cement with WGP provides an optimum replacement ratio. Doi: 10.28991/cej-2020-03091620 Full Text: PD

Computational Seismic Analysis of Dry-Stack Block Masonry Wall

In this research the computational modeling of Dry-Stack Block Masonry (DSM) walls subjected to cyclic monotonic loading testing is done. The analytical results were compared with experimental test results of the unreinforced and unconfined DSM cantilever walls subjected to lateral loading along with a constant axial load. ABAQUS has been used for Finite Element Modeling and analysis of the wall. Various material properties are defined for the wall in the software and modeled as a homogeneous material. The proposed numerical models had a good correlation with the experimental data. The test results discussion includes failure moods, load displacement curves, and stress/strain profile. Doi: 10.28991/cej-2021-03091668 Full Text: PD

Protocol for Deciphering the Electrical Parameters of Perovskite Solar Cells Using Immittance Spectroscopy

Here, we present a protocol for the fabrication of inverted (p-i-n)-type perovskite solar cells, unraveling its electrical merits via immittance spectroscopy. The immittance spectroscopy is a prevailing technique for both qualitative and quantitative analyses of charge carrier dynamics in working devices. This technique integrates the temperature-dependent capacitance–frequency (C-f) spectra, impedance spectra, and Mott-Schottky analyses. This protocol is also applicable for typical (n-i-p) perovskite solar cells and other multilayer semiconductor devices.This work has received funding from the European Union H2020 Programme under the European Research Council Consolidator grant (MOLEMAT, 726360). Support from PARASOL (RTI2018-102292-B-I00), Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation, is also acknowledged. P.H. acknowledges funding from the European Commission via a Marie-Skłodowska-Curie individual fellowship (SMILIES, No. 896211). Authors are also thankful to the deanship of scientific research at Islamic University of Madinah, Saudi Arabia, for the financial support to this work through the Tamayyuz programme of the academic year 1441/1442 H (project No: 497)

Assessment of Seismic Capacity for Reinforced Concrete Frames with Perforated Unreinforced Brick Masonry Infill Wall

Infill walls increase the strength and stiffness of the reinforced concrete frames, but they usually are not considering in design. However, when the infills are considered in the design, the opening for doors/windows necessitates investigation as well. This research work aims to investigate the effect of perforations (openings) in the infill walls on the performance of infilled RC frames, in other words, this research investigates the number of infill walls in infilled RC frames. Based on the current construction practices in Pakistan, two full scales perforated infilled RC frames were constructed in the laboratory. One infilled RC frame has an eccentric door and window (specimen-1) while the other has only window at its centre (specimen-2). Both the specimens were tested against reverse cyclic loading (quasi-static test). From the experimental testing, it was found that infilled RC frame having less amount of opening in infill wall has more resistance to lateral loads, have more stiffness and dissipated higher energy as compared to infilled RC frame having a significant size of the opening in infill wall. Similarly, displacement ductility (µD) and Response modification factor (R) also depend on the quantity of opening in infill wall in infilled RC frame. Doi: 10.28991/cej-2020-03091625 Full Text: PD

Impact of Length and Percent Dosage of Recycled Steel Fibers on the Mechanical Properties of Concrete

The global rapid increase in waste tyres accumulation, as well as the looming social and environmental concerns, have become major threats in recent times. The use of Recycled Steel Fiber (RSF) extracted from waste tyres in fiber reinforced concrete can be of great profitable engineering applications however the choice of suitable length and volume fractions of RSF is presently the key challenge that requires research exploration. The present experimental work aims at investigating the influence of varying lengths (7.62 and 10.16 cm) and dosages (1, 1.5, 2, 2.5, 3, 3.5, and 4%) of RSF on the various mechanical properties and durability of concrete. Test results revealed that the varying lengths and dosages of RSF significantly affect the mechanical properties of concrete. The improvements in the compressive strength, splitting tensile strength, and Modulus of Rupture (MOR) of RSF reinforced concrete observed were about 26, 70, and 63%, respectively. Moreover, the RSF reinforced concrete showed an increase of about 20 and 15% in the yield load and ultimate load-carrying capacity, respectively. The durability test results showed a greater loss in compressive strength and modulus of elasticity and a smaller loss in concrete mass of SFRC. Based on the experimental findings of this study, the optimum dosages of RSF as 2.5 and 2% for the lengths 7.62 and 10.16 cm lengths, respectively are recommended for production of structural concrete. Doi: 10.28991/cej-2021-03091750 Full Text: PD

Does academic motivation contribute to the self-esteem of students at the graduate level? A case study of universities in the southern districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan

This study explored the impact of students' academic motivation on self-esteem at the graduate level. The respondents of this study were 375 university students enrolled in a Bachelor of Science (BS) program in nine disciplines from all four public sector universities in the southern districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Two standardized questionnaires, i.e., the Academic Motivation Scale, a tool consisting of 28 items for measuring academic motivation, and Rosenberg's Scale for measuring self-esteem, consisting of 10 items that measure self-respect by assessing both positive and negative emotional states about the self, were used. In light of the objectives and hypotheses, mean, and standard deviation (SD) were used to find out the level of academic motivation and self-esteem of the students. Linear regression was applied to find out the impact of students' academic motivation on their self-esteem. Moreover, an independent t-test was used to explore the difference in academic motivation and self-esteem between male and female students. There was no significant difference in the academic motivation and self-esteem of the students at the graduate level. The results showed that the university students at the graduate level had a high level of academic motivation and self-esteem. A unit change in overall academic motivation, knowledge, and stimulation parts of intrinsic motivation and identified and external regulation of extrinsic motivation bring 0.678, 0.218, 0.223, 0.122 and 0.172 change in self-esteem, respectively, while the constructs i.e., accomplishment (intrinsic motivation), introjected (extrinsic motivation), and amotivation are non-significant as p > 0.05