International Routes Research Articles

China-Central Asia Tourism Trains: Market Demand and Competition under the Belt and Road Initiative

Cross-border tourism initiatives are vital for fostering economic integration and cultural exchange, especially in regions with historical and geographical significance. This study examines the market demand and competitive positioning of the proposed China-Central Asia tourism train, a key initiative under the Belt and Road framework. Grounded in motivation and consumer value theories, the research analyzes travel motivations, consumer psychology, and market trends to identify demand preferences. A questionnaire survey was conducted to forecast market demand, complemented by competitive analysis of existing international tourism train routes. Findings highlight older travelers as the primary audience, favoring affordable pricing, flexible itineraries, and cultural immersion. Competitive analysis reveals the train’s potential to capitalize on Central Asia’s strategic Silk Road role through unique services and experiences. This study provides practical insights for cross-border tourism development, enhancing regional connectivity and promoting sustainable tourism under the Belt and Road Initiative.

Oil spill pollution and diversity analyses of resistant bacteria isolated from soil across the Arabian Sea and Bay of Bengal coastlines.

Pelagic transport causes oil pollution via international tanker routes in the open ocean across southern Asia and the Indian Territory. Nutrient-rich runoff from residential, commercial, and industrial wastes, oil tanker mishaps, and sailing flags have all resulted in pollution. The natural flow of ocean water from east to west dragged pollutants into Indian Territory. We have investigated that the severe deposition of oil spills and biohazardous wastes is causing faunal mortality. Microbiome analyses helped us understand the sample's microbial load. 16S amplicon metagenome analysis, followed by enumeration and confirmation using molecular methods, indicates the presence of diverse microbial profiles. The presence of non-native hydrocarbon- and AMR-resistant bacterial taxa, such as Brevundimonas, Staphylococcus spp., Mycolicibacterium, Spingomonas spp., Bacillus spp., Chitinophaga spp., Priestia spp., Domibacillus spp., Rossellomorea spp., and Acinetobacter spp., confirms the impacts of oil and urban pollution. This indicates that the coastal soil of Goa and Andhra Pradesh has hydrocarbon- and antibiotic-resistant bacteria, which confirms that the present pollution status and that high-traffic recreational activities put biodiversity and humans at risk of getting illnesses linked to antibiotic resistance.

Towards a Strategic Management Framework for Enhancing South Africa’s Seafarer Development Programme: Addressing Placement Challenges

The global shortage of qualified seafarers, particularly at the officer level, presents both a challenge and an opportunity for South Africa. Despite the country’s strategic location along critical international trade routes, South African seafarers face significant challenges in obtaining placement upon completion of their training. This article presents a systematic literature review on the placement challenges experienced by seafarers, supplemented with qualitative insights from South African stakeholders. The findings highlight the structural issues within South Africa’s seafarer development programme and propose a strategic management framework to improve the placement and competitiveness of South African seafarers in the global maritime industry.

Reiβscheiben ingots as markers of copper imports to the market of Medieval Novgorod

During the Middle Ages, massive ingots were the standard type of copper raw material obtained from European mines and exported across the Baltic and North Seas over vast distances. In Russian literature, they are known as “flat cakes” and “loafs”, while in the foreign one they are referred to as Reißscheiben (torn out disk). The article provides information about 24 cases of finding massive ingots. Most of the finds are concentrated on international trade routes and mark the main directions of movement of copper raw materials from mining operations located in the Western Carpathians, Erzgebirge and Eastern Alps, to the North and Baltic Seas. Recording and mapping of Reißscheiben that were not subject to remelting, and, therefore, retained the primary “isotopic marks”, provide valuable information for identifying sources of metal and establishing the routes of importing metal raw materials to the territory of medieval Rus. Huge volumes of copper shipwreck cargoes can be considered as reference samples when interpreting Pb-Pb data obtained for both different types of ingots and finished products.

GLSD: a global large-scale ship database with baseline evaluations

ABSTRACT In this paper, we introduce a challenging Global Large-scale Ship Database (GLSD), designed specifically for ship detection tasks. The designed GLSD database includes a total of 212,357 annotated instances from 152,576 images. Based on the collected images, we propose 13 ship categories that widely exist in international routes. These categories include Sailing boat, Fishing boat, Passenger ship, Warship, General cargo ship, Container ship, Bulk cargo carrier, Barge, Ore carrier, Speed boat, Canoe, Oil carrier, and Tug. The motivations for developing GLSD include the following: 1) providing a refined and extensive ship detection database that benefits the object detection community, 2) establishing a database with exhaustive labels (bounding boxes and ship class categories) in a uniform classification scheme, and 3) providing a large-scale ship database with geographic information (covering more than 3000 ports and 33 routes) that benefits multi-modal analysis. Additionally, we discuss the evaluation protocols corresponding to image characteristics in GLSD and analyze the performance of selected state-of-the-art object detection algorithms on GLSD, aiming to establish baselines for future studies.

China's International Trade of Parrots from 1981 to 2022 Based on the CITES Trade Database.

Parrots are popular with pet consumers and are one of the most traded groups of live birds around the world. China has been considered as an important country in bird trades, but we know little about China's import and export of parrots. Using the latest data available from the CITES Trade Database, we analyzed China's import and export of CITES-listed live parrots from 1981-2022 to better understand the patterns and dynamics of these trades. China imported 155,339 parrots of 173 species and exported 608,987 parrots of 42 species during the study period with an annual average of about 18,500 individuals, accounting for c. 5% of the global average number. The most imported parrots to China were Grey Parrot (Psittacus erithacus) and Monk Parakeet (Myiopsitta monachus), while the most exported ones were Fisher's Lovebirds (Agapornis fischeri), Rosy-faced Lovebirds (Agapornis roseicollis), and Yellow-collared Lovebird (Agapornis personatus). Since the early 21st century, China's imports of parrots gradually increased, but exports decreased more pronouncedly, making China's international parrot trade volume declining in the past 20 years. China's international parrot trade routes also changed over time, with the destination of parrot exports shifting from Europe to Africa and the Arabian region, while more parrots being gradually imported from countries in South America and Africa. The vast majority of parrots exported from China were captive-bred non-native species like Fisher's Lovebirds, while a substantial proportion of imported parrots were wild-sourced and the proportion has been increasing in the last decade. The fact that China exported much more parrots than imported suggests existence of large-scale parrot farming and domestic parrot trade in China. Attention needs to be paid to monitoring China's import of increasing proportion of wild-sourced parrots from South America countries and its potential impacts on their wild populations. Close monitoring of and more studies on domestic and illegal parrot trade are essential to fully understand the role China plays in the international trade of parrots.

Russian diplomacy and the struggle around transportation corridors through the Middle East: plans and realities

The article is devoted to the issues of Russia's participation in the struggle for the passage of transport corridors from Europe to Asia through the Middle East. Recently, as part of the geopolitical struggle to move away from a unipolar to a multipolar world, we are increasingly talking about rapidly growing competition for access to goods, raw materials, energy resources and transport logistics, which affect the current global rivalry for the redistribution of the world. It is already becoming increasingly clear that whoever controls international routes controls international security in many ways. Corridors are not only world trade, but also the movement of fl eets, the transfer of troops and military equipment, and communication between different regions of the world. Passages through straits such as Bab el-Mandeb, Hormuz, and Malacca are a matter of international security. Blocking them can lead to armed conflicts on a global scale. For the Middle East, these are primarily confl icts over the routes of oil and gas delivery to Europe from the Persian Gulf and the Caucasus and around the creation of short transport corridors from Europe to Asia bypassing the Suez Canal and Africa. If the issue of laying a gas pipeline from Qatar to the EU through the Arabian Peninsula and the Middle East and from the Caucasus and Central Asia through Turkey to the EU was one of the reasons for the war in Syria, then the issue of creating a transport corridor from India to Europe through Arabia and Israel largely provoked the conflict in the Gaza Strip. And Russia is among the most active participants in this struggle for control of international transport corridors from Europe to Asia, trying to do so so as not to stay away from them.

A moderator of tropical impacts on climate in Canadian Arctic Archipelago during boreal summer

The Canadian Arctic Archipelago consists of important international trade routes, and local surface air temperatures (SAT) greatly control sea ice melting in situ during boreal summer (June-July-August-September). However, the drivers of the Arctic Archipelago summer SAT variability have not yet been fully elucidated. Here, we find that the impact of tropical Indo-Pacific convection on the Arctic Archipelago SAT through induced poleward-propagating Rossby wave train is strongly modulated by Russian Arctic sea surface temperature anomalies (SSTA). Negative Russian Arctic SSTA lead to a weakened East Asia westerly jet via equatorward Rossby wave activity. The weakened westerly jet enhances the meridional gradient of the potential vorticity over the North Pacific, guiding the poleward-propagating Rossby wave to the Arctic Archipelago and therefore affecting the local SAT. Conversely, positive Russian Arctic SSTA impede the northward-propagating Rossby wave via enhancing the East Asia westerly jet, resulting in a weakened relationship between the tropical Indo-Pacific convection and Arctic Archipelago SAT. The present study proposes a mechanism whereby changes in the Tropical-Arctic connection stem from thermal conditions elsewhere in the Arctic, through shaping poleward-propagating Rossby waves by changing the background mean flow.

Sea-Level Rise and Human Mobility: The Legal Implications for Ireland’s Foreign and Domestic Policies

In October 2023, the Irish government’s Report of the Inter-Departmental Group on National Coastal Change Management Strategy concluded it was inevitable that, as a result of rising sea levels, a managed retreat may in time be required along some parts of the Irish coastline. This stark warning highlights Ireland’s vulnerability as an island nation to global climate change and sea-level rise. While adaptive measures can be made to protect coastal communities, there is a need to undertake comprehensive planning to prepare for the foreseeable impacts of climate change. Ireland is not alone in facing such risks—over a third of states in the world are directly affected by sea-level rise. Such scenarios raise complicated legal questions, which prompted the UN International Law Commission (ILC) to commence analysis in 2018 of the legal implications of sea-level rise. This article starts by examining recent developments concerning the legal implications of climate change in general, before specifically analysing the ongoing work of the ILC on sea-level rise and human mobility. Drawing on international legal and policy frameworks, the article then considers Ireland’s obligations arising from sea-level rise and population displacement. In particular, it addresses a) Ireland’s foreign policy, including international development assistance and legal migration routes for persons fleeing the impacts of sea-level rise; and b) domestic policies relating to climate change adaptation and planning for internal climate displacement.

Ammonia Sprays for Combustion: A Review

Ammonia is a globally transported chemical used for a variety of applications, most notably, the production of fertiliser. Over the past decade, attention has been afforded to the use of ammonia as an energy carrier, coupling global supply of renewable energy to demand regions. Ammonia’s advantages as an energy carrier include its ease of liquefaction and established international transportation routes; overcoming its low reactivity, excessive production of nitrogen oxides and its toxicity remain as challenges. For energy applications, fuel delivery is a critical aspect of effective combustion in boilers, burners and engines. Due to its adaptable phase change characteristics, ammonia fuel may be injected as a liquid or vapour, each with respective advantages or disadvantages. The focus of this review concerns the characterisation of liquid ammonia fuel injection for combustion, including recent research findings from experimental and simulation studies. Liquid ammonia injection can result in the highly dynamic so-called ‘flashing’ or ‘flash boiling’ phenomena. Research findings have been drawn from other related applications such as accidental hazardous releases. Bespoke optical experimental rigs together with diagnostic techniques and two-phase computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations have enabled studies of the flashing jets under various initial or final conditions, with recent work also examining ammonia spray combustion. The review concludes with an insight into future trends and requirements for liquid ammonia combustion. Reciprocating engines for marine propulsion are cited as potential early adopters of ammonia energy.

Перспективы международного транзита по Северному морскому пути

The Northern Sea Route (NSR) serves as a vital route for Russia, driven by both economic demands and the need for industrial development in the Arctic. The country primarily uses the NSR to supply goods to its northern regions, with the route also used by Russian companies involved in Arctic projects. As a result of economic growth in the Russian Arctic, advances in transportation technologies for navigating harsh Arctic conditions, and ongoing climate change, the NSR is expected to grow in significance as a global transport corridor, including its role in international trade. This article analyzes freight traffic and assesses the NSR’s potential for international transit. The study aims to identify promising directions for the future development of international transit along the NSR. It examines domestic and transit freight traffic dynamics over an eleven-year period, concluding that recent geopolitical events in Ukraine and the resulting anti-Russian sanctions have impacted transit traffic volumes. Key challenges to the development of NSR transit freight traffic are identified, along with their potential consequences. The study assesses the NSR’s transit capacity and outlines priority actions for unlocking its full potential. Two primary areas for future transit development are highlighted: facilitating transit traffic from China and increasing container traffic volumes, both of which warrant further exploration. The relevance of this study is underscored by the growing need to enhance NSR transit freight traffic. The scientific contribution of this research lies in its evaluation of the NSR’s transit potential using statistical analysis and in identifying strategic directions for transit development. The practical significance of the study is reflected in its recommendations, which aim to support the growth of the NSR as a key international transit route.

A multi-commodity partial equilibrium model of imperfect competition in future global hydrogen markets

Techno-economic studies are investigating procurement costs of hydrogen and related derivatives across various international trade routes. However, the strategic behavior of exporters is rarely considered in this context, despite similar behavior frequently observed in the fossil fuel world and market characteristics indicating some potential. This work introduces a novel techno-economic model of oligopolistic trade tailored around the value chain of potential future global hydrogen markets. It is formulated as a mixed complementarity problem with a convex reformulation, allowing to solve both competitive and oligopolistic equilibria much beyond the capabilities of traditional complementarity models. Illustrative results show that assuming perfectly competitive price formation in early phases of future global hydrogen markets may lead to overly optimistic hydrogen price projections. This is especially the case within Europe, Japan, and South Korea. In contrast, strategically withholding quantities in export may decrease prices for some domestic markets.

A Review on a Drug Registration Process in United Kingdom

This review outlines the regulatory modifications in several pharmaceutical industries that have been impacted by Brexit and develops new standards-based recommendations from the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA). To get insight into the regulatory changes that occurred in the pharmaceutical industry during the dissolution of Europe and Britain, retrospective and contemporaneous reviews were used. As the transition period concluded, the MHRA issued a library of new guidelines on January 1, 2021. The several pharmaceutical industries covered by this guidance include clinical trials, medical equipment, imports and exports of Pharmaceuticals and Cosmetics. The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) is responsible for approving medicinal products in the UK. The agency offers various routes for marketing authorisation, including national, international, and decentralised procedures. The national routes include a 150-day assessment, rolling review, European Commission (EC) Decision Reliance Procedure, decentralised and mutual recognition reliance procedure, and unfettered access procedure for marketing authorisations approved in Northern Ireland. International routes include Project Orbis and Access Consortium. Applicants must submit their applications through the MHRA submissions portal in electronic Common Technical Document (eCTD) format. The agency verifies the technical validity of submissions using the Lorenz Docubridge validation tool. The MHRA offers fast-track marketing authorisation for products with strong public health benefits or those addressing supply shortages. Applications that do not meet guidelines will be rejected, and applicants must resubmit after correcting errors. Understanding MHRA guidelines and requirements facilitates market entry for medicinal products in the UK. Conclusion: Any medicinal agent to be marked in the United Kingdom has to follow the guidelines and regulations given by the MHRA a regulatory authority which approve drug products. The objective of the review article is to highlights information regarding the requirements. Different types routes in registration of medicinal products in a market in the United Kingdom knowing the requirements of the MHRA guidelines, it is too easy for a product to get into the UK market.

Implementation of Minister of Transportation Regulation No. 819 of 2018 by the Harbormaster Office and Port Authority: Challenges, Communication Strategies, and Fishermen’s Reactions in Dumai City, Riau Province

The waters of Dumai City, Riau Province, serve as an international transportation route with a strategic position in economic and industrial growth. Minister of Transportation Regulation No. 819 of 2018 was issued to regulate shipping zones and ensure the safety of port service users. However, this regulation has sparked numerous complaints from the public, particularly fishermen, due to livelihood restrictions that directly increase operational costs. To address these negative reactions, the Dumai Port Authority Office (KSOP) plays a significant role by implementing various measures in enforcing Ministerial Regulation No. 819 of 2018. This study aims to understand the communication strategies used by the Dumai Port Authority Office, especially in coordinating with stakeholders. This research uses a qualitative method, gathering data through observation and interviews. The results show that the Dumai Port Authority Office, along with the Class I Dumai Navigation District, PT Kilang Pertamina Internasional, and PT Wilmar Cahaya Asia, has a strategic role with the ability to influence policy direction and implementation. The Dumai Port Authority Office adopts strategies that involve collaboration with strategic partners, annual outreach programs, the distribution of social assistance and life jackets to the fishing community, and cooperation with relevant agencies and government institutions, including the Water Police, to monitor vessels violating regulations. Additionally, KSOP involves the participation of the community and companies, including the certification and standardization of maritime safety instruments. This study contributes to the discussion on the effectiveness of communication strategies in maritime policy implementation, where this approach can enhance understanding and acceptance of regulations within the maritime community.

Evaluating air route performance with context-dependent data envelopment analysis: A case study in Taiwan

The aviation industry has a key role in international trade activities. Most studies measure aviation performance based on airlines or airports. However, the frontline operation is delivered via air routes and more operating characteristics can be revealed with route-based performance evaluation. Further, the traditional data envelopment analysis (DEA) approach cannot rank performance in a particular context which represents an efficiency frontier built by decision making units (DMUs). Therefore, this study uses a context-dependent DEA approach to measure and rank the performance of air routes with a case study of 112 international routes from two airlines in Taiwan. Model results identify eight performance levels with most air routes at efficiency performance level 2 and level 3 and most route destinations in East Asia (e.g., Japan). The results of this study can inform operators about a clear relationship between performance and potential markets as well as improvement strategies.

Strategies For Addressing The Spillover Effect Of Mosaic Warfare In The South China Sea Conflict To Achieve National Security Stability

The South China Sea is a strategic area rich in natural resources and a crucial international shipping and trade route, making it a focal point of territorial disputes between China, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, and Taiwan. This conflict escalates tensions and the potential spillover effects of mosaic warfare that can impact Indonesia's national security and stability. This journal analyzes the strategic implications of the South China Sea conflict for Indonesia, exploring defensive and proactive strategies to mitigate risks and enhance national resilience. This research uses a qualitative descriptive approach based on historical analysis and content analysis, successfully identifying key areas of concern such as increased maritime security risks, the need for enhanced military capabilities, and the importance of regional and international cooperation. Proposed strategies include increased diplomatic engagement, strengthening defense capabilities, intelligence and security technology cooperation, and diversifying economic and trade routes. Indonesia must adopt a multifaceted and proactive strategy to protect its interests amidst regional instability, strengthen diplomatic relations within ASEAN and globally, enhance military and surveillance capabilities, and ensure economic resilience against potential disruptions in maritime trade routes. Public education and adherence to international law are also crucial for maintaining regional peace and security.

PERAMALAN EKSPOR TIGA KOMODITAS UTAMA SEKTOR PERIKANAN MENGGUNAKAN METODE TIME SERIES: ARIMA

Batam City is one of the cities in Indonesia which is located in a strategic area on international shipping routes and has a sea area of 3,675 km so it has great potential for exporting fishery products, based on main commodities. Based on data from the Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries (KKP) in 2022, the performance of the export value of Indonesian fishery products during 2022 experienced positive growth of 21.63 percent compared to 2021. In 2021, the export value of Indonesian fishery products reached 1,258 million USD, increasing to 1,530 million USD in 2022. This fact shows that the marine fisheries sector still offers significant opportunities today. However, there are several obstacles that stand in the way of the export process. These obstacles include the low level of technology application, unequal infrastructure development in various fisheries centers, limitations in providing capital, low utilization of Indonesia's marine potential, and the use of fishing systems in the production process which are deemed unable to utilize Indonesia's marine potential optimally. Given this problem, it is interesting to see the forecast for fishery product exports according to the main commodities in the city of Batam. Is there an increase or a decrease? So the aim of this research is to describe the predicted results of the export value of fishery products according to 3 main commodities, namely shellfish, crab and shrimp in Batam City in the next 5 years. This research method is quantitative using the time series method: ARIMA. The research results show that the estimated export of shellfish and crab will decrease from 2023 - 2027. Meanwhile, the estimated export of shrimp will increase from 2023 - 2027

The impacts of the COVID-19 on the aircraft emissions from international routes from and to China

The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly impacted the civil aviation exchange between China and foreign countries. But few studies have focused on the effects of COVID-19 on aviation emissions. This paper seeks to calculate the emissions of six pollution (CO2, CO, HC, NOx, SO2, and PM2.5) from the international routes from and to China during 2019–2021 and discusses the impacts of COVID-19 on the emission change. The Modified BFFM2-FOA-FPM method is proposed to unify the CO2 and non-CO2 calculations. The error rate between the calculated results and the official data from Civil Aviation Administration of China is about 2.74%. The results show that the COVID-19 has resulted in a reduction in overall emissions of the international routes from and to China, but the intensity of the unit passenger turnover has increased, and the overall emissions of some airlines have increased. Moreover, compared with 2020, there is no apparent recovery of international routes from and to China in 2021.

THE ACTIONS OF OTTOMAN STATE TO OPEN THE PORT OF TEKİRDAG TO INTERNATIONAL TRADE (1840-1920)

Since the 1840s, the Ottoman Empire has carried out a series of activities to rehabilitate the Edirne Meriç River and Enez Port and bring them into international trade. The inspiration for these studies is the Paris Embassy Report (Sefaretname), written by Mehmet Çelebi during his Paris embassy. While the Ottoman Empire prioritized the use of rivers and lakes only for military purposes, after this date, it was faced with the fact that rivers and lakes could also be connected to international trade routes. However, the Ottoman Empire could not take the necessary steps in this regard for a long time. Among the reasons for this was that Ottoman engineers did not have the river technologies and engineering knowledge developed in European countries such as France. For this reason, Sultan Abdulmecid wanted to benefit from foreign experts. Monsieur Borel, one of the experts he invited from France, stated that although he worked on Meriç and its tributaries for a while, it would be more profitable and practical to connect the Rumelian trade routes to the newly established docks, piers and ports by opening new channels instead of improving this river. In this statement, he also gave great importance to Tekirdağı (Tekfurdağı) Port. He emphasized that if the Tekirdağ port, which was a very small port at that time, was enlarged and expanded, it would be the shortest way to transport all the goods and commodities to be produced in Rumelia to the Mediterranean and Istanbul. As a matter of fact, when Monsieur Borel's statement is examined, it is understood that Tekirdağı port can be a very busy and comprehensive port if the suggested roads and channels to be opened are built. Although river improvement works were not mentioned among the renovation works initiated by the Ottoman Empire after the Tanzimat, recent research has revealed that the Ottoman Empire had a great desire and desire to establish national and international trade routes. In this article, the works and results of the Ottoman Empire's efforts to establish and expand the Tekirdağ port and make it the busiest port in Rumelia and the Balkans between 1840 and 1920 will be emphasized using original documents.

Economic and Cultural Partnership Opportunities between Kupang and Chiba Cities through Sister City Cooperation

The Kupang city government has officially proposed a sister city partnership with Chiba, Japan, through representatives of the Japanese government in Bali. This proposal, currently in the initial stages, aims to explore the potential economic and cultural benefits of such a collaboration. This cooperation involves the governments of Kupang City and Chiba City in enhancing economic and cultural cooperation between the two, with the aim of increasing cooperation in trade, investment, and culture, as well as increasing cooperation in education, technology, and infrastructure. This research identifies Chiba as an ideal partner for Kupang, given their various economic and cultural similarities and complementary potentials. By employing qualitative research methods, this study comprehensively examined the prospective advantages of the sister-city relationship. The findings revealed significant opportunities for both cities, including the establishment of an international trade route between Kupang and Chiba and the creation of a central institution dedicated to the research and preservation of their cultures. Based on these insights, the study recommends that the city governments of Kupang and Chiba initiate negotiations and formalize their sister city cooperation, as the anticipated benefits would substantially enhance the development and prosperity of both cities.