Central Asia on New Delhi's Geostrategic Radar. EUCAM Commentary No. 18, October 2011

Central Asia today holds much strategic interest for India as an emerging 21st Century regional and global power. Despite being a latecomer in what some see as a new ‘Great Game’, New Delhi is keen to reconstruct the ‘Silk Route’. While Indo-Central Asian relations go back to antiquity when cultural, commercial and political ties thrived, post-independence India was physically cut off from Afghanistan and West Asia. It remained embroiled in domestic preoccupations and the insurgency in Jammu and Kashmir, all of which led to a limited foreign policy until the early nineties and a belated rediscovery of the region

Strengthening International Climate Governance: The Case for a Sectoral Approach. EL-CSID Policy Brief Issue 2017/04 • October 2017

Significant potential exists to accelerate the climate transition by advancing sectoral approaches and institutions in international climate governance. To achieve the Paris Agreement objectives and quicken the urgently needed decarbonisation of our societies and economies, the simultaneous transformation of a wide range of interdependent sectoral systems is required. Each of these systems faces very specific transformation challenges and potentials for international governance. This calls for advancing tailor-made sectoral approaches to reinforce global climate governance, in the context of the further development of both the Paris Agreement and the system of intergovernmental institutions and transnational arrangements, including the increasing number of multistakeholder initiatives. More encompassing sectoral governance can enable a much-needed strengthening of countries’ “nationally determined contributions” (NDCs) on the way to a speedy decarbonisation

European Foreign Policy in a Decarbonising World

Contributing to the emerging literature on the geopolitical and foreign policy implications of decarbonisation and energy transition processes, this book sheds light on the future of the European Union’s external relations under decarbonisation. Under the Paris Agreement on climate change, adopted in 2015, governments committed to phasing out the emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases over the coming decades. This book addresses the many questions around this process of decarbonisation through detailed analyses of EU external relations with six fossil-fuel exporting countries: Nigeria, Indonesia, Azerbaijan, Colombia, Qatar and Canada. The authors systematically examine the six countries’ varying dependence on fossil fuels, the broader political and security context, current relations with the EU and the potential for developing these toward decarbonisation. In doing so, they put forward a series of findings that should hold across varying circumstances and provide a steppingstone to enrich and inspire further research on foreign policy, external relations and international relations under decarbonisation. The book also makes an important contribution to understanding the external implications of the 2019 European Green Deal. This volume will be of great interest to students and scholars of European environmental and climate policy, climate diplomacy, energy policy, foreign policy and climate/energy geopolitics

European Foreign Policy in a Decarbonising World

Contributing to the emerging literature on the geopolitical and foreign policy implications of decarbonisation and energy transition processes, this book sheds light on the future of the European Union’s external relations under decarbonisation. Under the Paris Agreement on climate change, adopted in 2015, governments committed to phasing out the emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases over the coming decades. This book addresses the many questions around this process of decarbonisation through detailed analyses of EU external relations with six fossil-fuel exporting countries: Nigeria, Indonesia, Azerbaijan, Colombia, Qatar and Canada. The authors systematically examine the six countries’ varying dependence on fossil fuels, the broader political and security context, current relations with the EU and the potential for developing these toward decarbonisation. In doing so, they put forward a series of findings that should hold across varying circumstances and provide a steppingstone to enrich and inspire further research on foreign policy, external relations and international relations under decarbonisation. The book also makes an important contribution to understanding the external implications of the 2019 European Green Deal. This volume will be of great interest to students and scholars of European environmental and climate policy, climate diplomacy, energy policy, foreign policy and climate/energy geopolitics

Zebrafish Thrombocytes: Functions and Origins

Platelets play an important role in mammalian hemostasis. Thrombocytes of early vertebrates are functionally equivalent to mammalian platelets. A substantial amount of research has been done to study platelet function in humans as well as in animal models. However, to date only limited functional genomic studies of platelets have been performed but are low throughput and are not cost-effective. Keeping this in mind we introduced zebrafish, a vertebrate genetic model to study platelet function. We characterized zebrafish thrombocytes and established functional assays study not only their hemostatic function but to also their production. We identified a few genes which play a role in their function and production. Since we introduced the zebrafish model for the study of hemostasis and thrombosis, other groups have adapted this model to study genes that are associated with thrombocyte function and a few novel genes have also been identified. Furthermore, transgenic zebrafish with GFP-tagged thrombocytes have been developed which helped to study the production of thrombocytes and their precursors as well as their functional roles not only in hemostasis but also hematopoiesis. This paper integrates the information available on zebrafish thrombocyte function and its formation

Origin and Role of Factor Viia

Factor VII, the initiator of the extrinsic coagulation cascade, circulates in human plasma mainly in its zymogen form, Factor VII and in small amounts in its activated form, Factor VIIa. However, the mechanism of initial generation of Factor VIIa is not known despite intensive research using currently available model systems. Earlier findings suggested serine proteases Factor VII activating protease, and hepsin play a role in activating Factor VII, however, it has remained controversial. In this work I estimated the levels of Factor VIIa and Factor VII for the first time in adult zebrafish plasma and also reevaluated the role of the above two serine proteases in activating Factor VII in vivo using zebrafish as a model system. Knockdown of factor VII activating protease did not reduce Factor VIIa levels while hepsin knockdown reduced Factor VIIa levels. After identifying role of hepsin in Factor VII activation in zebrafish, I wanted to identify novel serine proteases playing a role in Factor VII activation. However, a large scale knockdown of all serine proteases in zebrafish genome using available knockdown techniques is prohibitively expensive. Hence, I developed an inexpensive gene knockdown method which was validated with IIb gene knockdown, and knockdown all serine proteases in zebrafish genome. On performing the genetic screen I identified 2 novel genes, hepatocytes growth factor like and prostasin involved in Factor VII activation