STRATEGIC CONVERGENCE AND COMPETITION IN THE INDO-PACIFIC REGION: POLICY OPTIONS FOR PAKISTAN

With Indo-Pacific being the stage for US-China strategic influence, South East Asia’s geopolitical scenario is likely to be transformed considerably. By declaring India as a Net Security Provider, the US has backed its outreach in the region by officially adjoining Pacific and Indian Oceans as the Indo-Pacific region. Major countries of the region including China, Russia, India, and Pakistan are in the phase of diversifying and reconfiguring their relationships. Within this scenario, Pakistan and India are likely to pursue their strategic interests that take them in opposite directions. While the US endows India with its strategic partner status, CPEC in Pakistan has emerged as a litmus test for China’s BRI. The contestation is to have a direct bearing on the strategic matrix of South Asia generally and Pakistan particularly. This qualitative research under the framework of realist/neo-realist and complex interdependence’s assumptions undertakes to account for this Sino-US strategic convergence and competition that is leading to a security dilemma in South Asia with implications for Pakistan. It concludes cooperation between the US and China is to enhance Pakistan’s security both internal and external while competition is to erode it. Alongside, this paper formulates some policy options for Pakistan’s decisionmakers for ensuring the security and socio-economic development of the country.   Bibliography Entry Younus, Khadija. 2020. "Strategic Convergence and Competition in the Indo-Pacific Region: Policy Options for Pakistan." Margalla Papers 24 (1): 81-96

New Exact Solutions of Steady Plane Flows of an In Compressible Fluid of Variable Viscosity

Some new exact solutions to the equations governing the steady plane motion of an in compressible fluid of variable viscosity for the chosen form of the vorticity distribution are determined by using transformation technique. In this case the vorticity distribution is proportional to the stream function perturbed by the product of a uniform stream and an exponential strea

Molecular analysis of olfactory perception in Drosophila melanogaster

Over the last decade the insect olfactory system has emerged as an important model system with which to investigate the biochemical basis of eukaryote signalling processes. It is believed that certain odorant degrading enzymes are required to maintain the ongoing sensitivity of an insect’s olfactory neuronal system by repriming neurons. However, relatively few ODEs have been identified and characterized to date, especially in the model insect Drosophila melanogaster. The study presented here takes biochemical, neurobiological and behavioural approaches to elucidate the role of ODEs in D. melanogaster. After a review of relevant literature in Chapter 1, Chapter 2 decodes the antennal transcriptome of D. melanogaster for the first time. Using high quality genome sequence and transcriptomic data for many other tissues of this species already available, I identified a few antennae-selective esterases, cytochrome P450s (P450s), glutathione S-transferases (GSTs) and UDP-glycosyltransferases (UGTs). Of these, the activity of one esterase JHEdup, against a range of volatile odorants was found to be comparable with other known ODEs from different species, mainly Lepidoptera. I also identified the presence of another esterase, EST6, at high levels in the antennae. It has previously been proposed that EST6 is a catalyst for the transformation of pheromonal and kairomonal esters to the corresponding alcohols and acids, thereby mediating various mating behaviours. I further examined the proposed effect of EST6 by comparing wild type and EST6 null flies at a neurobiological and behavioural level. The findings, presented in Chapter 3, show this enzyme is important for the flies to respond to incoming volatile odorants and affects their subsequent behaviours. Additionally, EST6 has previously been reported to hydrolyse cis-vaccenyl acetate (cVA), the major pheromone known in Drosophila, in vitro and recent electroantennogram (EAG) experiments with EST6 wild type and null flies exposed to cVA suggest that this might also be an in vivo function. I therefore conducted experiments to understand the biochemical activity of EST6 against cVA. I also measured its activity against 84 other bioactive esters. The results categorically show that EST6 has no activity against cVA but has very good activity against a wide range of fruit- and yeast-derived volatiles known to play a role in mediating female reproductive behaviour. These results are presented in Chapter 4, along with a crystal structure of EST6. The final chapter of this thesis then discusses the overall findings of these studies and offers a broader perspective on future directions. The three major conclusions from the work are as follows. Firstly, JHEdup and EST6 are broad range ODEs active against a wide range of food odorants. Secondly, EST6 may also have a role in cVA processing but not actually as an ODE against this substrate. Thirdly, ODEs may be a fruitful system to develop biocontrol systems for pest insects based on disrupting their olfactory system

The place of agricultural development in the economic development of Pakistan

The topic studied in this thesis seeks to explain that in Pakistan the over all economic growth rate is very much correlated with the agricultural growth rate. Therefore, integrated development efforts necessarily mean the transformation of the massive sector like agriculture. The first three chapters deal with the basic problems of population growth and per capita supply of food, the problems of capital formation in the agricultural sector and agricultural taxation. The study of these problems reveal that since a check on population is not possible in the short run, the supply of food requires to be boosted to match the population growth rate. To elevate the agricultural sector" from desperate poverty two methods have been suggested: i) use of surplus labour for capital formation; and (ii) increased rate of selective agricultural taxation. In chapter four the problems of labour redundancy are studied and it is found that land-labour ratio is very low in Pakistan, largely due to disguised unemployment. Under these conditions major technological change is not possible as this would mean a partial replacement of agricultural labour by capital. The labour absorptive capacity of all other sectors is low because of the fact that capital intensity for all other sectors is high compared to the agricultural sector. Therefore, the absorptive capacity of the agricultural sector itself will have to be enlarged by more intensive cultivation. In the fifth chapter the dualistic growth model and the impact of agriculture on industrialisation is examined. It is concluded that for an expansion in the industrial sector, the expansion of the agricultural sector is essential. An expanded agricultural sector would not only supply cheap food to the industrial sector, but it may also earn much needed foreign exchange for development imports and increased effective demand would also be forthcoming from this sector. In the sixth chapter the importance of agricultural sector is studied in the context of previous chapters and it is clear that agriculturalists in Pakistan are quite responsive to technical change and even to prices and profitability. The speedy transformation of the agricultural sector not only requires the building of an adequate infrastructure but also an improvement in the supply factors. In this connection, keeping in view the fact that capital is a scarce factor in underdeveloped countries; a single factor development approach has been suggested