Global Image of Pakistan: Significance of Public Diplomacy

This paper is an attempt to examine how is soft power and public diplomacy imperative conditions for Pakistan‟s international stature by examining the effective utilization of public diplomacy of the states like USA, Russia, China and India, public diplomacy of which have got a very significant position at the international stage. Based on an understanding of their Public diplomacy, the author seeks to explore what lessons and strategies should Pakistan take into consideration for the promotion of Pakistan‟s good image at the international front, and how Pakistan can be successful in achieving the positive results. The author has highlighted some serious recommendations as well

Reviving Pak-Russia Relations: Implications for CPEC

Moscow and Islamabad have experienced many ups and downs throughout the past, but recent Russia Pakistan military and economic cooperation can be comprehended as significant progress in their relationship. As CPEC is a signatory sign of the Sino-Pak relationship, this paper seeks to analyze the need for Russia to be a part of CPEC as its inclusion in the project will also be significant for the regional integration and it will, even more, strengthen the relations of Beijing, Islamabad, and Moscow that will eventually build a new bloc. In addition, by giving the theoretical framework of complex interdependence theory, how Russia and Pakistan can work together in this project. Also, if Russia becomes a part of CPEC, how it can be helpful to eradicate all the apprehension which have been imposed by different entities to defame this project

BRI & CPEC: Strategic & Economic Depth for Pakistan

CPEC project (China – Pakistan Economic Corridor) being the flagship project of Belt & Road Initiative initially witnessed a planned investment of $46.6 billion which Beijing intitated and now it is extended to$62 billion and would be completed in the next few years. CPEC is not only aimed at connecting Kashgar to Gwadar but it is also considered to be the Zipper of Central Asia with South Asia, Moscow and Beijing with the Middle East and Africa. CPEC is specifically envisioned beneficial for economic security for Pakistan in a crucial time when Pakistan is isolated and badly damaged by the War on Terror since September 2001. Islamabad and Beijing have developed strong ties despite their ideological differences. This research work sheds light on the economic cooperation between the two neighboring states i.e. China and Pakistan in the context of Beijing's huge investment in Pakistan. The study analyzes CPEC from political, economic, and social perspectives. The study reveals that CPEC is the venture of economic and strategic depth for Pakistan

A Febrile Patient with Polyarthritis, Visceromegaly and Cytopenias

A case report of asymmetrical polyarthritic patient with history of fever of 6 months duration. Clinically also had hepatosplenomegaly. The lab reports revealed Cytopenias with TLC of TLC 1830μl, Hb 9.5g/dl, platelets 44000mL, and high ESR that is 75. Patient was worked up for possible SLE and RA, bone marrow biopsy was done for Cytopenias. While RA, ANF and Anti-DNA came out positive, thus bone marrow revealed hairy cell leukaemia, which was further confirmed by immuno-histochemistry. Patient was started on steroids due to painful arthritis and discharged to be followed up after two weeks and mediation for HCL. Surprisingly, the CBC report reverted significantly normal this period. Now the distinguishing point is, unlikely for hairy cell leukaemia to respond steroids so quickly within 10 days, or this was all SLE related manifestations and HCL was an incidental finding during the workup of pancytopenia. On further follow up, we will do BRAF and flow cytometry for HCL

ТЕМПЕРАТУРНЫЕ АНОМАЛИИ ПЕРЕД ЗЕМЛЕТРЯСЕНИЕМ В ПРОВИНЦИИ ГОРКХА (НЕПАЛ) В 2015 Г., УСТАНОВЛЕННЫЕ ПО ЗНАЧЕНИЯМ ТЕМПЕРАТУРЫ ПОВЕРХНОСТИ ЗЕМЛИ MODIS И УХОДЯЩЕГО ДЛИННОВОЛНОВОГО ИЗЛУЧЕНИЯ

Earthquakes can generate thermal anomalies in the atmosphere at low altitudes. Pending well-focused detailed studies, such phenomenon may be referred to as a precursor for earthquake prediction. However, today the pre-earthquake thermal anomalies are not clear enough. In this paper, the thermal anomalies prior to the April 25, 2015 Mw 7.8 Gorkha (Nepal) earthquake are investigated from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) land surface temperature (LST), air temperature and Outgoing Longwave Radiations (OLR) data. The 2D and 3D wavelet transformation techniques are used to interpret the real time enhancement of the daily MODIS and OLR data before the impending earthquake. Using the wavelet density spectrum, pre-earthquake anomalies in MODIS and OLR are found in connection to the impending earthquake. The spatial images of MODIS and OLR show the evolutionary pattern of the emanation of ions from the epicenter and the surrounding area. The most important feature revealed by the spatial analysis is the eastward migration of temperature clouds due to a strong electric field. The satellite based LST data showed deviation, which crosses the upper bound by 5 °C. All the observations in our case study strongly support the notion of pre-earthquake thermal anomalies. Based on the analysis of the results, it can be concluded that the overabundance of ions from the seismogenic zone is responsible for prompting large temperature perturbations in atmospheric layers.Землетрясения способны создавать тепловые аномалии в атмосфере на малых высотах. Такие аномалии могут рассматриваться в качестве вероятного предвестника при прогнозирования землетрясений, в связи с чем требуются целенаправленные детальные исследования. На сегодня знаний о тепловых аномалиях, появляющихся перед землетрясениями, недостаточно. В статье представлены результаты изучения термических аномалий, имевших место перед землетрясением в провинции Горкха (Непал) (Mw=7.8) 25 апреля 2015 г., как свидетельствуют значения температуры поверхности Земли, зарегистрированные сканирующими спектрорадиометрами среднего разрешения MODIS, а также данные о температуре атмосферного воздуха и уходящего длинноволнового излучения (OLR). Метод вейвлет-преобразования в двух- и трехмерном пространстве использован для интерпретации повышения суточных значений MODIS и OLR в реальном времени накануне землетрясения. По спектральной плотности накануне реального сейсмического события установлены аномальные значения MODIS и OLR, связанные с приближением этого землетрясения. Пространственные снимки MODIS и OLR показывают эволюционирующий характер эманации ионов из эпицентра и прилегающей области. Наиболее важной особенностью, выявленной посредством пространственного анализа, следует считать миграцию температурных облаков в восточном направлении вследствие усилившегося электрического поля. Спутниковые данные LST показывают отклонение от верхней границы значений на 5 °C. Все наблюдения в нашем исследовании подтверждают понятие тепловых аномалий накануне землетрясения. Исходя из анализа результатов, можно сделать вывод, что избыток ионов из сейсмогенной зоны обусловливает появление больших температурных возмущений в слоях атмосферы

Maximum Power Extraction from a Standalone Photo Voltaic System via Neuro-Adaptive Arbitrary Order Sliding Mode Control Strategy with High Gain Differentiation

In this work, a photovoltaic (PV) system integrated with a non-inverting DC-DC buck-boost converter to extract maximum power under varying environmental conditions such as irradiance and temperature is considered. In order to extract maximum power (via maximum power transfer theorem), a robust nonlinear arbitrary order sliding mode-based control is designed for tracking the desired reference, which is generated via feed forward neural networks (FFNN). The proposed control law utilizes some states of the system, which are estimated via the use of a high gain differentiator and a famous flatness property of nonlinear systems. This synthetic control strategy is named neuroadaptive arbitrary order sliding mode control (NAAOSMC). The overall closed-loop stability is discussed in detail and simulations are carried out in Simulink environment of MATLAB to endorse effectiveness of the developed synthetic control strategy. Finally, comparison of the developed controller with the backstepping controller is done, which ensures the performance in terms of maximum power extraction, steady-state error and more robustness against sudden variations in atmospheric conditions

The Effects of Osmosis and Thermo-Priming on Salinity Stress Tolerance in Vigna radiata L.

A plant’s response to osmotic stress is a complex phenomenon that causes many abnormal symptoms due to limitations in growth and development or even the loss of yield. The current research aimed to analyze the agronomical, physiological, and biochemical mechanisms accompanying the acquisition of salt resistance in the Vigna radiata L. variety ‘Ramzan’ using seed osmo- and thermopriming in the presence of PEG-4000 and 4 °C under induced salinity stresses of 100 and 150 mM NaCl. Seeds were collected from CCRI, Nowshera, and sowing was undertaken in triplicate at the Department of Botany, Peshawar University, during the 2018–2019 growing season. Rhizospheric soil pH (6.0), E.C (2.41 ds/m), field capacity, and moisture content level were estimated in the present study. We observed from the estimated results that the agronomic characteristics, i.e., shoot fresh weight and shoot dry weight in T9 (4oC + 150 mM NaCl), root fresh weight and root dry weight in T4 (PEG + 100 mM NaCl), shoot moisture content in T5 (PEG + 100 mM NaCl), and root moisture content in T6 (PEG + 150 mM NaCl) were the highest, followed by the lowest in T1 (both shoot and root fresh weights) and T2 (shoot and root dry weights). Similarly, the shoot moisture content was the maximum in T5 and the minimum in T6, and root moisture was the highest in T6. We observed from the estimated results that agronomical parameters including dry masses (T4, T6, T4), leaf area index, germination index, leaf area, total biomass, seed vigor index under treatment T9, and relative water content and water use efficiency during T5 and T6 were the highest. Plant physiological traits such as proline, SOD enhanced by T1, carotenoids in treatment T2, and chlorophyll and protein levels were the highest under treatment T4, whereas sugar and POD were highest under treatments T7 and T8. The principal component analysis enclosed 63.75% of the total variation among all biological components. These estimated results confirmed the positive resistance by Vigna radiata during osmopriming (PEG) and thermopriming (4 °C) on most of the features with great tolerance under a low-saline treatment such as T4 (PEG), T5 (PEG + 100 mM NaCl), T7 (4 °C), and T8 (4 °C + 100 mM NaCl), while it was susceptible in the case of T6 (PEG + 150 mM NaCl) and T9 (4 °C + 150 mM NaCl) to high salt application. We found that the constraining impact of several priming techniques improved low salinity, which was regarded as economically inexpensive and initiated numerous metabolic processes in plants, hence decreasing germination time. The current study will have major applications for combatting the salinity problem induced by climate change in Pakistan

The Effects of Osmosis and Thermo-Priming on Salinity Stress Tolerance in Vigna radiata L.

A plant’s response to osmotic stress is a complex phenomenon that causes many abnormal symptoms due to limitations in growth and development or even the loss of yield. The current research aimed to analyze the agronomical, physiological, and biochemical mechanisms accompanying the acquisition of salt resistance in the Vigna radiata L. variety ‘Ramzan’ using seed osmo- and thermopriming in the presence of PEG-4000 and 4 °C under induced salinity stresses of 100 and 150 mM NaCl. Seeds were collected from CCRI, Nowshera, and sowing was undertaken in triplicate at the Department of Botany, Peshawar University, during the 2018–2019 growing season. Rhizospheric soil pH (6.0), E.C (2.41 ds/m), field capacity, and moisture content level were estimated in the present study. We observed from the estimated results that the agronomic characteristics, i.e., shoot fresh weight and shoot dry weight in T9 (4oC + 150 mM NaCl), root fresh weight and root dry weight in T4 (PEG + 100 mM NaCl), shoot moisture content in T5 (PEG + 100 mM NaCl), and root moisture content in T6 (PEG + 150 mM NaCl) were the highest, followed by the lowest in T1 (both shoot and root fresh weights) and T2 (shoot and root dry weights). Similarly, the shoot moisture content was the maximum in T5 and the minimum in T6, and root moisture was the highest in T6. We observed from the estimated results that agronomical parameters including dry masses (T4, T6, T4), leaf area index, germination index, leaf area, total biomass, seed vigor index under treatment T9, and relative water content and water use efficiency during T5 and T6 were the highest. Plant physiological traits such as proline, SOD enhanced by T1, carotenoids in treatment T2, and chlorophyll and protein levels were the highest under treatment T4, whereas sugar and POD were highest under treatments T7 and T8. The principal component analysis enclosed 63.75% of the total variation among all biological components. These estimated results confirmed the positive resistance by Vigna radiata during osmopriming (PEG) and thermopriming (4 °C) on most of the features with great tolerance under a low-saline treatment such as T4 (PEG), T5 (PEG + 100 mM NaCl), T7 (4 °C), and T8 (4 °C + 100 mM NaCl), while it was susceptible in the case of T6 (PEG + 150 mM NaCl) and T9 (4 °C + 150 mM NaCl) to high salt application. We found that the constraining impact of several priming techniques improved low salinity, which was regarded as economically inexpensive and initiated numerous metabolic processes in plants, hence decreasing germination time. The current study will have major applications for combatting the salinity problem induced by climate change in Pakistan