With the Asian security environment in transition from the Cold War structure to whatever replaces it, prospects for arms control initiatives in the region and the attitudes and cooperative mechanisms to implement effective regimes are in a state of flux. Within Asia, Beijing`s conventional and nuclear defense modernization programs, combined with its active arms export program, make China a central player in present arms control regimes and any future agreements. While the end of the Cold War and the demise of the Soviet Union meant that China lost much of its strategic significance, Beijing`s growing economic and military power guarantee that it will be a major source affecting regional stability - or instability - for the foreseeable future. At present, China is viewed by many as a less-than-perfect partner in efforts to achieve a more effective Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR), an agreement on a comprehensive test ban (CTB) treaty before 1996 and other non-proliferation and arms control initiatives. To understand why this is so, and to appreciate how the current transition in thinking among China`s elites can help or hinder these initiatives over the long term, it is necessary to more clearly see the post-Cold War world and Asiamore » from Beijing`s perspective.« less
The dominance of sex in Metazoa is enigmatic. Sexual species allocate resources to the production of males, while potentially facing negative effects such as the loss of well-adapted genotypes due to recombination, and exposure to diseases and predators during mating. Two major hypotheses have been put forward to explain the advantages of parthenogenetic versus sexual reproduction in animals, that is, the Red Queen hypothesis and the Tangled Bank/Structured Resource Theory of Sex. The Red Queen hypothesis assumes that antagonistic predator-prey/ parasite-host interactions favor sex. The Structured Resource Theory of Sex predicts sexual reproduction to be favored if resources are in short supply and aggregated in space. In soil, a remarkable number of invertebrates reproduce by parthenogenesis, and this pattern is most pronounced in oribatid mites (Oribatida, Acari). Oribatid mites are abundant in virtually any soil across very different habitats, and include many sexual and parthenogenetic (thelytokous) species. Thereby, they represent an ideal model group to investigate the role of sexual versus parthenogenetic reproduction across different ecosystems and habitats. Here, we compiled data on oribatid mite communities from different ecosystems and habitats across biomes, including tropical rainforests, temperate forests, grasslands, arable fields, salt marshes, bogs, caves, and deadwood. Based on the compiled dataset, we analyzed if the percentage of parthenogenetic species and the percentage of individuals of parthenogenetic species are related to total oribatid mite density, species number, and other potential driving factors of the reproductive mode including altitude and latitude. We then interpret the results in support of either the Red Queen hypothesis or the Structured Resource Theory of Sex. Overall, the data showed that low density of oribatid mites due to harsh environmental conditions is associated with high frequency of parthenogenesis supporting predictions of the Structured Resource Theory of Sex rather than the Red Queen hypothesis.
In this special issue, Arms Control Today looks at the growing potential for future nuclear conflict on the Indian subcontinent and ways to de-escalate the situation. John Schulz provides a brief overview of political, military, religious and historical sources of tension between India and Pakistan. David Albright describes the current status of the nuclear programs in Pakistan and India and briefly outlines the history of both.
The Phlegra Montes (PM) are a north-south trending ridge and catchment-system northeast of the Elysium volcanic rise. They are located in the Martian northern hemisphere spanning more than 12 degrees in latitude. Together with the Tartarus Montes they form a complex system of ridges and isolated hills that provide insight into large-scale climate-controlled geomorphologic settings on Mars. Despite their representative character the PM have been studied in very little detail yet and require a more systematic assessment as it helps to put constraints on the evolution of Amazonian climate and its associated landforms. Surface features on Mars indicative of ice, such as debris aprons and lineated valley fill, are known to occur within two latitude belts between approximately 30 -50 north and south. A transect of this latitude belt is covered by features of the Phlegra Montes that have long been known to host ice-related erosional features. Our research is motivated by the assumption that if young-Amazonian climate variations have controlled formation and appearance of geomorphic landforms on Mars as suggested by earlier research work, it must be observable in this system and, secondly, latitudinal trends and variations should provide measurable characteristics. If so, and if surface ages based on crater-frequency analysis in the range of 50-100 Myr are consistent with these assumptions, the exact timing of climate shifts is assessable. Our analyses show that not only a detailed timing can be assessed but that landforms have different morphometric characteristics as a function of latitude.
