The major players in adaptive immunity

How do we remain healthy, for the most parts, in the midst of an environment teeming with opportunistic and infectious microbes, potential carcinogens and allergens? The fact is that our immune system, by and large, does a fine job in protecting us. It is therefore important to understand the organization of the immune network, which is broadly categorized into two groups: innate and adaptive. Cells involved in innate immunity are the first to come into contact with invading microbes, similar to the border security force, and respond rapidly but in a non-specific manner. On the other hand, the cells involved in adaptive immunity are slower to respond but act in a very specific manner. Though the primary response is slow, the secondary response is much faster and demonstrates memory. This article will focus on some important features and key players involved in the adaptive immune response. The first part deals with the humoral immune response mediated mainly by immunoglobulins produced by the B cells. The second part deals with T cells, the Major Histocompatibility Complex (MHC)-encoded molecules, and Recombination Activating Genes (RAG) responsible for generating diverse B-cell receptors (BCR) and T-cell receptors (TCR). With the advent of newer and smarter infectious agents, it is important to understand the working of the immune network as more research in this area may facilitate the development of better protective strategies.     

Burning,Fluttering, and Extinguishing of a Candle Flame in a Tube

In this article, we report some experimental results on the behaviour of the flame of a candle kept at the bottom of a glass tube, which is open at the top and closed at the bottom. Thus, the supply of oxygen for the continuous burning of the flame is possible only from the top open end of the tube. We find that the candle burns steadily below a critical tube height. Above this height, the flame oscillates in size, and a further increase in tube height leads to the flame extinguishing quickly.     

Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy Recent advancement of Raman spectroscopy

In Raman spectroscopy, inelastic scattering of photons from an atomor molecule in chemical entities is utilized to analyze the composition of solids, liquids and gases. However, the low cross-section limits its applications. The introduction of surface-enhancedRamanspectroscopy in 1974has attracteda lot of attention fromresearchers due to the large enhancement of weak Raman signal,which facilitates identification in chemical and biological systems. Recently, single-molecule Raman scattering has enhanced the detection sensitivity limit of Raman Spectroscopy.     

Heisenberg’s invention of matrices

Richard Feynman once said: “nobody understands quantum mechanics”. Still, those who devised it are perhaps the ones closest to understanding their creation. It suggests that whenever the weirdness of quantum mechanics haunts you, it is better to go back to its creators in terms of their original publications. In the present article, the author has tried to seek help from Heisenberg’s 1925 paper, in order to reduce the weirdness of going from classical observables to quantum operators.     

Identification of strategy parameters for particle swarm optimizer through Taguchi method

INTRODUCTION The particle swarm optimization (PSO) method is a member of the broad category of swarm intelli- gence techniques for finding optimized solutions. The PSO algorithm is based on the social behavior of animals such as flocking of birds and schooling of fish, etc. PSO has its origin in simulation for visual- izing the synchronized choreography of bird flock by incorporating concepts such as nearest-neighbor ve- locity matching and acceleration by distance (Par- sopoulos and V…     

Understanding,embracing and reflecting upon the messiness of doctoral fieldwork

This Forum issue discusses the centrality of the fieldwork in doctoral research. The inevitability of researchers’ influence and of their values apparent during and after their fieldwork calls for a high degree of reflexivity. Since the standard methodology textbooks do not sufficiently guide on addressing such challenges, doctoral researchers go through stressful phases, at times revising various decisions they made before starting fieldwork. By drawing upon four case studies from varied contexts, this forum highlights some of these challenges including: going beyond signing the consent form and building rapport to elicit student voices; the ethical implications of White privilege of researchers turning consent into an obligatory contract with participants; unanticipated delays in the fieldwork opening up new possibilities; and tensions resulting from negotiating between insider and outsider identities while researching in two hostile contexts.     

Human governance: A neglected mantra for continuous performance improvement

Every individual should be entrusted with an internal driver to strive their best towards achieving their potential and to manifest their performance through innovative means. This can be reached only under circumstances where the abstract human values and principles are recognized and indoctrinated in the culture. The strategies discussed in this article will serve as input in proposing the areas of focus toward the practice of human governance.     

Effect of Arsenic Contaminated Drinking Water on Human Chromosome: A Case Study

Arsenic contamination of ground water has become a serious problem all over the world. Large number of people from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal of India are suffering due to consumption of arsenic contaminated drinking water. Study was carried out on 30 individuals residing in Ballia District, UP where the maximum concentration of arsenic was observed around 0.37 ppm in drinking water. Blood samples were collected from them to find out the problem related with arsenic. Cytogenetic study of the blood samples indicates that out of 30, two persons developed Klinefelter syndrome.