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Day: May 26, 2020

Online Education and the Future of Books

বৈদ্যুতিন পড়াশোনা ও বইয়ের ভবিষ্যৎ

চলতি বছরের মাঝামাঝি সময়ে এসে দাঁড়িয়েছি আমরা। সামনে তেমন আশাপ্রদ কিছু নেই। তবু, ঠিক সামলে নেওয়া যাবে, এই ভরসা রেখে চলায় অভ্যস্ত হয়ে গেছি। কিন্তু এই আত্মবিশ্বাসের বুদ্বুদ মাঝে মাঝেই ফেটে যাচ্ছে… যখন কর্মক্ষেত্রে একের পর এক আনকোরা সমস্যা এসে দেখা দিচ্ছে। আমরা যারা সাহিত্য পড়াই, তাদের কাছে এক নতুন চিন্তার কারণ হয়ে দাঁড়াচ্ছে – বইয়ের অভাব।

সাহিত্যের পড়াশোনা চিরকালই বিভিন্ন বিচিত্র ধরনের পাঠ-অভ্যাসের ওপর দাঁড়িয়ে। ছাত্রজীবন থেকেই, বইয়ের দোকানে গিয়ে কে কত দুষ্প্রাপ্য বই খুঁজে বার করতে পারে, তা আমাদের প্রিয়তম বিনোদন। বইয়ের খবর রাখা, কেনা, পড়ে ফেলা, উৎসাহ পেলে সে বিষয়ে আরও বই জোগাড় করা, লেখকদের তত্ত্বের তুল্যমূল্য বিচার – এ সবই আমাদের চর্চার অবিচ্ছেদ্য অঙ্গ। সাহিত্যের ছাত্র, শিক্ষক, গবেষকের সংস্কৃতি গড়ে ওঠে বই নিয়ে। আজ বই-ব্যবসায় বিরাট ধ্বস নেমেছে।

আজ প্রেস বন্ধ, অক্ষরকর্মীদের কাজ নেই, বইপাড়া খাঁ খাঁ করছে। কোনও অজ্ঞাত কারণে বই আমাদের ‘এসেনশিয়ালস’ হয়ে উঠতে পারেনি আজও, তাই বিভিন্ন শহরে বইয়ের দোকান বন্ধ। আমাদের পড়ানোর সম্বল বলতে নিজস্ব পুঁজি থেকে ছবি তুলে পাঠানো এবং পিডিএফ খুঁজে দেওয়া।

ছবি তুলে পাঠানোয় অসুবিধা কিছু নেই। কিন্তু সীমিত সময়ে, সীমিত বিষয়ের ছবিতোলা পৃষ্ঠা পড়ে কতটুকু সম্যক জ্ঞান লাভ হয় একজন ছাত্রের? একটি বইয়ের ভূমিকা, এমনকি উৎসর্গপত্র পর্যন্ত আমাদের জানতে হয়। কারণ শুধু বইয়ের শরীর নয় – একজন সাহিত্যিক বা তাত্ত্বিক তাঁর বইয়ের সর্বাঙ্গে থাকেন। বহু কথা বলে দেয় প্রচ্ছদ। সূচিপত্র সাজানোর ধরন। পাদটীকায় সরস টিপ্পনী আমাদের পৌঁছে দেয় তাঁর কাছাকাছি। বারবার পড়তে পড়তে আচমকা নতুন কোনও এক বোধে উন্নীত হওয়া, তার জন্য একটা বইয়ের সঙ্গে যাপন করতে হয় অনেকগুলো দিন। বইয়ের সঙ্গে সেই ‘ফিজিক্যাল’ অভিজ্ঞতা থেকে বঞ্চিত হচ্ছে এখনকার ছাত্রছাত্রীরা।

পিডিএফ-এও সেই সমস্যা থাকে। তাছাড়াও – প্রথমত বাংলা বইয়ের পিডিএফ খুব কম হয়। যা পাওয়া যায় তা একটি-দুটি সাইটে। এখন, পিডিএফ মাত্রই বিনামূল্যে পাওয়া যাবে এরকম একটা ধারণা অল্পবয়সিদের রয়েছে। ‘বিনামূল্যে সিনেমা, গেম, app যখন পাওয়া যাচ্ছে – তখন বই কেন দাম দিয়ে কিনব?’ এই ভাবনা থেকে অনেকেই বই অনলাইন কিনতে চাইছে না। আর এই চাহিদার সুযোগ কাজে লাগিয়ে অনেকেই ব্যক্তিগত উদ্যোগে মূল্যবান, নতুন বইয়ের পিডিএফ বানিয়ে ইন্টারনেটে ছাড়ছে। তাদের সাধুবাদ জানাচ্ছে অনেকেই, সংকটে পাশে থাকার জন্য। কিন্তু একই সঙ্গে তা বইয়ের ব্যবসায়ীদের কফিনে শেষ পেরেকটিও ঠুকে দিচ্ছে।

একটা বই প্রকাশ পাওয়ার এক বছরের মধ্যেই যদি পিডিএফ চলে আসে এবং বাজারে বিনামূল্যে পাওয়া যায়, কেউ সেটা আর দোকান থেকে কিনতে যাবে না। বাড়িতে পড়াতে পড়াতে প্রায়শই এমন অভিজ্ঞতা হচ্ছে – কোনও রেফারেন্স বইয়ের নাম বললেই শুনতে হচ্ছে, ‘পিডিএফ পাওয়া যাবে না?’ আমাদের খুঁজে বার করতেও হচ্ছে, কারণ লকডাউনের বাজারে তারা আর কোথায় বই পাবে? কিন্তু সমস্যা হচ্ছে, এই যে বই থেকে সরতে থাকা- লকডাউন পরবর্তী সময়েও এটাই আমাদের অভ্যাস হয়ে যাবে। আমরা আর ছুঁয়ে দেখব না হার্ডকভার, পেপারব্যাক, নানা রঙের নানা গন্ধের বই। আমরা আর কখনও চিনব না কাগজে ছাপা অক্ষরের দিকে তাকিয়ে ভাবনায় হারিয়ে যাওয়ার সুখ। আমাদের ছেলেমেয়েরা ছোট্ট স্ক্রিনে, চোখের সর্বনাশ করে ক্ষুদে ক্ষুদে হরফ পড়বে। সাবধানী মা-বাবারা কিন্ডল কিনে দেবেন। বেড়ে উঠবে ফ্রি পিডিএফ ডাউনলোডিং সাইট। আর ক্রমশ অন্ধকারে হারিয়ে যাবে বইপাড়া। আমরা আর বই পড়ব না, বই লিখবও না, ক্রমশ আরও নতুন নতুন ডিজিটালাইজড উপায় বের করব সরাসরি লেখা ছাপানোর। আর মানুষ সভ্যতার ইতিহাসে পাওয়া এক মহার্ঘ্য আশীর্বাদ স্রেফ অনভ্যাসে ভুলে যাবে। ভুলে যাবে লেখা, ভুলে যাবে তাকে হাতেকলমে সংরক্ষণের উপায়।

তারপর একদিন কারও ফোন চুরি হবে। ল্যাপটপ খারাপ হয়ে যাবে। হঠাৎ বিচ্ছিন্ন হয়ে যাবে বিদ্যুৎ সংযোগ। আর দিশেহারা হয়ে সে দেখবে, তার আর কোনও উপায় নেই লেখাগুলোর কাছে ফিরে যাওয়ার। সে ছুটবে বহুদিন না যাওয়া বইয়ের দোকানে, আর দেখবে, সেখানে মিউজিয়াম তৈরি হয়ে গেছে এক দশক হল।

আমাদের বইয়ের কাছে না ফিরে উপায় নেই। যতই ডিজিটাল সংরক্ষণ হোক… সে জিনিস আদতে কিছু ডেটা মাত্র, যা tangible নয়। আমাদের কিছু ইন্দ্রিয়গ্রাহ্য উপায় রাখতেই হবে আলাদা করে… যাতে ভবিষ্যতের কোনও বৈদ্যুতিন মহামারী আমাদের জ্ঞান থেকে বিচ্ছিন্ন করে না দেয়।

বই কিনুন। বই কিনতে বলুন। পিডিএফ এত সহজলভ্য করে দেবেন না। যখন না হলেই নয়, যখন কারও উপায় নেই, সাধ্য নেই, শুধু তখনই এর সাহায্য নিন। যে সত্যিই পড়তে চাইছে তার হাতে একটা বই কিনে তুলে দিন। কিনতে যেতে পারছেন না? তাহলেও পিডিএফ নয়… সত্যিকারের বই ডেলিভারি দেয় যে অনলাইন সাইটগুলো, তাদের অর্ডার দিন, বাড়িতে পৌঁছে দেবে।

যে মানুষগুলো প্রেসে অক্লান্ত পরিশ্রম করে, বই বাঁধে, গাড়ি টেনে দোকানে বই নিয়ে যায়, যারা দোকানে দাঁড়িয়ে নিরন্তর আউড়ে চলে বইয়ের তালিকা, যারা ছাপার যন্ত্র বানায়, যারা কাগজ বেচে, যারা প্রুফ দেখে … যে বই প্রকাশ করে… যে বই লেখে…. এদের সবার, সবার ভবিষ্যৎ আমাদের পাঠকের হাতে। আমরা যেন বিনা খরচে জ্ঞানলাভের শর্টকাট নিতে গিয়ে একটা গোটা পৃথিবীকে নষ্ট করে না দিই।

ভবিষ্যতের পৃথিবীতে লাইব্রেরিরা যেন এক-একটা স্মৃতিসৌধ হয়ে না ওঠে।

Application of Biotechnology in Food Spoilage – A Promising Career Option for Students

The demand for Biotechnology is increasing especially in India. Today, India is among the top twelve countries in the world in terms of the size of the Biotech sector, and the Biotech industry in India is expected to grow at a rate of 22% year-to-year. Today the Biotech sector in India comprises more than 600 core Biotech companies, 2600 start-ups, and 50 BIRAC-supported incubators. The Indian Biotech industry today is valued at $64 billion and is expected to reach $150 by 2024-25. Therefore, students opting for Biotechnology as their UG or PG program would have more job offers in the future, and those students who would like to pursue research in Biotechnology as their career would have more opportunities due to the constant support by the Indian Government. There are several applications of Biotechnology which are beneficial for human and society. Here we are going to discuss the food spoilage problem in India and how biotechnological invention can help to reduce spoilage and increase the efficiency of the Food Technology companies.

The population is increasing day by day which will result in a further increase in demand for food. A large percentage of food is lost due to bacteria-mediated plant diseases. Prevention or treatment of these could thus be a solution to partly meet the increasing demand for food in the future. Postharvest losses are another reason for food loss by bacterial spoilage. Bacteria can contaminate and spoil food products at different stages before consumption and in many cases bacteria forms biofilms, a type of microbial community, which is hard to remove even by various antimicrobial agents. Application of bacteriophages as biopesticides, food preservative, or biotherapeutic agents is a valid and logically alternative to antibiotics to combat various bacterial diseases. Bacteriophage or phage is a virus that infects and kills bacteria. Lytic phages (that kills bacteria) are possibly one of the most harmless (for human) antibacterial approaches available which can be used as a food preservative. Phage therapy is found effective as both preharvest and postharvest interventions to control a wide range of foodborne pathogens such as Salmonella spp., Campylobacter spp., Listeria spp., Escherichia spp., etc.

The majority of the studies demonstrated that phage therapy has the potential to become the main approach in reducing the foodborne pathogens in the food-producing animals and also in fresh and processed food. The increasing demand for products which include raw milk, fish meat, vegetables, and fruits, has an impact on the increasing demand for rapid and safe methods of pathogen elimination from food. Bacteriophage preparations are one of the most prominent innovative answers to eliminate bacteria from food products that will not affect the taste, smell, texture, and appearance of the “preserved food product”. Phage can act in various ways in the food industry, it can reduce foodborne pathogen levels in animals and consequently control the pathogen load on entry at the slaughterhouses, or phage can act as biocontrol of pathogens in foods which seem to be a promising alternative to traditional food safety and preservation measures. However, there are still many quarries that have to be resolved such as phage-bacteria interactions, the efficacy of the phage treatment, and the phage resistance issues. Phage treatment may also increase food price which may not be welcomed by the producers and consumers. Above all consumer must be aware of the concept and advantages of a phage-based biocontrol approach.

Students after completion of their 10+2 studies can opt for B.Sc in Biotechnology or B.Tech in Biotechnology as both the programs have Food Technology as one of the major papers. Also, science stream students after completion of their bachelor’s degree can opt for M.Sc in Biotechnology where they can choose Food Technology as specialization. At Adamas University, Kolkata, the School of Life Science & Biotechnology offers B.Sc Biotechnology (Hons.), B.Tech Biotechnology, and M.Sc Biotechnology programs and students interested in Food Technology can select any of these courses as all these programs have Food Technology as one of an integral part of the course structure. The demand for the Food Technology course is increasing in India as more and more companies are venturing into the food sector. Life today has become fast and everyone is busy, and therefore, no time to cook food at home. For this reason, the demand for pre-cooked or semi-cooked food is increasing in India and also increasing the requirement for better food preservatives. Only through Biotechnological invention, we can get a new type of preservatives which would be harmless and keep the food fresh for a long time.

 

Photonic Crystal fiber: A new solution in contemporary global technology

Optical fiber is a filament of transparent dielectric material like glass or plastic usually cylindrical in shape which is a guidance system for light. Guidance of light is achieved through multiple total internal reflections (TIR) at the fiber walls. There are some optical fibers which have been designed for the special purpose called ‘special fiber’ having non-cylindrical core and cladding layer, generally, an elliptical or rectangular cross-section. ‘Crystals’ always represents periodic structures in space. In the electronics industry, crystal structure control and manipulate electrons as it creates energy gaps by allowing only electrons with certain energies to propagate with preventing the propagation of other energies.

Can analogous energy gaps be designed for the light propagation in a medium?

Photonic crystal: Science or nature

We can control light or ‘photon’ propagation in a periodic medium by any materials that create energy gaps for light propagation and it is referred to as a ‘photonic crystal’.

Photonic crystal structure is possible in fiber when it is made with a regular pattern of index variation. Light is confined within such fiber by diffraction effects instead of or in addition to total internal reflection, to the fiber’s core. The properties of the fiber can be customized to a wide variety of applications.

Photonic crystals are not innovative to our nature. They have been observed in the bright coloured coats of insects such as longhorns.  Various species are able to show different colours by varying the periodicity of the crystals. Peacock feather, Morpho butterfly, sea mouse hair, natural opals etc. are brilliant existence of natural photonic crystal. Modification of chameleon skin colour is possible by changing the periodicity of the photonic crystals on its skin.

Picture courtsey: Science Direct (Longhorn species, different colours by varying the periodicity of the crystals)

Introducing pathway by Philip Russell

In 1996, Philip Russell first demonstrated PCF structure. He proposed that the designing and fabrication method of PCF depends on the number of dimensions that the photonic band gap must exist such as one dimensional, 2-dimensional and three-dimensional. The photonic crystal structures due to periodic variation of dielectric along the different (one, two and three) direction.

  1. Index-guiding PCFs

The index-guiding PCF has solid core same as conventional optical fiber. It is made by packing a series of hollow glass capillary tubes around a solid glass core that runs through the center. This fiber guides light by TIR, because the cladding with its air holes effectively has a lower refractive index than the core.

  1. Photonic band gap fiber

In photonic band gap fiber, the core is a region with an extra hole, which is low-index defect. The cladding, therefore, has a higher refractive index than the core and so guidance by conventional TIR is not possible. In this case, the light is actually guided along the low-refractive-index air core by a photonic band-gap confinement effect.

Picture courtsey: Laser focus world (Figure a, b & c, PCF manufacture by Stack and draw technique),Google image (Figure d ,PCF spool, commercially available in market),Google image (Figure e cross sectional view of hollow-core PCF), http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.109.024502 (Figure f, Light guided in hollow-core PCF)

Manufacture and Commercial availability of PCF, which change different global technology

Most of the PCF manufacturer use stack-and-draw technique to design PCF, which basically consist with following steps: firstly, constructs a “preform” on the scale of centimetres in size, then heats the preform and draws it down to a much smaller like a human hair diameter, maintaining the same features of preform. Over 50 companies offer PCF all around world with different specifications like Thorlabs, NKT Photonics, Newport, YSL Photonics, Fiberware, GLOPhotonics SAS, ELUXI Ltd. etc. In India, CGCRI-Kolkata is front line PCF manufacturer.

Benefit of PCF, why technology demand it?

Ascending from a technology stalwartly attentive on telecommunications, recently optical fiber is expanding in some diverse fields as biotechnology, astronomy and medicine. One particularly attractive feature of PCF structures is highly uniformity over long distances. This means that when light launched in at one end of fiber has time to sort itself out into a single mode. It permits highly reproducible detectability. Essentially, undesirable cladding modes are efficiently filtered out before they can interfere with any measurement which increase quality of any measurement.

In 2000, most celebrated application of PCF is supercontinuum generation from un-amplified Ti:sapphire femtosecond laser pulses at 800 nanometer wavelength. Thereafter, hollow core PCF(HCPCF) has been utilized in many captivating applications, such as gas-Raman cells for high efficiency, low threshold color-conversion of laser light. In 2002, HCFCF was used in laser-tweezer propulsion and guidance of small particles along a curved path. Recently, demand of HCPCF increase in area of optical sensing, with myriad opportunities crossing many fields which includes environmental detection, biomedical sensing, and structural monitoring.

Contemporary Laser and Sensing technology

Commercially available white light supercontinuum sources are speedily becoming an essential tool in laboratories worldwide and in commercial microscopes. High power industrial PCF based laser research, manufacture and use are overwhelming day by day. The advantages of PCF based laser are low operating costs, high beam quality and high efficiency in a maintenance-free format with a small footprint and low weight.

Many bio-hazardous gases, includes methane and hydrogen halides have their absorption in the near infrared region. In gas sensing process, gas is allowed to enter into the surrounding holes in the PCF as it will absorb the evanescent light from the core fiber. Depending on the intensity of the absorption wavelength, the output power is reduced strongly at the wavelength of interest. Similar mechanism is also followed for sensing fluids and biomolecules. Likewise, PCF laser, PCF based sensor research are encouraging sensor market as within a few years it could share at a significant way and are projected to be the industry standard.  

If anybody is interested to utilize photonics as sensing technology, then future industry will bring a huge market for the accessory instruments with a numerous of other advantage.  There will be increasing demand for more effective cleavers, low-loss splicers, multi-port couplers, intra-fiber devices, and mode-area transformers etc. Government of any country should invest on PCF based laser or sensor project. R & D sector needs to think more. Consequently, through photonic crystal fiber based technology, we are approaching superior technology, huge job opportunity and an improved world.

Atoms to Quarks…A Quest for Ultimate Structure of Matter

Human mind always thrived to venture the uncharted territories of unknown. Tiny constituents of matter, energy and their relation with cosmology are ventured by enthusiast of Particle Physics. Investigations are carried out to probe deeper into the structure of matter in order to seek at every stage the constituents of previously so called ‘Fundamental Entity’. In our search of ultimate structure of matter, it was only known that the atom is basic constituents of matter and it is electrically neutral as a whole.

 

Atom Model:

The quest for fundamental particle inspirited by J.J. Thomson to look inside the atom with the discovery of electron in 1897 and an era of fundamental particles began. Thomson conception of atom- first suggested in1903. He imagined that atom consists of positive sphere of electrification within which were the negative electrons where all positively and negatively charges are uniformly distributed within a sphere of radius ~10-10m making the atom electrically neutral.

This Plum Pudding model of Thomson is challenged by Rutherford by his pioneering experiment of large angle scattering of Alpha particles (α) by thin gold foil in 1911. Rutherford showed such conception of atom model could not possibly account for the number of alpha particles scattered through large angles in Geiger and Marsden’s experiment. Alpha particle (2He4) is a positively charged particle and the particle suffers an intense repulsive electrostatic force and found to scatter almost at an angle more than 1500.  The core of atom is alleged to consist of a minute positively charged nucleus which provides the intense electric field. Under the action of central inverse square law of force of repulsion, the path of α particle will be a hyperbola with nucleus as external focus.

A plot of the scattering angle vs number of scattered particle shows that the positively charged particles (protons) are concentrated at a core called nucleus. Thus suggesting the fact that ‘the atom has structure’! He also showed that the effect of the electrons outside the nucleus is negligible for deflection of α particle more than 10. Rutherford succeeded in estimating the size of the nucleus subsequently. He also discovered proton in 1919.

 Long before the ninetinth century it was known from experimental observation that the elements emit line spectra and there are similarities in appearance of the spectra of different alkai metals. Some genuine explanation on these series spectra were extended by Balmer, Rydberg and others but there was little idea of the nature of mechanism in the atoms responsible for emission of spectral lines of characteristic fequencies. In 1900 Planck explained the law of blackbody radiation postulating that radiation of energy is not emitted or absorbed in cotinuous manner but in the form of discrete ‘Quanta’ of energy of magnitude ‘hν’ where h is Planck’s constant.

The first concept of quatum behaviour of nature. This discrete quanta is now known as photon named by G.N Lewis later on. Bhor has used all these concept to explain the spectrum of hydrogen. His postulates are based on discrete nature of atomic spectra in particular certain spectral lines of  Hydrogen spectra in visible range (Balmer Series). In 1913 Bohr put forward his model for atoms with his postulates where the negatively charged electrons are suggested to be moving around the nucleus in some quantized stationary orbits. If an electron made a quantum jump from a statinary orbit, it will radiate frequency ν of energy hν. He is the key figure for driving the subsequent theoretical development of Quantum Mechanics. His explanation for line spectra may be considered as the first triumph of Quantum Dynamics too. With Bohr postulates we come across a picture of an atoms with nucleus at the centre and electrons moving around in quantized orbit.

The complete picture of an atom was yet to be obtained. The Helium nucleus is found to be more massive than the prediction. Scientists were sure about the fact that something is missing with the discrepencies between mass number and atomic numbers. In the year 1932 James Chadwick discovered a particle named neutron from the Cavendish Laboratoty. His discovery comes from the apparant incompatibility of the energy momentum conservation of bombarment of  Beryllium by alpha particle.The discovery of neutron completely reshaped the lanscape in the field of Nuclear and Particle Physics. 

Deep Inelastic Scattering Experiments (DIS) and Quark Model: 

In our quest for atomic structure we come across three elementary particles. Electron which is a Lepton (small mass), proton and neutron. Elementary particles are the particles to which no  internal structure can be assigned. But much more surprises were waiting for physicists as more experimental results on scattering at much higher energy started to arrive.

In high energy accelerators, electrons are accelerated at very high energy and allowed to scatter from a stationary proton. Proton gets disrupted due to high energies and produce various new particles. In such an inelastic scattering, the scattering cross section is found to drop abruptly while over all cross section of events producing the other particles remains almost constant. This type of scattering guides us to the recent depiction of proton. This experimental result suggests that proton possess three point of deflection and it has structure!

In order to search for the sub structure of hadrons (baryons like proton and also mesons) Gell Mann and Zweig put forward their Eightfold way in 1961 and Quark hypothesis.  They have suggested that all baryons and mesons are composed of a much fundamental ‘entity’ of fractional electric charge which they named Quarks. Baryons are supposed to be three quarks                         

system whereas meson is quark anti-quark system. They first proposed the existence of fractionally charged particles. Initially three types of quark flavour are suggested (up, down, Strange). Proton consists of three quarks namely two up(u) quarks, a down quark (d) whereas neutron consists of two down quarks and a up quark. Subsequently more three type quarks are suggested making the number of quark flavour six in total to account for the structure of zoo of subatomic particles discovered later on. Six types of leptons are known. Probably the Quark-Lepton symmetry of nature will restrict the number of quarks upto six although QCD, theory of strong interaction predicts more types of quarks theoretically. So the Fundamental particles includes quarks, leptons and mediators who are the bosons mediating the basic interactions.

Quantum Chromo Dynamics (QCD) which is dynamics of strong interaction is characterised by Asymptotic Freedom and Confinement. Each quark can come into three colours-Red, Green and Blue in order to honour Pauli Exclusion Principle. Permanent confinement of quarks inside hadrons prevents us to observe a free quark- a consequence of the fact that all physical observable of states of nature are colour neutral.

Study of the structure of proton revealed that it is not a fundamental particle. So in our quest to ultimate structure of matter, we ended up with electrons and quarks (the constituent of proton and neutrons) which are elementary particles constituting an atom. The modern picture of atom can be seen in the picture above… electrons moving around and nucleus consists of quarks. This wonderful journey of Particle physics in search of the structure of atom from electrons to quark extends almost 75 years! First imagination of atom model came from Thomson and gradually we move forward with subsequent steps. In science each and every step is great either right or wrong as Newton said ‘If I have seen further than others, it is by standing upon the shoulders of giants’!!

The story does not end here. We have a long way to go. Proton is not as simple as consisting of three valence quarks only. Last picture shows its probable structure. It has a sea of virtual clouds consisting quark-anti quark pairs. As we probe smaller and smaller distances i.e. at higher energies, the structure seems to be more and more complicated. Till we know little about proton size, shape, mass, magnetic moment and spin. The size and shape of proton is yet to be determined which is very important as we know geometry depicts the interaction. Some theoretical investigations suggest that it can have fractal structure!!.The discovery by EMC collaboration indicates that constituent quarks appear to contribute very little to the proton spin which is termed as Proton spin crisis. Recent experiments suggest proton can have strange quark virtual sea in addition to up and down quarks and contribution from gluons, the mediator of quark-quark interaction. Deep inside proton may discover a new state of matter. In fact Proton may contain a universe inside!

 Science is always an adventure, scientists love mysteries. This never ending journey is no less wonderful than that of journey of ‘Alice in Wonderland’. In the end let us remember famous quote by Rutherford himself ‘All of Physics is either impossible or trivial. It is impossible until you understand it, and then it becomes trivial’!!! 

Till let journey continue….

Courtesy :  Pictures from Google.

Impact of Covid-19 on Private Consumption Expenditure-An overview

Co-Contributor : Mr. Mainak Chakraborty, Teaching Assistant, School of Management, Adamas University

Curtain – raiser

Consumers are the backbone of any economy. The consumption expenditure adds up to a significant amount in GDP. The world economy, as well as the Indian economy, was on a slow track since the inception of 2020. The industries were assumed to grow by 3.2% whereas the service sector was expected to grow by 7.2%. The GDP was expected to grow by 5.1% in 2020 – 2021, the reason which is mentioned behind this is the credit crunch mostly from the NBFCs. The gross share of this was expected to be contributed by the consumer-focused businesses in India.

The History Unfolds

After opening up the Indian economy in 1991, consumers got more choices of goods than before since more and more foreign brands are entering to capture the market, and the Indian customers are getting more choices available. In rural India, for FY2018, the annual consumption growth stood at around 9.7%. At the same time, urban India has seen a growth rate of 8.6%. The spending is more and more characterized by durables, health and personal care products, foods and beverages, etc. In 2020 it was expected to grow by 9 – 10%. Indian   FMCG market had seen a growth of USD 31.6B to USD 70.2B at a CAGR of 9.3%. This sector expected growth to cross USD 100B in 2020 at CAGR of 20% plus

The population of 1.3B of which half are at the age bar of 25, catalyzed the growth of the Indian FMCG market. There was a sharp increase in per capita income of 8% for the last 11 years. The income pyramid is also facing a sharp change, where the middle-class population is expected to increase to 58.3 crores by 2025 which also changes the consumption pattern as people looking desperately to evade poverty and to move up the ladder. Also, the trend of becoming a nuclear family also increasing the consumption pattern and that increases the consumption expenditure by 20% – 30%. The logic as stated is that in a joint family if someone desire to buy something for his or her children, he or she has to buy the same thing for all other children in the house, which sometimes becomes impossible.

But a mixture of macro and microeconomic factors, global crisis, consolidation of many small players of the market with big players pushed the way to slow down. Due to weak consumer demand, more than dozens of daily use consumer goods have seen a slowdown, even some commonly used goods like soap, cream, shampoo, biscuits, skin creams have seen a single-digit growth during the FY19.

The Crisis

The pandemic starting from China enters India at the end of February, where most cases were detected in Kerala first. After the middle of March, as the cases started increasing, all transportation and other activities needed to be shut down in a phased manner. At first, locality and state-wise lockdowns were imposed, then the whole country was put under a lockdown scenario. All types of communications were stopped, total country except emergency services was put into a standstill. This is going to affect massively, on what India will consume in the next 6 – 8 quarters. As communication is stopped, there is minimal transportation of finished products. Markets are closed. Before the announcement of lockdown, there was panic buying among the consumers. The demand for daily essentials sore high, in some places black markets, developed. But when all stopped, there was excessive demand but a fewer supply of products and essentials. Even medicines also were out of stock in some places. The wholesalers and distributors from metro cities could not be able to meet up the demand as the production halted. Side by side, the production units also stopped, due to lack of labors, raw materials. They also suffer a loss due to not able to clear the finished products. SMEs got hit very badly. Migrant laborers failed to return to their homes.

During 21 days lockdown period it was estimated that it would cost merely INR 7 to 8 lakh crores. Almost 70% of the activity related to production, investment, and other business activities are now at standstill. It is also estimated that there will be a loss of INR 7.5 lakh crores in terms of GDP.

Along with that the demand for power and fuel also will decrease in tandem with other essentials. A steady decline in demand for petrol by 64%, diesel by 61% can be seen, as the commercial transport as well as private transports are on a halt. Airports are closed, the aviation fuel just evaporated at a rate of 94%. But, as all the members of a family are staying at home, the demand for domestic gas has risen by 21%, whereas the restaurants, hotels, food courts are closed, there is a sharp decrease in demand for commercial gas. Production has been shortened by almost 50%. The power sector faced a steady fall of 26% due to a lack of industry demand shows in the following table –

The Aftermath

Consumer spending can be categorized in different areas – some are for daily essentials, some are for luxury.

The food and grocery items, in which the consumer spending is about USD 550 Billion, seems to bleed lesser than other sectors. The retail channels like Spencers, Big Bazar, More Supermarket, are affected most in terms of volume of sales, but the local grocery shops are maintaining their sales steadily. So this sector is likely to be less impacted. But lifestyle foods like health supplements, packed frozen foods, will be getting a high impact.

In the second place the textile and apparel industry where consumer spending is around USD 65 Billion, will get a bad shock. They are currently struggling with finished and semi-finished goods, and after the lockdown period, the raw material crisis. Many big players in this category may suffer a huge loss. The branded products will be getting a negative customer sentiment after opening up as the income of consumers is also supposed to decrease to be spent on these items. In coming festive seasons, if the situation improves, then also it will take a little bit of time to normalize the operations.

So it is evident that two of the major segments will face a slowdown maybe till 2022 and branded players in both textile and apparel and food and grocery market have to face more shock as consumers will look for discounted buying as they will going to have less money to spend. Branded items will need to be offered at a discount at par to market.

Next comes the consumer electronics segment, which accounts for nearly USD 50 Billion. This sector will face the music initially but will be the first sector to rise from the ashes very soon, which is in the last quarter of 2020 or early. The summer essentials like AC, Fridge, Air Coolers, Cool Water Filters, will get their demand back, as India faces a long summer in most parts of the country.

The other branded manufacturers like footwear, home and living, and other luxury goods, it will be a tuff time ahead. It is expected that up to March 2021 they will face a slow down because spending will be much lower. Jem and Jewellery industry will also face a similar type of setback.

The Ending

It took more than 10 years to get out of the great depression of the 1930s. In 2008 the world saw another setback for the world economy. Now nobody knows when this pandemic will be over, as the fight is still on to find out vaccines or proper medicines. Lockdowns are a partial solution of this pandemic but no country can ignore the adverse effect on its economy. Every country is dependent on consumer expenditure to improve their GDP. But if this is halted, it will be very tuff to recover in recent times.

References:

  1. FICCI Economic Outlook Survey – January 2020.
  2. https://economics.rabobank.com/publications/2020/january/india-economic-outlook-2020/
  3. https://www.livemint.com/news/india/what-google-tells-us-about-lockdown-impact-in-india-s-biggest-cities-11585634729068.html
  4. https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/economy/indicators/45-billion-of-discretionary-spending-may-be-locked-down/articleshow/74800637.cms?from=mdr
  5. http://mospi.nic.in/134-private-final-consumption-expenditure
  6. https://m.economictimes.com/industry/energy/oil-gas/fuel-sales-slump-50-in-april-petrol-down-64-diesel-61-atf-94/articleshow/75200049.cms
  7. https://energy.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/power/coronavirus-impact-within-ten-days-26-per-cent-fall-in-indias-energy-consumption/74854825

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AS ROOTS OF BIOINFORMATICS

Student Contributor: Shagufta Quazi, B.Sc. Biotechnology, 3rd year, Adamas University

In the 1960s, where the health informatics originate, computer algorithms become very useful in processing and handling a large quantity of data. With the availability of numerous types of Artificial Intelligence algorithms, it has become popular among researchers as they can easily explore more information understandably, annotated with description, precision assessments, and explanations. The National Institute of Health (NIH) claims that precision medicine is the best approach for preventing and curing diseases but with the aid of powerful supercomputers and innovative algorithms, it can be more comprehensible.

Bioinformatics is an interdisciplinary field comprising mainly genetics, molecular biology, computer science, mathematics, and statistics. The most basic issues involve modeling biological mechanisms at the molecular level and interpreting results from gathered information. Typically, a bioinformatics approach includes the following steps:

  • Gathering information from biological evidence.
  • Creating a database of computations.
  • Solving a problem regarding computational modeling.
  • Testing and assessing computer algorithms.

Artificial intelligence (A.I.) can be referred to as a computer imitating human thinking and behavior so that they can perform some tasks ordered by humans. Researchers have been using AI technologies tremendously, for classification of biological sequences, identification of biological entities, determining characteristics and this includes gathering, organizing, and evaluating large quantities of data, which is beyond human beings.

AI can be a big help to bioinformatics, in some fields like:

  • Generative Modelling for Protein Structures: Since it is impossible to compare and learn about true data distribution, the generative models tends to learn the true interpretation of the distribution of data, so that the distributed data that has been generated seems similar to the original one. In this case, GANs (Generative Adversarial Networks) are used, which involves the pairing of a generator (learns to give output) with a discriminator (learns to compare true data from the output). So, these two are neural networks in which the generator attempts to produce the actual image and the discriminator attempts to decide if the image generated is false or true. For eg. GANs are used to produce protein structure and the incomplete pieces of compromised protein structure are predicted. The data includes the use of 3D protein structure which is interpreted as the 2D pairwise alpha-carbon size. 
  • DNA Sequencing: DNA sequencing involves determining the order of nucleotide sequences (A, T, G, and C) in a DNA strand, but due to the involvement of massive data crunching, complete DNA sequencing was not feasible, as every organism has its unique nucleotide sequences. Companies such as Deep Genomics uses artificial intelligence to help researchers to understand genetic variation. Particularly, algorithms are built based on patterns found in broad genetic data sources which are then converted into computer models to help people know how key cellular processes influence genetic variation. Next-Generation Sequencing has encompassing new DNA sequencing methods, allowing researchers to sequence an entire human genome in a single day relative to the traditional Sanger sequencing process, which took completion over a decade when the human genome was first sequenced.
  • Protein Classification: Proteins include polypeptides and polypeptides include simple amino acid chains. Such chains form a functional protein by folding into the final three-dimensional structure. Proteins are classified into various groups according to their biological function. Although most proteins have a similar primary structure and common evolutionary origin, hence it’s hard to classify proteins. One approach is to create a computer program that compares the unspecified amino acid sequence with the recognized protein sequences, and returns the desired protein classification. Appropriate protein analysis and recognition are of crucial significance since they are essential for much of an organism’s main functions.
  • Knowledge Discovery in Biological Databases: Knowledge Discovery from Databases (KDD) is a developing field incorporating database processing methods, artificial intelligence, and statistics. It has been recognized that computational methods are required to combine and analyze heterogeneous knowledge to select genetic variations and properties of functional interactions that have a beneficial influence on the biological outcome of the whole organism. Artificial Intelligence can help bring additional insight into an ever-increasing and voluminous biological information. There is already a large body of biological data available, and their successful use involves the retrieval of valuable data.
  • Computer-Aided Drug Design (CADD): Computer-aided drug design uses statistical methods for the identification, creation, and study of drugs and related biologically active molecules. CADD is highly based on IT, databases, and computing tools.  AI can successfully handle those activities. The CADD may be used by simulated screening or the stage of lead optimization at different stages of drug development such as target recognition.

With numerous types of AI algorithms available, it has become popular for researchers to use programs that can identify and exploit their datasets. Scientists need strategies that coherently access the data, annotated with meaning, precise estimations, and descriptions. In bioinformatics, artificial intelligence (AI) can be used to model biological data as well as to make new findings.

COVID-19 Risk Assessment in India: A Predictive Model

Swarnava Biswas1 and Moumita Mukherjee2

1PhD Research Scholar, Department of Physics, Adamas University, India

2Associate Professor, Department of Physics, Adamas University, India

nCOVID 19: About the disease 

Human Corona virus was first perceived during the 1960s. Enormous variety of this virus is available in nature and in 2002 we witnessed the severity of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome CoV (SARSCoV) that executed from southern China and affected world population severely [1-3] . Later it tainted the Middle East areas as the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome CoV (MERS-CoV), that caused 919 people to die with an outstandingly high mortality rate of 35%[4]. In December 2019, it has returned in Wuhan, China, in mutated form of Novel Corona Virus and has spread over 199 countries and affected more than three million of world population till date with killing more than 3 lakhs of people (Source: World Health Organization 2020) until this point of time. World Health Organization has declared this as ‘pandemic’ by the middle of March 2020. In absence of any antiviral treatments for nCOVID-19, the most important strategy to reduce the affected number of population (and in turn mortality) is by introducing classical lockdown mechanism. According to that health prescription, the major portion of world is now eventually locked down due to the outbreak of nCOVID-19. 

The Basics of Mathematical Modelling: 

The fast and relentless spread nCOVID-19 has segmented the populace into four classes, such as susceptible, exposed, infected and recovered. Adapting the classical SEIR- type epidemic model, using differential equations, appropriate boundary conditions, the direct person-to-person contact transmission is taken as the direct route of transmission of nCOVID-19 pandemic. The authors have developed a generalised self-consistent statistical model through Python and R- Programming language by adopting several real nodes of societal impacts for contaminations. The authors initially determined the parameters of the model from the accessible day to day information for Indian states from initial 35 days history of diseases, recuperations and deaths. The determined parameters have been amassed to extend future patterns for the Indian subcontinent, where we are still at the beginning of the contamination cycle peak.

Susceptible- Exposed- Infectious- Recovered (SEIR) – type epidemiological models for the modelling of the Infectious disease studies was first proposed by Kermack– McKendrick in 1927. Infectious diseases are caused when certain types of parasites invade into a host. In SEIR models, people in a population are partitioned into susceptible (?), exposed/latent (?), infectious (?) and recovered/removed (?) individuals, and the models are alluded to on the premise of the contamination’s statuses of included people. Susceptible people can be defined as the individuals who have a probability to get infected. Exposed people are those, who are not infectious, but they have been exposed to the disease and at the same time they are infected. Infectious people can spread the infection. Recovered people are those, who have recovered from the infection. The evaluation and propagation of nCOVID-19 infections in India can also be modelled and predicted with the help of said SEIR model.

What factors influence the spreading of pandemic? 

The main parameters which are used to simulate the situation are as follows:

Growth rate, which is defined as the number of rise-in infections of nCOVID-19 in India due to the interactions between the susceptible and infected populations. It depends on various factors such as population, reproduction number of nCOVID-19, mobility, precautionary measures etc. Recovery rate is defined as, the rate at which the infected persons get recovered. Contact rates are defined as the number of susceptible people, an infectious person contact. Among 7,290 individuals in eight European nations, the normal contacts per individual was 13.4 with a nation scope of 7.95 (Germany) to 19.77 (Italy). Young people had the most noteworthy contact rate (18) contrasted with adults 20-60 (13), and olds 60+ (8) [5-6].For the case of India, we have assumed an initial contact rate of 12 to optimize the model. But gradually when the nation-wide lock-down is imposed from 24th March 2020 and declared to be continued up to the 1st week of May 2020, then the authors modified the contact rate in the model and decreases it by 60%. Transmissibility is defined as the probability that a contact between a susceptible person and an infected person results in infection. The value used, 1.7%, was estimated by comparing the Reproduction Number (R0) in community settings (1.4 to 3.9) with a normal contact rate and a cruise ship (14.8) which has a high contact rate. R0 varies with contact rate whereas transmissibility and removal rate (inverse of duration of infectiousness) were kept constant [7-8]. Reproduction Number (R0) is defined as the number of secondary cases resulting from one case. Mathematically it can be obtained as the product of Contact Rate, Transmissibility and Removal Rate.  Estimates for nCOVID-19 have been between 1.4 to 3.9.  The inverse of R0, (1-(1/R0)) is the proportion of the population who need to be infected (or vaccinated) for transmission to no longer be self-sustaining.  R0 is also an indication of the effectiveness of community interventions. An R0 less than 1 indicates transmission has stopped [9].The authors have found that from 10 early cases in China showed the mean serial interval (time between successive cases) was 7.5 days with a Standard Deviation (SD) of 3.4 days. A more recent estimate among 468 cases was 3.96 days with a 4.75-day SD[10].But in the current context of India, the authors noticed that, a patient is taking minimum 14 days to get recovered. So, for this case of nCOVID-19 modelling in India, the authors have taken duration of Infection as 14 days. Various errors such as square integral error, terminal error and terminal rate error between the actual data and predicted data are minimized by optimizing different set-parameters. 

What is the predicted scenario for India from our study?

After 15th March, 2020, nCOVID-19 infection in India started to show an exponential trend. The SEIR model has been simulated and all the parameters have been optimised based on infection trends obtained for India for nearly 50 days (up to 20th of May 2020). The differential equations have been solved by using Python and R- Programming languages. The forecasted data are showed graphically in Figure 1.

Figure 1: The prediction of COVID-19 pandemic in India with withdrawal of lock-down (in absence of test kit for asymptomatic population, migrated labour influence and considering full withdrawal of lockdown order (if full normalization is implemented by opening / running everything at its full strength)

Due to the unavailability of test kits and consequently lack of testing of all asymptomatic individuals in India, during this lockdown period,, migrated labour influence, withdrawal of lockdown and opening of public and private sectors to its full pace, the simulated peak may rise to as high as 10 Crore of total population by middle of July , after the lockdown is withdrawn on 17th May. The effect of lockdown is clearly reflected in the flattening of curve, i.e. the peak will reach to 10 Crore within the time interval of 120 days after lock down get withdrawn on 17th May, 2020. From Figure 2, the number of forecasted infected patients is significantly correlating with actual number of infected patients, till date, with a correlation coefficient of 0.99. Here the validity and novelty of the model is established. So, this model can be used to predict the future scenario of nCOVID-19 in India, under various adopted conditions. The authors outlined how these effects may shift, under various transmission and mediation situations.

Figure 2. Correlation of simulation result with actual scenario ( as on 14.5.2020)

If the nation-wide lock down was not enforced from 24th March 2020, then as per the model, the contact rates of the susceptible individuals with the infected individuals would get altered. In that case the probable situation of India is forecasted in Figure 3, which is a comparison between forecasted Indian situation in lock-down (without kit test for all asymptomatic individual in India) and without lockdown scenario.

Figure 3. Comparison of (a) lock-down (in absence of test kit for asymptomatic population) and (b) no lockdown condition (s)

But the alarming fact is that, depending upon the future predictions through this model, India would be in a great danger zone, if we fail to provide test kit for all asymptomatic population in India, right now. Current Mortality rate till date in India is ~ 3%. If even this mortality rate persists then also a dangerous situation in India may arrive by mid of July, as predicted from the model. As the development pace of COVID-19 contaminations ascended on 21st March 2020, the Prime Minister of India Shri. Narendra Modi announced a supposed one-day lockdown on 22nd March 2020 in name ‘Janata Curfew’ which brought down the development pace of cases from 3.69 to 1(MOHFW, India). Being a nation of 100 million individuals the viability of conferring lockdown is a significant obstacle to the Government. A minor level of individuals despite everything act slack and careless about the lockdown have become super-spreaders of their locale. Indeed, even 0.1% of oblivious individuals of the nation are an immense populace that can spread the pandemic vivaciously.

Model suggests:

So, to control this situation, the authors are suggesting some points through the developed generalized SEIR model:

  • The main parameter which affects the total number of infected individuals is the contact rate. If a normal patient, by any chance goes near the vicinity of a nCOVID-19 patient without any preventive measure, then the probability of getting infected of a susceptible person increase rapidly. So, to overcome this situation, the contact rate should be taken care.
  • If the contact rate can be maintained within a range of 5, then the chance to control of this pandemic situation get increased. So social distancing and isolation of infected individual is the only way out to get rid of the pandemic.
  • The transmissibly is another major factor, which can control the situation. If the nation can maintain the probability of a susceptible people to get infected, below 10%, then it will help to overcome the pandemic in the context of India.

Such measures could reduce the peak prevalence substantially, thus minimizing the pressure on public health services. The total numbers of nCOVID-19 cases are also decreasing day by day and the reproduction number (R0) reaches below 1. Therefore, the lock-down has the effect of ‘flattening’ the epidemic curve, distributing cases over a longer duration than in the absence of lock-down. The more intervention with testing for all asymptomatic population could reduce the cumulative incidence by nearly 60 per cent.

References:

  1. Drosten C, Günther S, Preiser W, Van Der Werf S, Brodt HR, Becker S, Rabenau H, Panning M, Kolesnikova L, Fouchier RA, Berger A. Identification of a novel
    coronavirus in patients with severe acute respiratory syndrome. New England journal of medicine. 2003 May 15;348(20):1967-76.
  2. Ksiazek TG, Erdman D, Goldsmith CS, Zaki SR, Peret T, Emery S, Tong S, Urbani C, Comer JA, Lim W, Rollin PE. A novel coronavirus associated with severe acute
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FEATURE WRITING: AN ESSENTIAL JOURNALISTIC CRAFT

We often use news stories and feature stories interchangeably as if they mean the same thing. The truth couldn’t be any farther. Feature stories or features, as they are more commonly called, are intrinsically different from news stories. While the line at times might become blurred, the differences sustain by and large under the general circumstances. Having said that, it is rather difficult to put the difference in specific terms.

What Is a Feature Story?

To begin with, Oxford Dictionary defines a feature article as “a newspaper or magazine article that deals in depth with a particular topic.” Cambridge Dictionary is a little more encompassing when it calls a feature article as, “a special article in a newspaper or magazine, or a part of a television or radio broadcast that deals with a particular subject.” In very simple parlance, feature stories emphasize on people, places and issues that affect the lives of readers.

Let us take a very simple example. A story that narrates the plight of the homeless people in Mumbai can be considered to be a feature story. While it is as important as a news story, it isn’t governed by the immediacy factor. Notwithstanding, a news event can also inspire a feature story. While the news story will focus on the facts and figures and reveal the 5Ws and 1H, the feature story will adopt a specific angle and go deep into it.

A feature story is not really a hard piece of news and is distinguished by the way it is written. In fact, feature stories should be unique in their style of reporting and should have a different style of writing and expression. An apt example could be the anchor piece in a newspaper, which is invariably a feature story.

It is another thing though that news writers follow the inverted pyramid structure while feature writers go by the upright pyramid structure. To be more precise, a feature must essentially conform to the three-act structure of storytelling wherein the narrative is divided into three distinct segments – the setup, the confrontation and the resolution.

The APPLAUSE Formula

According to a popular theory, a feature story must subscribe to the APPLAUSE Formula, where each letter of the word APPLAUSE stands for the following values:

  • A                               Appeal
  • P                                Plain Facts
  • P                                Personalities
  • L                                Logic
  • A                                Action
  • U                                Universal/ Unique
  • S                                 Significance
  • E                                 Energy/ Enthusiasm

Let us now try to comprehend the significance of each of the words used above:

Appeal: A feature must evoke interest. If it doesn’t, it can’t ever become a feature story. At some level and somewhere, it must appeal to the senses of the readers. The Syrian Refugee Crisis appeals to the emotive chord of the readers and hence it is potential feature material for most of the news organizations.

Plain Facts: Facts are stranger than fiction and so goes the adage. If we are to believe this, it becomes obvious that facts sell more than fictions do. A feature report must essentially deal with facts for it to become acceptable. A reported must ensure that the feature has enough plain facts.

Personalities: Readers like celebrities. If a feature narrates the personal story of an individual who is important enough, readers will lap it up. An interview or a biographical piece can be very interesting depending on who it deals with. We can take the example of Sachin Tendulkar’s interview published in any newspaper or a news magazine. Copies of the concerned newspaper or news magazine will automatically be sold more.

Logic: Obviously, a feature story has to conform to logical considerations. If it isn’t dictated by a natural flow of facts, no one will buy the argument inherent in the story. The story has to move from one part of the subject it is dealing with to the other part seamlessly. Let us take an example. If a story talks about the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant, it has to start from how it was commissioned and flow seamlessly into an account of the protests that happened. However, if the story deliberates only on the protests without taking into consideration the background, the story will remain logically incomplete.

Action: A feature should ideally incite people into action. Only then, it fulfills its objective. What is journalism if it doesn’t spur people into doing something? The inherent purpose of journalism is to bring about a positive change and a feature is a distinct tool to do just that.

Universal/ Unique: A feature should have a decidedly universal orientation. It needs to be palatable and useful to all and sundry. It can’t necessarily target a certain section of readers alone. At the same time, the feature can do extremely well if it deals with something that is unique and essentially different.

Significance: The feature has to ideally deal with a subject matter that has impact on people’s lives. In some way or the other, the feature should have some relevance in the daily lives of people. Let us take an example. The Goods and Services Tax (GST) that was imposed on the 1st of July, 2017 has a direct repercussion on the economic lives of Indian citizens.

Energy/ Enthusiasm: A feature should be emphatic in its approach. It should be convinced about its own subject matter. In other words, a feature story needs to be energetic and enthusiastic in nature.

In The Universal Journalist, an iconic textbook on journalism, the British journalist David Randall argues for the following different types of feature stories:

Colour Piece: A feature story that essentially tries to enlighten readers on a particular theme or subject.

Fly on the Wall: A feature story that is conceived and narrated unobtrusively and mostly without the explicit permission of the subjects.

Behind the Scenes: A feature story that shifts its focus from the principal event to the background and narrates an interesting tale.

In Disguise: A feature story that is told while the storyteller is a part of the event.

Interview: A feature story that develops itself around questions asked to a respondent, who is usually in a place of prominence.

Profile: A feature story that is based on the exploits of a particular eminent person with or without his/ her interview.

How-To: A feature story that is dependent on research and helps readers in solving a problem or deciphering a scenario.

Fact Box/ Chronology: A feature story that provides plain and simple facts mostly in a chronological order.

Backgrounder/ A History of: A feature story that provides detailed information.

Full Texts: A feature story that is nothing but extracts from a book or transcripts of an interview.

Testimony: A feature story that is the first-person account of an individual.

Analysis: A feature story that scholarly analyzes an event.

Vox Pop/ Expert Roundup: A feature story that accumulates opinions from the general citizenry and thought leaders concerning a subject.

Opinion Poll: A feature story that conducts a research of opinions and presents a generalized summary of the accumulated opinions.

Review: A feature story that reviews a work of art and presents a generalized opinion.

While news items are extremely important, feature stories play the extremely critical role of building opinions and inciting actions. Features are extensively used for the purpose for advocacy as well.

Feature writing is a skill that is acquired over a period of time. Proper training modules are required to turn a naturally gifted writer into a feature writer. Only a professional and comprehensive course on journalism can do that. Just in case someone wants to take up feature writing as a conscious career choice, it is advisable that he/ she takes admission in a media school and convert his/ her passion into profession.

The forgotten “Malthusian fear” has become reality now

More than two centuries ago (1798) one gentleman named Thomas Robert Malthus gave the pioneering theory on population growth in his book An Essay on the Principle of Population. The theory based on the facts that the population growth is potentially exponential, it increases in Geometric Progression, for example, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128 etc, where 2 is the common multiple. On the other hand, the growth of the food supply or other resources must be linear; it amplifies following the Arithmetic Progression. Example: 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14 etc where 2 is the common factor for addition. Now if we imagine a situation of 200 years the population growth if is not checked undoubtedly over strip food supply which will lead to an imbalance between food supply and population growth (Figure 1).

Malthus believed that there will be nature’s mechanism to keep the balance between food supply and population growth, which he named as “checks” – Preventive check and Positive Check. Positive Checks are painful, termed as “Malthusian catastrophe” which includes premature deaths like disease, hunger, war, epidemics, famines and other natural calamities. Such positive checks will reinstate the balance between population and food supply. The escape of this fury of the positive check is the preventive check. Abstinence and delaying marriage must be adopted by man to control the population and in turn the positive checks. Restricting marriage against persons suffering in disasters perceived as unproblematic.
His theory and perception were proved spectacularly wrong and it had evoked massive criticism. Of course, none of the mathematical propositions could have been taken and applied in any region of the world. Malthus did not anticipate that the pesticides, machinery, temperature control, and other technical advances would enable huge numbers of people to be very well fed. It has been thought that Malthus’ predictions will never come true.

Was Malthus fundamentally wrong? Or was he ahead of his time?

During the COVID 19 disaster, I am reminded of Thomas Robert Malthus. WHO has declared it a global pandemic in March 2020, a word that we rarely use. Should this be called a ‘positive check’ that Malthus has referred to? Yes, perhaps the world is undergoing a positive check, which is difficult to control because human beings have not taken enough measures to carry out preventive checks.
How and where exactly the coronavirus is infecting and will be infecting the human is not yet confirmed. But, as per the news, the outbreak started at Wuhan, a city in China’s Hubei province. Most health experts articulate that, this novel coronavirus strain possibly originated in bats or pangolins. The first human transmission occurred in Wuhan, China. These animal species are a major source of diet in China might be for supporting its large population base. Now, we are impending what Malthus has emphasized, ‘food’ as the ‘limiting factor’. This transmission means not enforcing safety measures. If it is a positive check, it is to control the outburst population and bring balance state that of supply of foodstuffs to population ratio.
It is pertinent to note that Malthus was criticized saying that calamities do not visit only the thickly populated countries. This is the tragic reality that high population is making this positive check even more severe and controlling the spread is a gigantic task in densely populated countries. In India with a population density of 464 per square kilometer or in Bangladesh, 12 thousand per square kilometre, this virus can produce inferno.
It has been said that Malthus failed to understand the vast resources of the Earth and foresee the technology to utilize those resources. Yet I believe what Malthus understood was regardless of how large the resources are and how advanced the technology they are still finite.

The alarm was there again and again

The earth was calling for adaptation and mitigating strategies for its recovery since long. Didn’t the excessive pressures on the infrastructure like the sewage system, bus, train, medical facilities in developing countries remind us of the Malthusian fear? Didn’t the pandemics like Plague, small-pox or flu strike a chord of what Malthusian warning? How can we forget the Black Death, took a couple of years to stretch across Europe and a disease that has killed possibly 2–4% of the population, or the multiple European wars of the centuries XVI and XVII and many other catastrophes? We have had many wars, diseases and famine over the years but they barely are registered at most periods of history. As they were confined to an area and didn’t affect the planet at large, we could not understand the warning. Being civilized and technologically advanced, given recent pandemics and epidemics, we could still have performed our duties. We have got used to a very high level of invulnerability. Lester Brown in the World watch Institute’s 1995 report, State of the World, said, “Scores of countries with rapid population growth-among them Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia, Nigeria, and Mexico-will find themselves facing huge food deficits in the years ahead,”. Paul Ehrlich, a famous apocalyptic predicted in 1968 that “massive famines” were likely in the 1970s. This didn’t become true and the alarm continued. Covid-19 is a wake-up call.

These make the Malthusian Theory of Population realistic today

The Malthusian theory suddenly looks relevant today. The world’s population has reached its largest figure of 8 billion. Due to an increase in economic prosperity, most countries do not follow population control measures. This involves lots of many other issues, such as balanced regional development, controlling rural to urban migration, expanding cities at the cost of greenery and developing smart cities etc. Thus, the preventive checks that should be carried out by man are not only limited to controlling the population through family planning but also to control the pressure on the existing resources. Only then can positive checks be taken care of. Man-resource ratio should be given priority in planning. The Malthusian Theory of Population must remain a background to such planning and recommended policies.

The famous biologists Charles Darwin built his theory of natural selection based on Malthus’ premise. Only assuming that Malthus was incorrect, and ignoring the scenario is no escape from his ‘trap’, today we will be rigorously mistaken to assume that the ‘trap’ has never existed, nor will it continue to exist.

Pathophysiology and biochemical condition in multi-organ failure due to SARS –COV-2 attacks

Student Contributors: Ria Sen and Jibitesh Sarkar (BSc 3rd year Student, Department of Biochemistry

The primary organ infected by SARS-CoV 2 is the upper respiratory tract. COVID-19 is characterized by viral pneumonia symptoms anorexia, fever, sore throat, fatigue, dry cough, dyspnoea, malaise, muscle pain, nasal congestion or headache, lymphopenia, etc. Within one week of the incubation period the clinical symptoms become severe. Mostly it leads to acute respiratory distress syndrome or ARDS. However according to the worldwide case reports its time worried about comorbidities in COVID-19. It was reported that in several cases Covid-19 outbreak is highly influenced by multi-organ involvement.

Pulmonary embolism and cardiovascular damage

In Brescia, Italy, it was reported that a woman had a heart attack with a weak left ventricle that it could pump only 1/3 its regular amount of blood. However there was no blockage found in the heart. The disruption seems to extend to blood itself. It was further reported huge no of COVID-19 patients had blood clotting abnormally. Fragments of blood clot can and reach the lungs, blocking major arteries which are termed as pulmonary embolism, which could kill patients instantly. Clotted fragments from arteries can also accumulate in the brain, which can cause a stroke. Blood vessel constriction also resulted in infection. Many reports have shown that there have been ischemias in the digits of hand and leg which is a decrease in blood flow that causes swollen, digit pain, and tissue death.

Diabetic and high blood pressure patients face a higher risk of COVID19. With the available data at present it is quite difficult to understand exactly what causes cardiovascular damage. Venous thromboembolism (VTE) also found in COVID-19 patients. Heart and blood vessel linings are highly susceptible to viral attack as they are rich in ACE2 receptors. As a whole, if lungs are affected, then its effects can extend too many other different organs.

Renal failure:

According to reported data Acute Kidney Injury (AKI) is one of the major reasons for the higher mortality rate in Wuhan, China COVID-19 patients. Presence of protein and blood in patient urine reported in quite a high number (>40%) of infected folks. the scenario worsens when a minute fraction of the virus infects the kidney along with the lung. In electron microgram of the kidney from autopsies identified viral particles that suggest a direct viral attack. However, there is the possibility that the kidney damage can be collateral damage. The use of ventilators or antiviral drugs like remdesivir with experimental dosage may increase the risk of kidney damage. Cytokine storms can reduce the flow of blood to the kidney resulting in irreversible damage. Also the presence of different other comorbid situations like diabetes can magnify the risk of AKI.

Brain damage:

In addition to their presence in the lungs the ACE2 receptors are also present in the neural cortex and brain stem. Symptoms found in the COVID-19 patients also focuses on the brain and Central Nervous System(CNS). Due to the use of sedative and ventilator it is difficult to monitor the brain activity in a major population of the COVID-19 patients. Certain reports of the infected patients indicate having brain inflammation encephalitis, along with seizures, and “sympathetic storm,” (cytokine storm occurs in the brain). Viral infection causes oxygen starvation which reduces the brain stem reflex and finally leads to stroke. However, the underlying mechanism of brain penetration and receptor interaction by the virus is still unknown. Traces of the new virus have also been found in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of an infected patient in Japan who was reported to later develop meningitis and encephalitis which suggests that it can invade the brain. But there are a lot of other factors that must be taken into consideration like a cytokine storm that causes brain swelling, and the blood’s exaggerated tendency to clot could trigger strokes. A possible way of entry into the human body can be via the nose then upward via the olfactory bulb which is connected with the brain. This possible route also explains the reason for the loss of smell in COVID-19 patients.

Gastrointestinal infection:

The abundant presence of the ACE2 receptor located in the outer epithelial lining of the lower digestive tract makes it vulnerable against SARS-COV2. Lots of COVID-19 patients are primarily developed symptoms of gastrointestinal infection (such as bloody diarrhea, vomiting, and abdominal pain) which turns positive for coronavirus. In around half of sampled patient stool samples viral RNA has been found. According to a report by a Chinese team, the protein shell of the virus was found in gastric cells, duodenal cells, and rectal cells in biopsies from a COVID-19 patient, raising the chances that it probably replicates in the gastrointestinal tract. GI infections are not on the list so if an individual has fever and diarrhea he/she won’t be tested for  COVID-19. Viral existence in the GI tract raises the possibility that it can be present in feces. However it’s unclear whether stool contains a live infectious virus, not just viral fragments. To date there is no strong evidence that fecal transmission is a high-risk factor and also its probability is very low.

The disease doesn’t stop at the intestine and marches further down the body. There have been reports of hospitalized patients developing conjunctivitis—pink, watery eyes but it is not definite whether the virus directly invades the eyes. Also, some reports suggest that more than half of the COVID-19 hospitalized had elevated levels of enzymes indicating liver injury or the bile ducts injury, but the liver injury is not caused due to direct viral invasion rather the application of drugs or an immune system working in overdrive is more likely driving the liver damage.

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