This type vaccine is based on raising an immune response against influenza proteins that are highly conserved across all strains. Systems vaccinology in the context of vaccine development, requires the use of highly sophisticated and powerful mathematical and computational modeling techniques to reveal, measure, and predict vaccine-induced immunity phenomena. Finally, adjuvants permit antigen-sparing regimens, which are of critical importance for vaccine manufacturing in the context of a pandemic. Moreover, adjuvants rapidly stimulate the production of long-lasting protection. Ref: Rao SS, Kong WP, Wei CJ, et al. Comparative efficacy of hemagglutinin, nucleoprotein, and matrix 2 protein gene- based vaccination against H5N1 influenza. [Dr P P Nayar, Ananthapuri Hospitals and Research Centre, Trivandrum]
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Do We See The Reality?
A Study in Human Perception - 4 ‘There are things known and there are things unknown, and in between are the doors of perception’ - Aldous Leonard Huxley, British writer and novelist The first two stages of the perceptual process, viz. (i) detection of the external stimuli by the sensory organs, and, (ii) the selective filtering carried out by RAS on the massive amounts incoming sensory signals, were very briefly discussed in Part 2 and 3. Some mention was also made there about the neural processes associated with (i) and (ii). In the hierarchical organization of the human cognitive system, the most basic perceptual systems (like detecting stimuli in the environment) are located at the bottom of the hierarchy, and the most complex cognitive systems (like memory or problem solving) are located at the top of the hierarchy. Observe that as the sensory signals flow from the bottom levels of the cognitive hierarchy to the higher levels and vice versa, neural processes responsible for the filtering/information processing functions in the brain bring about various transformations in the incoming sensory stimuli - which in turn determine what we perceive, or rather, why we perceive the external world as we do, and how the brain comprehends ‘what is out there’. Before proceeding further December 2013Executive Knowledge Lines27