Daily Prelims Notes 13 September 2020
- September 13, 2020
- Posted by: OptimizeIAS Team
- Category: DPN
Table Of Contents
- Phase 3 of vaccine trial
- Reinfection fears and Immunity concept
- FCRA
- Scramjet engine
- ‘Five Points’ agreement
Subject: Science and tech
Context:
University of Oxford and AstraZeneca said they were resuming clinical trials for a new coronavirus vaccine across all U.K. sites.
Concept:
- Vaccine trials follow a four-stage process when they are tested in people.
- After a drug has proven itself safe in a variety of animals — usually mice, rabbits, hamsters and primates that mirror human physiology and the way it reacts to diseases — it enters Phase-1 studies.
- A small group of volunteers is given the drug in small doses and monitored to see if it is safe and whether it was well tolerated. This is also when any occurrences of side effects are closely monitored. On an average, 10-50 candidates are chosen.
- In the normal course, those undergoing the trial must report results to the drug regulator which gives the go-ahead for the next stage of trials.
- Phase-2 is when a group of volunteers, usually in the hundreds, are selected. This is the stage when researchers try to determine what dosage would be necessary for it to take effect or produce the desired response.
- In the case of the COVID-19 vaccine, this is the stage when it’s determined if the inoculation had triggered a desired level of antibodies and a sufficient cell response in terms of stimulating T-cells that are known to block and neutralise the virus particles respectively. Again, side effects and adverse reactions are monitored and reported.
- Each of these stages can take several months and that includes the time taken to recruit patients as well as the time involved in observing the effects of drugs and vaccines at various intervals of time. Such data is again sent to regulators, who, if satisfied, given the green signal for Phase-3.
Phase-3
- In Phase 3 stage, the drug or vaccine is tested at multiple locations in thousands of volunteers or patients.
- In the case of a drug, this is the stage when a new drug is compared to the existing standard of care and when it must prove that it is either more efficacious, or is of similar potency but is safer, better tolerable or delivers any of the goods that the drug makers had claimed when making the drug.
- In the case of a vaccine for a new disease, there is usually nothing to compare it to, so Phase-3 becomes a larger version of the Phase-2 trial. A Phase-3 trial is held at multiple locations to capture the demographic variability in the population.
- It is also double-blinded and randomised and may have multiple treatment arms, meaning some participants may get a placebo, some may get lower doses, some higher doses, and in an ideal trial, neither the doctor nor the recipient knows who is getting the drug and who the placebo.
2. Reinfection fears and Immunity concept
Subject: Science and tech
Context:
While the fear of COVID-19 re-infection has dogged discussion on the novel coronavirus, it was in late August that the first ‘confirmed’ case of re-infection was officially recorded.
Concept:
- The human body’s immunity acts in two forms — as innate, jumping to the task of protection immediately, and adaptive, meaning immunity acquired by the body in the process of surviving infection by pathogens, essentially over a period of time.
- The adaptive immune system consists of two types of white blood cells, called T and B cells, that detect molecular details specific to the virus and, based on that, mount a targeted response to it.
- T cells detect and kill those infected cells.
- B cells make antibodies, a kind of protein that binds to the viral particles and blocks them from entering our cells; this prevents the replication of the virus and stops the infection in its tracks.
- T and B cells retain this memory and help the body fight the infection later.
- Yet it is also the case that with other viruses the amount of antibodies in the blood peaks during an infection and drops after the infection has cleared, often within a few months.
- This is the fact that has some people worried about COVID-19 reinfection.
3. FCRA
Subject: Economy
Context:
The licences of 13 non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have been suspended under the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act (FCRA), 2010, this year.
Concept:
- The FCRA regulates foreign donations and ensures that such contributions do not adversely affect internal security.
- First enacted in 1976, it was amended in 2010 when a slew of new measures were adopted to regulate foreign donations.
- The FCRA is applicable to all associations, groups and NGOs which intend to receive foreign donations.
- It is mandatory for all such NGOs to register themselves under the FCRA.
- The registration is initially valid for five years and it can be renewed subsequently if they comply with all norms.
- Registered associations can receive foreign contribution for social, educational, religious, economic and cultural purposes.
- Filing of annual returns, on the lines of Income Tax, is compulsory.
- In 2015, the MHA notified new rules, which required NGOs to give an undertaking that the acceptance of foreign funds is not likely to prejudicially affect the sovereignty and integrity of India or impact friendly relations with any foreign state and does not disrupt communal harmony. It also said all such NGOs would have to operate accounts in either nationalised or private banks which have core banking facilities to allow security agencies access on a real time basis.
Subject: Science and tech
Context:
The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) performed a major technological feat by launching cruise vehicle Hypersonic Technology Demonstrator Vehicle (HSTDV). The centrepiece of the HSTDV was the indigenously developed air-breathing scramjet engine.
Concept:
- A ramjet is a form of air-breathing jet engine that uses the vehicle’s forward motion to compress incoming air for combustion without a rotating compressor.
- Fuel is injected in the combustion chamber where it mixes with the hot compressed air and ignites. A ramjet-powered vehicle requires an assisted take-off like a rocket assist to accelerate it to a speed where it begins to produce thrust.
- Ramjets work most efficiently at supersonic speeds around Mach 3 (three times the speed of sound) and can operate up to speeds of Mach 6. However, the ramjet efficiency starts to drop when the vehicle reaches hypersonic speeds.
- A scramjet engine is an improvement over the ramjet engine as it efficiently operates at hypersonic speeds and allows supersonic combustion. Thus it is known as Supersonic Combustion Ramjet, or Scramjet.
Subject: IR
Context:
The Foreign Ministers of India and China arrived at a ‘Five Points’ agreement to reduce the prevailing tension on the Ladakh border during their talks in Moscow on the sidelines of the SCO Summit
Concept:
- The points include dialogue aimed at quick disengagement, maintaining proper distance between troops of the two sides and easing tensions, abiding by all agreements and protocols on border management, and working on new confidence-building measures once the situation eases.
- All this was comprehensively dealt with in the previous five agreements given below:
- 1993 – ‘Maintenance of Peace and Tranquility Agreement’ forms the basis of all followup agreements.
- 1996 – ‘Confidence Building Measures’ denounced the use of force
- 2005 – ‘Standard Operating Procedures’ and patrolling modalities.
- 2012 – ‘Process of Consultation and Cooperation’
- 2013 -‘Border Cooperation Agreement’, signed as a sequel to Depsang intrusion by PLA