Horizons in World Physics. Volume 299 opens with a study on the analysis of photoluminescence spectra of II-VI-based thin films (pure II-VI semiconductor compounds - CdTe, ZnTe, CdSe, Cd1-xZnxTe ternary compound, CdS:Dy rare-earth element doped II-VI compound) at different substrate temperatures. Next, the authors introduce a novel universal carrier-guided nanopore dielectrophoresis technology that can selective capture and detection of single nucleic acid molecules. In this approach, each target nucleic acid molecule is hybridized with a designed cationic carrier to impart a tunable synthetic dipole to the target. This compilation also describes the numerical investigations of some of the possibilities for enhancing the amplified spontaneous emission, generated from a thulium-doped silica fiber at the 2µm wavelength region. The authors provide a fundamental description of the amplified spontaneous emission process and the progress toward the development of the numerical modelling of this phenomenon. Abinitio calculations and high temperature series expansions are used to study the electronic and magnetic properties of Mn2X compounds. Polarized spin and spin-orbit coupling are included in the calculations within the framework of the antiferromagnetic state between two adjacent Mn and Mn atoms. The authors go on to review the behavior of critical systems of the Ising universality class in strip geometry with variable symmetry-breaking boundary conditions and an internal grain boundary based on the Mikheev-Fisher theory. The foundations of the method and the concept of the grain boundary within it are elucidated. Lastly, the structural and optical properties of thin smectic films is discussed by way of a combination of statistical mechanical theories, hydrodynamics of liquid crystal phases, and optical and calorimetric techniques. The authors examine the validity of theoretical descriptions of thin smectic films, both deposited on a solid surface or stretched over an opening.