Bengaluru, July 31 (IANS) In a major twist, the Union Minister for Heavy Industries and Steel H.D. Kumaraswamy on Wednesday said that JD-S will not support the BJP’s week-long padayatra (foot march) against the Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and the Congress government.

“We will not extend the moral support as well. We do not support this march as JD-S was not consulted. Our core committee in Tuesday’s meeting have decided not to support the march,” Kumaraswamy told media persons.

He said that heavy rainfall has endangered hundreds of lives in Kerala and those who have left the state are facing difficulties to return.

He said that the BJP is making its own decisions regarding the march. “In view of the situation in Kerala, it is not appropriate to hold a march during this time. The feelings of the affected people are important and that is why we will not be participating in the march,” he said.

Kumaraswamy noted that this is a time when everyone should be involved in agricultural activities.

The development is a setback for the BJP which had announced a foot march agitation from August 3 to August 10.

–IANS

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New Delhi, July 31 The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has issued notice on a plea alleging large-scale, excessive and indiscriminate concretisation of roadsides and constructions in parks in Uttar Pradesh’s Ghaziabad.

A bench headed by Chairperson Justice Prakash Shrivastava sought the response of the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC), Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), Uttar Pradesh government, Uttar Pradesh Pollution Control Board (UPPCB), Ghaziabad Development Authority (GDA), Ghaziabad Nagar Nigam, and others in the matter.

The plea filed by advocate Akash Vashishtha claimed that indiscriminate concretisation and paving become the biggest cause of water-logging, urban flooding, prevention of natural water recharge, heat multiplication, and loss of biodiversity in cities and towns.

It said that indiscriminate concretisation/pavements of roadsides and road berms and constructions inside parks is in gross contravention of various orders of the NGT, guidelines of the Union Ministry of Urban Development and also GO issued by the UP government.

The application filed before the green tribunal seeks directions for the whole of the country, in view of the massive concretisation, and the environmental hazards arising therefrom, being experienced in all cities and towns across all states and UTs.

Senior advocate Sanjay Upadhyay, representing the applicant, submitted before the NGT that the menace of concretisation and complete paving of soft open areas, roadsides, road berms and constructions inside parks has become a hazard for all cities and towns.

The matter will be heard next on October 21.

–IANS

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Kolkata, July 31 (IANS) A couple of days after meeting Congress leader K.C. Venugopal in Delhi, five-time former Lok Sabha member Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury has taken to social media to indirectly attacking his party’s high command for reportedly going soft towards Trinamool Congress.

“Who else other than us will speak on behalf of our party workers who are being beaten up every day by the ruling Trinamool Congress activists in West Bengal? The ruling party in the state is trying to break Congress on a daily basis. Despite officially being a part of the I.N.D.I.A. bloc, they have not stopped oppressing us,” Chowdhury commented in his social media post on Tuesday night.

He also said that the tradition of implicating state Congress workers in false cases and forceful capturing of Congress offices in West Bengal is continuing.

“In such a situation how can I remain silent against Trinamool Congress? If I do that I will be doing injustice to my grassroots-level party workers. I cannot do that,” Chowdhury added.

Thereafter he gave a call to the party high command to have dialogues with these grassroots-level Congress workers in West Bengal to know the ground- reality in the state.

“Delhi needs to speak to those party workers in West Bengal who are struggling daily and protesting on the streets to keep the party flag. Their opinion is important and hence they should also be called to Delhi,” Chowdhury said.

He concluded his post with an assurance of being with the grassroots-level Congress workers in the state. “I will be there on the streets with my party colleagues and carry forward their movement. I have not to compromise with injustice. I will never do that,” he added,

Chowdhury’s differences with Congress high command started surfacing even before the recently concluded Lok Sabha polls, after the party’s national president Mallikarjun Kharge made a statement to the media persons in May this year that Chowdhury is no one to decide the steps to be adopted for the formation of government after the polls and the party high command is there to decide on that.

Kharge even went to the extent of saying that either one has to follow the decision of the party’s high command or will have to step out.

Giving his reaction to the statement of Kharge then, Chowdhury said that being a member of the working committee of Congress he was also a part of the party’s high command.

–IANS

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New Delhi, July 31 (IANS) Environmental factors may play a larger role in disease risk than previously thought, overshadowing genetic contributions a study by researchers at Penn State College of Medicine reveals.

Published in the journal Nature Communications, the research shows that lifestyle and environmental factors, such as air pollution, can significantly influence disease risk, offering more opportunities for mitigation.

“We’re trying to disentangle how much genetics and how much the environment influences the development of disease,” said Bibo Jiang, assistant professor of public health sciences.

The team used a novel spatial mixed linear effect (SMILE) model, combining genetics and geolocation data, to analyse disease risks.

Dajiang Liu, co-senior author, emphasised the importance of separating environmental influences from genetic factors: “If we can tease apart these shared environments, what’s remaining could more accurately reflect genetic heritability of disease.”

Using data from IBM MarketScan and environmental data, the researchers re-evaluated the genetic contributions to various diseases.

For example, the genetic risk of Type 2 diabetes was recalibrated from 37.7 per cent to 28.4 per cent, highlighting a greater role for environmental factors. Similarly, the genetic contribution to obesity risk decreased from 53.1 per cent to 46.3 per cebt.

The study also distinguished the effects of specific pollutants, such as PM2.5 and NO2, on health conditions. NO2 was found to directly influence conditions like high cholesterol and diabetes, whereas PM2.5 impacted lung function and sleep disorders.

This research suggests that understanding the balance between genetic and environmental factors can enhance disease prevention strategies, particularly in precision medicine.

–IANS

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New Delhi, July 31 (IANS) Kindlins, adapter proteins found in vertebrate cells could change the face of cancer treatments, research from S. N. Bose National Centre for Basic Sciences has found.

The research team, led by Debojyoti Chowdhury, analyzed data from 10,000 patients across 33 cancer types from The Cancer Genome Atlas to investigate Kindlins’ role in cancer progression, published in the journal Communications Biology, the study underscores Kindlins’ potential as targets for innovative cancer therapies.

Kindlins are proteins attached to the cell membranes in almost all vertebrate cells, crucial for converting extracellular mechanical cues into biochemical signals.

These proteins interact with structural proteins, receptors, and transcription factors, triggering a cascade of intracellular signals essential for maintaining the body’s homeostasis. Disruptions in the Kindlin structure can lead to diseases like cancer.

The study highlighted that Kindlin 1 regulates the immune microenvironment in breast cancer, while Kindlin 2 is involved in cancer-specific metabolic processes like the TCA cycle and glycolysis.

Additionally, Kindlin 2 influences HIPPO signalling, a pathway that promotes cancer cell migration and invasion.

“Kindlin 2 can also regulate HIPPO signalling, Hippo signalling is a kind of signal in cancer cells that tells the cell to migrate and invade other tissues. Kindlin 2 can also regulate HIPPO signalling,” said Debojyoti Chowdhury in a statement.

The study suggests a potential link between Kindlin dysfunction and adverse survival outcomes, providing evidence for their importance in various cancer stages and subtypes.

“By studying all Kindlin family members collectively, we can gain a comprehensive understanding of their potential complementary and synergistic roles in cancer biology,” Chowdhury added.

It offers new avenues for cancer treatment strategies, particularly in overcoming chemoresistance and tumour relapse, pivotal challenges in oncology. This research may pave the way for novel interventions in the ongoing battle against cancer.

–IANS

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