Cancer cell fingerprints in blood may speed up diagnosis

Scientists have identified cancer cell fingerprints in the blood that could one day help doctors diagnose a range of children’s cancers faster and more accurately.

Researchers, from the University of Cambridge and Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge, have found unique molecular fingerprints for 11 types of children’s tumours, which could be used to develop blood tests to diagnose the cancers.

This may eventually lead to a quicker, more accurate way to diagnose tumours, and could also reduce the need for children to undergo surgery to get a diagnosis one day.

The researchers uncovered the fingerprints left by the tumours by analysing blood samples from children when they were diagnosed with cancer.

They were looking for molecules that turn genes on and off, called microRNAs, to find common changes linked to different tumours.

In particular they found a very specific fingerprint which identifies different types of neuroblastoma, a form of childhood cancer which develops from a type of nerve cell.

Lead researchers Dr Matthew Murray and Professor Nicholas Coleman, both from the University of Cambridge and Addenbrooke’s Hospital said the research suggested that different types of tumour could be identified using a blood test which recognises the unique fingerprints produced by tumours.

“We hope that this early research could eventually lead to the development of non-invasive tests which are faster, more accurate and gentler, transforming the way we make a cancer diagnosis in the future,” said Murray.

“Using a blood test instead of surgery to remove a tumour sample could improve diagnosis - such that results take a matter of hours rather than days or weeks.

“However, before such a test can be incorporated into clinical practice, it will now be important for these findings to be validated in other, larger independent studies,” Murray said

Indian researcher develops new device to track status of heart

An Indian researcher here has developed a wearable device that he claims can help one track the status of heart, both in medical and emotional terms.

“The Inner You (INYU) is a wearable device that helps the user to track and manage his or her physical as well as emotional health,” Srinivasan Murali, co-founder and CEO of the Switzerland-based SmartCardia told PTI.

The SmartCardia technology is based on several years of research from the Embedded Systems Laboratory at the Ecole Polytechnique Frale de Lausanne (EPFL), he said.

“I hope the device will be highly beneficial for India. It can be used to track Electrocardiogram (ECG), breathing and key vital signs of users, so that they can get timely feedback from the doctor,” he said.

“The user can see the signals immediately on his or her mobile phone. It can also be used for managing a healthy lifestyle, as it tracks the emotional and physical health aspects, such as the stress level, body fat and physical activity,” Mr. Murali said.

The developer of the device intends to price it around Rs 9,000, so that tracking one’s complete health becomes affordable.

Explaining the working of the device, he said INYU obtains key physiological signals from the body like ECG, breathing, skin conductance and physical activity by a simple touch that give a complete picture of the body-mind health.

The combination of the biological signals is used to infer the overall physical and emotional state of the user.

“For example, the variation in time intervals between heartbeats is related to the stress level. The conductivity of the skin, reflecting the amount of sweat-induced moisture on the skin — is determined by the emotional intensity, while breathing is a good indicator of the activity of the autonomic nervous system,” Mr. Murali said.

By combining these indicators, he said the stress level, concentration level and mood are inferred by advanced machine learning algorithms on the device.

“This allows managing stress and quantifying yoga and meditation techniques. New breathing games can be implemented as well,” he said.

He said the INYU sends the signals in real-time to smartphone and other smart objects through Bluetooth 4.0.

“Mobile and computer games can become immersive. Imagine a user having to hold his breath when jumping into the water on the screen. Games can also be personalised for the user,” he said.

The INYU signals can also control smart lights, music and other smart objects. The breathing or emotion state can be used control the colour or intensity of lights or the music can change according to physical activity or mood, he said.

North elects more women MLAs

Bihar, Haryana and Rajasthan have the highest proportion

When the results to the Maharashtra and Haryana Assembly elections came out two weeks ago, the northern State had produced twice the proportion of women legislators as its western counterpart.

This isn’t an exception; States with poor records on gender equality are consistently producing more female MLAs.

Using Election Commission of India data, The Hindu found that as of today, Bihar, Haryana and Rajasthan have the highest proportion of women MLAs in the country (14 per cent) while Nagaland, Mizoram and Karnakata bring up the bottom (2 per cent and below). Using 50 years of State elections data until 2012, economists Mudit Kapoor and Shamika Ravi of the Indian School of Business found that women were far more likely to contest elections from constituencies with a sex ratio skewed against women, most of which were in the northern States. While fewer women contested elections in the southern and western States, however, they were more likely to win, they found.

Professors Kapoor and Ravi hypothesise that the greater propensity of women to contest from the northern States is a result of the skewed sex ratio: “[I]n places where the gender ratio is in favour of women, they do not have to incur the high cost of contesting an election to achieve their preferred policy outcomes. They achieve this through the simple act of voting…[I]n constituencies, where the gender ratio is unfavourable to women, woman candidates incur the costly strategy of contesting elections, not always with the objective of winning but to prevent those candidates whose policy preferences are farthest from their interest,” they wrote.

Another explanation sometimes put forward is that women politicians often tend to be “proxies” of male politicians who might be their relatives, and that this trend is likely to be stronger in the north.

Between Maharashtra and Haryana, however, the western State had a higher proportion of women MLAs who come from political families (55 per cent) than the northern State (38 per cent), The Hindufound.

In general, women politicians are more likely to come from political families. In its analysis of newly elected members of the 16th Lok Sabha, The Hindu found that women MPs were twice as likely to come from a political family as male MPs. Moreover, those female MPs who are “placeholders” – those who get ticket because of the inability of their husband or other male relative to contest that particular election – have worse parliamentary participation than other female MPs, Suraj Jacob, a political economist at the Azim Premji University, found.

Swachh Bharat: a scheme or a pipe dream?

If Prime Minister Modi is serious about Swachh Bharat, he must provide leadership in converting the slogan into a viable multi-faceted programme

Who does not want, or hasn’t wanted, a clean India the public places of which are today probably the dirtiest and the most polluted in the world?

The question one must ask is: why it has been so, and what has not been done to change the situation for the better? Otherwise, Swachh Bharat will only remain a slogan, like Indira Gandhi’s ‘Garibi Hatao.’ She was very upset when I once asked her in all humility what exactly she wanted to hatao (eradicate), what she wanted to replace it with, and how.

It is strange that while much has been said about Swachh Bharat, no one appears to have pointed out that Indians are traditionally and culturally clean people. If the country looks dirty to a visitor — as it truly is — the biggest culprit is the government which is unclean in ways more than one!

Just drive from the old airport in my city, Hyderabad, to the new airport via Tarnaka (a distance of 50 km). Sidewalks, if they are there, are broken, encroached, or otherwise dysfunctional. There are mounds of mud and garbage on the side of the road which have been there for years. The buildings acquired to widen the road have not been demolished and have remained abandoned for years.

There is leftover construction material such as broken stones that line the pavements of roads. Whenever there is construction, one often finds unnecessary encroachment. In many places, road dividers are non-functional. The poor condition of roads can lead to numerous health issues for users. Even elite residential localities do not seem to be free of these problems.

Non-functional municipality

The fact is that there is no professional expertise in the Municipal Corporation to keep the city clean. Combined with total apathy, it creates an irremediable situation.

This deplorable situation is compounded by corruption. There is virtually no supervision when a civil work contract is given by the Municipal Corporation or Municipality, for example, for road repair. It is the responsibility of the contractor to remove all the construction material or waste, but it is just pushed to the side of the road to save money that would be otherwise spent on its transportation and disposal — and no one cares. Not surprisingly the only places that are clean are the military and the defence areas. Common garbage bins, where they are provided by the government, are overflowing, besides being an eyesore. The fact is that once you leave areas which come within the purview of civil administration, India is substantially clean. We are thus a country where ‘private’ places are clean but ‘public’ places are dirty.

It is not that the citizens in our cities and towns do not contribute to public filth. They do and there are two reasons for that. Firstly, there are no waste bins in public places where people can dispose their waste, so they simply throw it on the road or the sidewalk if it exists.

Secondly, it is about human psychology. If the place is clean and maintained clean, the tendency of a visitor or a user is not to make it dirty. On the other hand, if the place is already dirty, the tendency is not to worry about making it dirtier. In this connection, let me share an experience. In Hyderabad, we have a scientific research laboratory called the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB). It has been around for more than 25 years and has had an unbroken tradition of clinical cleanliness.

Once a year, it has an open day when more than 10,000 visitors come to the laboratory. At the end of the day, when all the visitors have gone, the place is just as clean as it was to begin with. The visitors simply use the waste bins which are always within sight no matter where the visitors are in the campus. Deep in their mind, they do not want to dirty a place which looks spotlessly clean. Kolkata metro would be another example.

How then can we talk of Swachh Bharat when the majority in the country has no access to clean toilets, and the environment is so badly polluted? As far as I know, there is much talk but no detailed workable solution to provide clean toilet facility to every family — either in villages or in cities. Every politician wants to do it but nobody really does it or even has an idea of how to go about doing it. Operationally, it is not easy.

As an example of the government’s apathy toward clean toilets, let me cite the case of the erstwhile Paryavaran Bhawan in the CGO Complex at Lodi Road, New Delhi. I used to visit the sixth floor of this building to attend a meeting of the Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee (GEAC), generally once a month. The only common western-style toilet on this floor had no seat for as long as I could remember. If I needed to use one, I had to request for permission of the Additional Secretary of the Department of Environment and Forests who was the Chairman of GEAC, to allow me to use his private toilet. And to expect toilet paper in a western-style toilet in a government building is to ask for the Moon.

Needed, a holistic definition

Then, there is the question of environment. Can we really have Swachh Bharat when our environment is so polluted?

Finally, we have to consider the state of our villages where 70 per cent of India lives. Can we talk of Swachh Bharat, ignoring what happens in our villages where poverty is the greatest polluter? Can any scheme of cleaning up our villages be viable if, for example, we do not provide village children access to high-quality schools? Doesn’t education, including vocational education, provide the greatest resource for alleviating poverty? Thus, to think of Swachh Bharat as an achievable objective would be a folly unless equal emphasis is laid on several other objectives such as high-quality universal education.

If Prime Minister Narendra Modi is serious about Swachh Bharat, he must provide leadership in converting what is a slogan into a viable multi-faceted programme, no matter how difficult or challenging it is going to be.

Act now on climate change, says new IPCC report

India has to internalise climate considerations into development planning

Chairperson of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) R.K. Pachauri on Sunday said the window of action on tackling climate change was closing rapidly and warned that the path of inaction would be more costly than the path of action.

Speaking at the launch of the IPCC’s Synthesis Report in Copenhagen, he said the scientific community had done its job and was in a sense passing on the baton to politicians and decision-makers. The Synthesis Report points to the human influence on climate but also points out that there were means to limit climate change and build a sustainable future. He said the global community must look at the numbers in this report and bring about change. “There is no Plan B because there is no planet B,” he said to questions.

“The Report tells us that we need to tackle climate change with a combination of adaptation and mitigation,” he added.

Navroz K, Dubash, one of it lead authors, said for India, keeping the pressure on for global mitigation was also key.

UN Climate Change panel calls for phasing out fossil fuels

Emissions may need to drop to zero by the end of this century for the world to have a decent chance of keeping the temperature rise below a level that many consider dangerous.

Chairperson of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) R. K. Pachauri on Sunday launching the Panel’s Synthesis Report in Copenhagen, said, “There is no room for complacency.” He suggested that India’s National action plan on climate change needs to be revisited in the light of this report. If the rise in global temperatures has to be kept under 2 degrees Celsius, fossil fuels would have to be phased out by the end of this century, he added.

“The Report tells us that we need to tackle climate change with a combination of adaptation and mitigation,” he said.

Navroz K Dubash, one of the lead authors of the Synthesis Report, said, “The IPCC Synthesis Report suggests a way of thinking about climate change that is deeply relevant to India. There is a complex two way relationship between sustainable development and climate change: climate policies should support, not undermine sustainable development; but limiting the effects of climate change is necessary to achieve sustainable development. This suggests India has to increasingly internalize climate considerations into development planning.”

Dr Purnamita Dasgupta, coordinating lead author of the IPCC’s working group report two, said that there are observed impacts of climate change, for example in India there is decline in agricultural productivity. There is scientific consensus that warming is unprecedented and it will have irreversible impacts on lives across the globe.

Michel Jarraud, Secretary-General of the World Meteorological Organization, which co-sponsors the IPCC along with the UN Environment Programme said in a statement, “Urgent action is needed to cut global greenhouse gas emissions. The longer we wait, the more expensive and difficult it will be to adapt – to the point where some impacts will be irreversible and impossible to cope with,” he added.

The two phases of Nehru Historians ought to examine the pre-1947 Nehru independently of the post-1947 one

Much to the consternation of the Congress party, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has taken over four dates that were politically important to it. They fall in October and November.

The first is October 2, which is Gandhiji's birthday. Mr Modi launched his Swachh Bharat campaign on that day. The Congress has howled "foul", but the people have applauded.

The next three dates fall within three weeks of each other. One was on Friday, October 31, which is Sardar Patel's birthday that Mr Modi has announced is "National Unity Day".

But it is also Indira Gandhi's death anniversary. Since 1985, the Patel anniversary had taken a backseat. Now it will take the front seat, though not as an anniversary. It has been dedicated to the nation.

The second date is November 14, which is Jawaharlal Nehru's birthday. The third is November 19, which is Indira Gandhi's birthday.

Mr Modi has taken these over as well. The week will be dedicated to launching a much-needed cleanliness campaign.

Judging the four

All four leaders were members of the Congress. All four are held in great esteem by Indians. However, except for Indira Gandhi - who turned the party into a private army of sycophants - the other three transcend the Congress.

Of the four, two - Gandhiji and Patel - died within three years of independence in 1947. So naturally historians have judged only their role in the freedom movement.

One, Indira Gandhi, played virtually no role in the movement. She was briefly the leader of something called the Vanar Sena (Monkey Brigade) but it has rightly been ignored by historians.

That leaves only Nehru who straddled both sides of 1947 - 30 years before and 17 years after. He has, therefore, been the subject of intense scrutiny by historians, political scientists and experts on international relations.

The last two have focused on Nehru as prime minister, while historians have focused on him both as nationalist leader and prime minister. But they have tended to wear the same lens for these two roles, namely, of doting admiration, only some of which is warranted.

Two Nehrus

The truth, however, is that there were two Nehrus. Pre-1947 and post-1947.

Before independence, unlike many of his colleagues, he was a docile follower of the party high command, which was Gandhiji. To be sure, he argued and objected. But in the end he always fell in line.

After independence he was an assertive leader who expected others to fall in line. He systematically quelled all opposition and built up his own lackeys.

V K Krishna Menon and T T Krishnamachari were two of them. Menon, as defence minister, is widely held to be responsible for India's debacle with China in 1962. TTK as finance minister wrecked the economy with high taxes and later had to quit over a financial scandal.

It is this pre- and post-independence aspect of Nehru that needs some more examination. Hopefully, now that his descendants' hold over the Congress party is loosening, and the need for historians to please them is, therefore, diminishing, some young historians will make the necessary effort of wearing different glasses for the two phases.

Before 1947

There are two questions that need answering properly on his role before independence. One, on policy issues, was he always faithful to his beliefs and convictions, or did he set them aside to please the high command? And, two, when it came to making political choices, was he as secular in practice as he sounded in his speeches and writings?

It is entirely possible that, one or two glaring episodes notwithstanding - as in 1937, when he chose to ally with the communal Jama'at rather than the more secular Muslim League and as when he imposed impossible conditions on Leaguers (like Chaudhry Khaliquzzaman) who wanted to defect to the Congress - the answer to both is yes.

But, equally, a lot more evidence than has been trotted out so far should be adduced in favour because otherwise, given what he did when it came to practical politics, doubts will remain.

Why? Because, as is well known, but for Gandhiji's protection, the deep differences he had with every single major leader of the time - Patel, Bose, Ambedkar, Rajendra Prasad, Maulana Azad, Jinnah - would have put paid to his career long before 1947. All of them regarded him poorly.

That he survived was probably wholly, and only, because of Gandhiji who liked him because he never, ever went against him. Those like Netaji who defied Gandhiji soon realised that they had made a mistake. Even Azad and C Rajagopalachari attracted his ire during 1942-45.

It was perhaps no accident that the two men who never defied Gandhiji became his favourites and are at the top of the totem pole.

Their names? Patel and Nehru.