The challenges of the increasing institutionalization of climate security

A rapid and widespread institutionalization of climate security is underway, led by powerful states and international organizations. Recognition of the climate crisis by security actors as a serious threat to humanity is long overdue, but it is imperative that this institutionalization is critically scrutinized. This commentary highlights specific dangers that accompany the institutional mainstreaming of climate security, including a non-reflexive integration into traditional security paradigms, a growing geopolitical separation between discourses emerging from the Global South and North, and policymaking that tends to draw from a narrow view of the science. Science-based and actionable research informed by pluralistic understandings of climate security is needed to counter this trend

Co-designing a Sexual Health App With Immigrant Adolescents: Protocol for a Qualitative Community-Based Participatory Action Research Study

BACKGROUND: Canada is one of the world's most ethnically diverse countries, with over 7 million individuals out of a population of 38 million being born in a foreign country. Immigrant adolescents (aged 10 to 19 years) make up a substantial proportion of newcomers to Canada. Religious and cultural practices can influence adolescents' sexual attitudes and behaviors, as well as the uptake of sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services among this population. Adolescence is a time to establish lifelong healthy behaviors. Research indicates an alarming gap in adolescents' SRH knowledge, yet there is limited research on the SRH needs of immigrant adolescents in Canada. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study is to actively engage with immigrant adolescents to develop, implement, and evaluate a mobile health (mHealth) intervention (ie, mobile app). The interactive mobile app will aim to deliver accurate and evidence-based SRH information to adolescents. METHODS: We will use community-based participatory action research to guide our study. This research project will be conducted in 4 stages based on user-centered co-design principles. In Stage 1 (Empathize), we will recruit and convene 3 adolescent advisory groups in Edmonton, Toronto, and Vancouver. Members will be engaged as coresearchers and receive training in qualitative and quantitative methodologies, sexual health, and the social determinants of health. In Stage 2 (Define and Ideate), we will explore SRH information and service needs through focus group discussions with immigrant adolescents. In Stage 3 (Prototype), we will collaborate with mobile developers to build and iteratively design the app with support from the adolescent advisory groups. Finally, in Stage 4 (Test), we will return to focus group settings to share the app prototype, gather feedback on usability, and refine and release the app. RESULTS: Recruitment and data collection will be completed by February 2023, and mobile app development will begin in March 2023. The mHealth app will be our core output and is expected to be released in the spring of 2024. CONCLUSIONS: Our study will advance the limited knowledge base on SRH and the information needs of immigrant adolescents in Canada as well as the science underpinning participatory action research methods with immigrant adolescents. This study will address gaps by exploring SRH priorities, health information needs, and innovative strategies to improve the SRH of immigrant adolescents. Engaging adolescents throughout the study will increase their involvement in SRH care decision-making, expand efficiencies in SRH care utilization, and ultimately improve adolescents' SRH outcomes. The app we develop will be transferable to all adolescent groups, is scalable in international contexts, and simultaneously leverages significant economies of scale. INTERNATIONAL REGISTERED REPORT IDENTIFIER (IRRID): PRR1-10.2196/45389

Effect of nutritional factors and precursors on formation of colchicine in Gloriosa superba in vitro

In the present work we investigated the effect of nutritional factors and the precursors on colchicine production in callus cultures of Gloriosa superba in order to optimize the colchicine production in vitro. To broaden the significance of our study, we have investigated the effect of plant growth regulators, carbon, nitrogen and inorganic ions such as sodium sulphate, calcium chloride, potassium hydrogen phosphate and ferric sulphate at different concentration and analyzed colchichine content using petroleum ether and dichloromethane extraction and HPLC. Colchicine content in the callus, grown in the medium with sucrose as carbon source and 40 mM ammonium nitrate as nitrate source showed the greatest promise with highest biomass and colchicine content. In addition to this, sulphate ions (40 mM) markedly increased the formation of colchicine. In contrast, highest concentration of phosphate (2.5 mM) and calcium (10 mM) were found to be inhibitory for colchicine formation. Precursors (40 μM tyrosine) also influenced the colchicine content (9.79 mM dry weight) with the above mentioned nutritional effect. The results presented here highlight the optimum condition for the colchicine production in Gloriosa superba

Plants as Bioreactor

430-432Production of pharmaceutically useful plant secondary metabolites in vitro has various advantages compared to extraction of these compounds from plants grown in the field or collected in nature. Exact control of various environmental parameters ensures a reproducible quality of the material totally independent from climate, weather and pests that affect severely the quality of plant material grown in nature. Thus, much research has been done to establish plant cell and suspension cultures for metabolite production. However, undifferentiated cell cultures often do not produce the desired metabolites in considerable amounts or lose their production capacity over a period of time. In contrast, in vitro cultures of fully differentiated plant organs exhibit a high and reliable production capacity of plant secondary metabolites. Thus, special bioreactors working according to the temporary immersion principle have been designed for automated in vitro culture of fully differentiated plant organs. It has been demonstrated that shoots, roots as well as tubers can be grown successfully with high multiplication rates in these bioreactors. Moreover, it has been found that metabolite concentrations in these tissues are much higher compared to undifferentiated cell cultures. Control of in vitro environmental parameters such as medium supplements, light conditions, immersion frequencies and gas composition have been used successfully to modify the metabolite content of the produced plant biomass. This is a very promising strategy for production of pharmaceutically active plant biomass in vitro

Real-Time Camera Tracking of Augmented Reality in Landmarks Environments

AbstractAugmented Reality is the hybrid of real world and virtual reality objects, where the system generated graphical objects are mixtured into the real world. AR will create the illusion that virtual and computer-generated objects are existing in the real world. It is completely graphical experience that is united with real world circumstances. Here, the landmark has acquired as an input of the real time video image file by eyesight-based camera parameter approximation methods by using SFM (STRUCTURE FROM MOTION) technique. In this paper, we are going to superimpose real time video images of landmark with virtual system generated graphical video image. These SFM method which are already discussed earlier in some of the preceding papers does not work in practical time applications because of its excessive costness. But here, in this method we have achieved quick and perfect landmark estimation based on SFM and we can obtain the stereoscopic structure of a landmark by this method

Susceptibility of epithelial cells cultured from different regions of human cervix to HPV16-induced immortalization

<div><p>Persistent infection with high-risk human papillomavirus (HPV) is a major risk factor for cervical cancer. Greater than 90% of these cancers originate in the cervical transformation zone (TZ), a narrow region of metaplastic squamous epithelium that develops at the squamocolumnar junction between the ectocervix and endocervix. It is unclear why the TZ has high susceptibility to malignant transformation and few studies have specifically examined cells from this region. We hypothesized that cells cultured from TZ are more susceptible to cellular immortalization, an alteration that contributes to malignant development. We cultured primary epithelial cells from each region of human cervix (ectocervix, endocervix and TZ) and measured susceptibility to immortalization after transfection with the complete HPV-16 genome or infection of HPV16 E6/E7 retroviruses. Cells cultured from each cervical region expressed keratin markers (keratin 14 and 18) that confirmed their region of origin. In contrast to our prediction, cells from TZ were equally susceptible to immortalization as cells from ectocervix or endocervix. Thus, increased susceptibility of the TZ to cervical carcinogenesis is not due to increased frequency of immortalization by HPV-16. We developed a series of HPV16-immortalized cell lines from ectocervix, endocervix and TZ that will enable comparisons of how these cells respond to factors that promote cervical carcinogenesis.</p></div

Structure and histology of the cervical TZ.

<p>A. Schematic representation of the cervix showing the TZ between ectocervix and endocervix. B. Histology of the cervical TZ showing the stratified squamous epithelium and underlying Nabothian cysts. C. Schematic showing the surface features of ectocervix, endocervix and TZ that aid in tissue dissection. The ectocervix is easily identified because the surface is smooth, white, and shiny with no mucous. The endocervix surface is rough, red in color, and covered with mucous. The TZ contains Nabothian cysts (swollen glands due to occlusion of ducts by squamous metaplasia). These large cysts are easily visible and diagnostic for the TZ. D. Photograph of a typical cervical specimen showing each region.</p