Tag: sheds

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Torch of Dignity relay event sheds light on continued importance of human rights, education in Manitoba | CBC News

Torch of Dignity relay event sheds light on continued importance of human rights, education in Manitoba | CBC News

Winnipeggers passed a torch around Central Park for an annual event this weekend, casting a spotlight on the continued importance of human rights.

Manitobans for Human Rights, an organization created eight years ago with the goal of educating Manitobans about the importance of human rights, held their seventh annual Torch of Dignity relay on Sunday.

The event featured human rights speakers and live entertainment as well as artisan, career and resource booths.

Zara Kadhim, the logistics coordinator for the organization, said although the event was downsized this year, the hope was to bring the community together.

“Education is the first step,” she told Radio-Canada in an interview, adding that the province still has a long way to go.

Event organizer Zara Kadhim says people are becoming desensitized to human rights violations in Manitoba. (Radio-Canada)

Friendly Manitoba is doing a lot better than many places in the world when it comes to human rights, Kadhim said, but issues like homelessness, MMIWG2S and immigrant and refugee struggles are becoming more normalized in the province.

“We’re almost desensitized to human rights violations,” she said.

The aim of the relay was to bring awareness to those issues and focus on peoples’ similarities instead of their differences, said Kadhim.

Vienna Code, public education and communications coordinator at the Anxiety Disorders Association of Manitoba, says everyone deserves the right to mental health services. (Radio-Canada)

The peer support organization Anxiety Disorders Association of Manitoba, where all staff have lived experience with anxiety, had their own resource booth at the event.

“Mental health is a human right,” said Vienna Code, the public education and communications coordinator for ADAM. “We need to promote it a bit more and understand that all humans deserve the right to mental health services.”

With the pandemic seemingly winding down, Code said more people are having difficulties with addressing their nerves.

“People think they shouldn’t be anxious anymore or have those thoughts,” she said.

Anxiety and mental health concerns are common, she said, and ADAM acts as a stepping stone for people to see what next steps they have to take to address their mental health issues.

Code said it’s important for younger people to have earlier interventions when it comes to mental health issues.

“I think there still continues to be a stigma around mental health and I think that’s the hardest hurdle for people, to step and reach out for help.”

Sarah Parker, executive assistant of the Islamic Social Services Association, said the association took part in the event to encourage people to be open to learning about Islam and Muslims.

“In a way, if they know about Islam and Muslims, then we can fight the stereotypes,” she said.

“We believe that at the heart of human rights is human dignity.”

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‘Magical’ lantern event sheds light on Asian hate

‘Magical’ lantern event sheds light on Asian hate

There has been a lot of ant-Asian sentiment since COVID-19 arrived in March 2020.

An event held Saturday in Welland was designed to flatten this as much as possible by celebrating the Asian community.

A water lantern festival, hosted by Niagara Folk Arts Multicultural Centre, took place at dusk at Chippawa Park, a public space with a large man-made pond that suited the event nicely, said executive director Emily Kovacs.

She called it a “beautiful evening” that was “quite magical,” an opportunity to celebrate without conflict.

“We thought it was important for us to not only support the community, but also provide a different side of the community,” she said in an interview Sunday.

About 150 lanterns, made from biodegradable rice paper, were cast into the pond, where they sat lit with candles for about three to four hours.

“It was a fantastic turnout,” Kovacs said.

“When you have a collective opportunity to put in your best wishes, you benefit from each others’ goodwill.

“There’s a lot of meaning behind it,” she said about the event, and how it was crucial to hold it through lenses of “art, love and therapy.”

Due to weather concerns, the event was scheduled for Friday but pushed back a day.

The event, Wishes on the Water, was designed to create a safe space, using art to encourage dialogue, compassion and understanding.

The “quiet and personal reflective event” was family-friendly and designed to especially accommodate people with mobility and sensory/auditory concerns, said organizers.

People in attendance enjoyed live traditional and modern Chinese music performed by Helen Huang on violin and Lion Dancers.

Organizers are thankful for its sponsors, such as RBC, the City of Welland through its special events grants program and Ontario Trillium Foundation. Welland Heritage Council and Fort Erie Multicultural Centre were also supportive of the event.

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Research sheds light on important events that may play a role in infertility

Research sheds light on important events that may play a role in infertility

Everyone considers sperm to be made exclusively by males. But did you know that females also make sperm? Well, it turns out that females also contribute to what makes a sperm a sperm.

Nearly 20 percent of couples in the United States fail to conceive naturally after one year of trying, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In species with internal fertilization, such as humans, the ability for a female to become pregnant and carry a pregnancy to term is dependent upon effective interactions between sperm and the female reproductive tract (FRT). When those interactions are defective, the result can be a failed pregnancy. Therefore, understanding the factors that contribute to sperm viability between copulation and fertilization is crucial.

A research team from the Syracuse University College of Arts and Sciences’ Department of Biology and Cornell University, led by Steve Dorus, associate professor of biology at Syracuse University, have been studying the life history of fruit fly (Drosophila melanogaster) sperm to better understand molecular continuity between male and female reproductive tracts. In other words, how the male and female reproductive tracts provide support to keep the sperm viable before fertilization. Their results, published on March 7, 2022 in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA (PNAS), shed light on important events that may play a role in infertility that up until now have been poorly understood.

The team, which includes members from Syracuse University’s Center for Reproductive Evolution, explored the compositional changes in fruit fly sperm, beginning shortly after they leave the testis, following insemination and finally after protracted storage within the FRT. Fruit flies are powerful model organisms for investigations such as this one because they are easy to culture in the laboratory, have a short generation time and their genetics are richly understood. In their study, the group uncovered that the proteome, or protein makeup, of the sperm undergoes substantial changes after being transferred to the FRT.

For species with internal fertilization, a sperm’s developmental ‘journey’ – on the way to its final destination of fertilizing an egg and beginning a new life – transcends both male and female reproductive tracts. After leaving the testis, sperm travel through the male’s seminal vesicles and descend through the ejaculatory duct, where they mix with seminal fluid proteins. The team found that many of these seminal proteins are progressively lost after sperm migrate beyond the site of insemination within the FRT. Conversely, female-derived proteins that may help the sperm with functions such as energy metabolism, begin to associate with the sperm immediately after mating, signifying a changing of the guard of proteins.

After several days of storage within the FRT, the research team was surprised to discover that nearly 20% of the sperm’s proteins had been replaced by female-derived proteins. The female contributions support sperm viability during the prolonged period between copulation and fertilization. This “hand-off” in the maintenance of sperm viability from males to females means that sperm are materially the product of both sexes, and this may be a crucial aspect of reproduction in all internally-fertilizing species, including humans.

By studying the intimate ways in which sperm interact with the FRT during the final stages of functional maturation, the team’s research advances understanding of animal fertility and the contributions of each sex to reproductive success.

In addition to Dorus and Pitnick, other co-authors from Syracuse University included former postdoctoral researcher Erin McCullough and doctoral graduate Emma Whittington. Co-authors from Cornell University were Professor Mariana Wolfner and postdoctoral researcher Akanksha Singh. The team’s research was funded by the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health and a gift from Mike and Jane Weeden to Syracuse University.

Source:

Journal reference:

McCullough, E.L., et al. (2022) The life history of Drosophila sperm involves molecular continuity between male and female reproductive tracts. PNAS. doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2119899119.