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Aim: Evidence shows that 20%-30% of patients who aspirate do so silently. Research to date has not demonstrated clear evidence to indicate which patients are at higher risk of silent aspiration. Our aim was to use univariate logistic regression analysis of retrospective case review to determine potential patterns of silent aspiration. Materials and methods: We conducted a retrospective analysis of 455 fiberoptic endoscopic evaluation of swallowing (FEES) reports. The patients were divided into four groups: G1 -- neurological diseases (n = 93), G2 -- head and neck surgery (n = 200), G3 -- gastroenterological diseases (n = 94) and G4 -- other patients (n = 68). Data included the occurrence or absence of saliva penetration or aspiration, of silent fluid/solid food penetration or aspiration, type of penetration or aspiration, occurrence of cranial nerve paresis, radiotherapy and tracheostomy. Univariate logistic regression was used to evaluate independent risk factors of silent aspiration in the study population. Three models with different independent variables were considered. Results: There is a statistically significant difference in the frequency of occurrence of silent penetration and aspiration within the groups (p < 0.001), with intraglutative being most frequent. Fluid and food penetration and aspiration correlated with saliva penetration and aspiration in all groups (p < 0.001). Cranial nerve paresis (IX and X), radiotherapy and tracheostomy correlate with saliva penetration and aspiration (p = 0.020 for cranial nerve paresis; p = 0.004 for radiotherapy; p < 0.001 for tracheostomy). One hundred and fifteen patients (45.81%) in the subgroup of patients with intraglutative aspiration had cranial nerve paresis (IX, X or IX-X). Conclusions: Patients who should be prioritised or considered to be at a higher need of instrumental swallowing evaluation are those with IX and X cranial nerve paresis, tracheostomy and those who have had radiotherapy, with saliva swallowing problems, especially after paraganglioma, thyroid and parathyroid glands and middle and posterior fossa tumour surgery.

Abstract We introduce the database of European vascular plant red lists, a compilation of red list categories designated to taxa during in-country conservation assessments. Version 1.0 of the database is a standalone static dataset with open access in an end-user friendly format. Its aim is to fulfil the objectives of European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST) Action 18201, ConservePlants. The database synthesizes data across 42 red lists from 41 countries, with participation of 39 out of a total of 44 European countries and two additional Mediterranean countries. The database contains 51,109 records representing 21,481 original taxonomic names with 37 different red list categories. During data harmonisation, 20,312 of the original taxonomic names were assigned to 17,873 unique accepted taxonomic names with scientific authorships across 184 families, 1650 genera and 15,593 species; and red list categories were standardised to 13 unique categories. We see this database as a source of information in diverse plant conservation activities and suitable for various stakeholders.

Niepełnosprawność to trudny temat, tak jak śmierć, choroba czy wojna. Według Narodowego Spisu Powszechnego Ludności i Mieszkań z 2021 r. osoby niepełnosprawne stanowią ponad 14% polskiego społeczeństwa. Niestety książki dla dzieci o niepełnosprawności nadal odgrywają marginalną rolę na polskim rynku wydawniczym. Autorka koncentruje się na analizie dostępności i popularności książek dla dzieci o niepełnosprawności na polskim rynku wydawniczym, posługując się w tym celu metodą bibliograficzną i analizą treści, a także na roli i znaczeniu ilustracji na wybranych przykładach z lat 2018–2022. Badanie podkreśla znaczenie ilustracji jako narzędzia komunikacji oraz potrzebę lepszej reprezentacji tematyki niepełnosprawności w literaturze dziecięcej. Wnioski dostarczają ważnych informacji autorom, wydawcom, pedagogom i rodzicom, a także stanowią punkt wyjścia do dalszych badań nad wpływem ilustracji na percepcję czytelników i kontynuację tematyki w omawianym obszarze literatury.

The article discusses the methods of protecting historic windmills and recognising them as valuable objects of industrial heritage. Therefore, examples of attempts to restore windmills as working mills after 2010 are discussed. Translocation combined with comprehensive renovation can be an effective and desirable method of conservation for historic windmills with a wooden structure, as it enables the restitution of these facilities as operating mills. However, one should be aware of the risks associated with this type of activity: primarily the risk of losing the historic, original substance of the mill and changing its landscape context. An important problem is the safety of the dynamic exhibition and the lack of professionals – millers specialised in the field of drive mills, who would be able to not only set up the technological process but also maintain the machines included in it on an ongoing basis. The following part of the article discusses 12 examples of attempts to restart historic windmills. These examples are divided into two categories of objects: windmills with an alternative, modern electric drive; windmills with the ability to work using only wind power. The analysed examples of windmill conservation and reactivation provide the basis for formulating lessons for future projects in Poland and abroad.

Abstract Background Convenient therapeutic protocols for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) are often ineffective due to late diagnosis and high tumor heterogeneity, leading to poor long-term outcomes. However, recently performed studies suggest that using nanostructures in liver cancer treatment may improve therapeutic effects. Inorganic nanoparticles represent a unique material that tend to accumulate in the liver when introduced in-vivo. Typically, this is a major drawback that prevents the therapeutic use of nanoparticles in medicine. However, in HCC tumours, this may be advantageous because nanoparticles may accumulate in the target organ, where the leaky vasculature of HCC causes their accumulation in tumour cells via the EPR effect. On the other hand, recent studies have shown that combining low- and high-LET radiation emitted from the same radionuclide, such as 161Tb, can increase the effectiveness of radionuclide therapy. Therefore, to improve the efficacy of radionuclide therapy for hepatocellular carcinoma, we suggest utilizing radioactive palladium nanoparticles in the form of 109Pd/109mAg in-vivo generator that simultaneously emits β− particles and Auger electrons. Results Palladium nanoparticles with a size of 5 nm were synthesized using 109Pd produced through neutron irradiation of natural palladium or enriched 108Pd. Unlike the 109Pd-cyclam complex, where the daughter radionuclide diffuses away from the molecules, 109mAg remains within the nanoparticles after the decay of 109Pd. In vitro cell studies using radioactive 109Pd nanoparticles revealed that the nanoparticles accumulated inside cells, reaching around 50% total uptake. The 109Pd-PEG nanoparticles exhibited high cytotoxicity, even at low levels of radioactivity (6.25 MBq/mL), resulting in almost complete cell death at 25 MBq/mL. This cytotoxic effect was significantly greater than that of PdNPs labeled with β− (131I) and Auger electron emitters (125I). The metabolic viability of HCC cells was found to be correlated with cell DNA DSBs. Also, successful radioconjugate anticancer activity was observed in three-dimensional tumor spheroids, resulting in a significant treatment response. Conclusion The results indicate that nanoparticles labeled with 109Pd can be effectively used for combined β− - Auger electron-targeted radionuclide therapy of HCC. Due to the decay of both components (β− and Auger electrons), the 109Pd/109mAg in-vivo generator presents a unique potential in this field.

Prior research supports the need for elementary-aged students with reading difficulties (RDs) to receive explicit systematic small-group evidence-based reading instruction. Yet for many students, simply receiving evidence-based reading instruction in a small-group setting is insufficient to reach the progress milestones needed to meet grade-level reading standards. The current study examined whether (a) elementary school students with RD constitute homogeneous or heterogeneous groups when considering their basic language and cognitive skills (using a latent profile analysis) and (b) latent profiles are predictive of response to reading comprehension instruction (using a mixed modeling approach). The sample consisted of 335 students, including students with RD and typical students (n = 57). The results revealed heterogeneity within students with RD--there were two distinct profiles, with one having higher basic language (reading fluency and decoding) and cognitive (verbal domain productivity, cognitive flexibility, and working memory) skills and lower attention skills and the other having stronger attention skills and lower basic language and cognitive skills. The findings also suggested that latent profiles were predictive of response to reading comprehension instruction. Our results provide a convincing argument for leading the field in the direction of developing customized interventions. It is conceivable, but remains to be further examined, that researchers and educators could potentially improve reading outcomes through providing a customized reading intervention to a student based on their cognitive-language profile.

The subject of the article is the assessment of the legitimacy of introducing a new institution to Polish law, which is the right to be disconnected. According to the authors, this is unnecessary. Based on the analysis of the regulations and the jurisprudence of the Supreme Court, they show that the Labour Code guarantees people who use modern technologies the right to rest. However, the authors agree, that the problem is the practical application of these provisions. Therefore, in their opinion, instead of introducing a new legal institution, it is necessary to increase the legal awareness of workers so that they know what their rights are in this area and, if deemed appropriate, to increase the sanctions for non-compliance.

This paper describes the first-ever operational contrail avoidance trial in the real world, which took place in the region of Maastricht Upper Area Control (including the northwest of Germany, the Benelux countries and part of the North Sea) in the year 2021. Contrail avoidance could be an efficient method for mitigating the climate impact of aviation. Applying a deliberate experiment design, air traffic was deviated every other day by changing the flight altitude by up to 2000 ft up or down if potential persistent contrails were predicted. Whether deviations were successful on average was checked using satellite images of high clouds and by application of a contrail detection algorithm, which makes use of the properties of contrails. Despite the fact that forecasting persistent contrails remains a challenge, the trial was successful at a significance level of 97.5 %, i.e., on average persistent contrails can be avoided for regular flights in the real world with a small intervention in the vertical flight path. The experiment is an important step towards a regular operational reduction of the aviation climate impact by means of air traffic management. Nevertheless, many open questions need to be solved prior to an operational implementation of contrail avoidance or climate optimised flight trajectories in legal ATM procedures.

The present work deals with the enhancement of the surface characteristics of stainless steel 316L as a result of shot peening treatment using ceramic balls. In accordance with our own research and information available in literature, as a result of shot peening process, the shot balls can penetrate to the surface layer (permanently depositing) and modify the mechanical performance and the corrosion resistance in the products being treated in this way. Shot peening leads to a significant change to the surface hardness and topography, and consequently, to the change in corrosion behaviour dependent on the choice of processing parameters. Therefore, in this paper, steel samples were treated using two variable parameters of peening pressure (0.3 and 0.4 MPa) and peening time (30 and 60s). In the research, the reference surface were the samples subjected to mechanical polishing. The surface morphology of the samples was investigated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The potentiodynamic polarization tests were performed with 1 mV/s scan rate in 0.9% NalCl solution. The improved corrosion resistance (lowest current density Icorr=0.35µA/cm2 and highest corrosion potential Ecorr=-0.164V) was obtained for specimens with longer time (60s) and higher pressure of shot peening treatment (0.4MPa). Greater changes in surface roughness were observed with an increase in peening pressure than with an increase in the processing time. The treatment of the surface with ceramic shots results in an increase in the hardness of the treated surface by more than 110% (for sample 316L/0.4/60) compared to the reference surface. Moreover, an increase in average hardness values was recorded for all surfaces after shot peening (by more than 42% relative to reference samples).

Abstract Treatment-naïve small cell lung cancer (SCLC) is typically susceptible to standard-of-care chemotherapy consisting of cisplatin and etoposide recently combined with PD-L1 inhibitors. Yet, in most cases, SCLC patients develop resistance to first-line therapy and alternative therapies are urgently required to overcome this resistance. In this study, we tested the efficacy of dinaciclib, an FDA-orphan drug and inhibitor of the cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK) 9, among other CDKs, in SCLC. Furthermore, we report on a newly developed, highly specific CDK9 inhibitor, VC-1, with tumour-killing activity in SCLC. CDK9 inhibition displayed high killing potential in a panel of mouse and human SCLC cell lines. Mechanistically, CDK9 inhibition led to a reduction in MCL-1 and cFLIP anti-apoptotic proteins and killed cells, almost exclusively, by intrinsic apoptosis. While CDK9 inhibition did not synergise with chemotherapy, it displayed high efficacy in chemotherapy-resistant cells. In vivo, CDK9 inhibition effectively reduced tumour growth and improved survival in both autochthonous and syngeneic SCLC models. Together, this study shows that CDK9 inhibition is a promising therapeutic agent against SCLC and could be applied to chemo-refractory or resistant SCLC.

Hemofilia A adquirida (HAA) é um distúrbio de coagulação raro devido ao desenvolvimento de autoanticorpos neutralizantes contra o fator VIII (FVIII), chamados inibidores. Os dados da literatura sobre a HAA associada à gravidez e ao puerpério são escassos. O objetivo deste estudo foi revisar sistematicamente a literatura atual sobre tratamento e desfechos associados à HAA durante a gravidez e o puerpério. O estudo foi registrado no PROSPERO (CRD42022353004) e conduzido seguindo a declaração PRISMA 2020. Buscas estratégicas foram realizadas em março/23 e atualizadas em março/24 nas bases de literatura PubMed, Embase, Cochrane e LILACS. Publicações relatando grávidas e puérperas com HAA foram incluídas. Dados individuais foram extraídos, quando disponíveis. A qualidade metodológica foi avaliada através de questionários do Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) adaptados. De 759 reportes, incluíram-se 58 publicações (13 coortes e 45 relatos de caso) descrevendo 177 mulheres, sendo 25 (14%) grávidas e 155 (88%) puérperas. Três tiveram ou mantiveram HAA em duas gestações ou puerpérios diferentes. A idade mediana em 168 (95%) mulheres foi 31,3 anos (intervalo 17‒50). Todas apresentaram inibidor positivo, com título mediano 10,7 BU/mL (intervalo 0,7‒1600; n = 168). O tempo mediano para o diagnóstico foi 59,5 dias (intervalo 0‒335) após o parto (n = 95) e 20 dias (intervalo 0‒120) após o primeiro episódio de sangramento (n = 12). Cento e setenta (96%) mulheres tiveram pelo menos um episódio de sangramento. Sessenta e duas (35%) mulheres necessitaram de hemotransfusão, 11 (6%) foram submetidas a histerectomia e 4 (2%) tiveram choque hipovolêmico. Prescreveram-se agentes hemostáticos em 99 (60%) mulheres, sendo agentes de bypass em 76 (43%). Das 163 (92%) mulheres que realizaram tratamento com IS, 67/147 (46%) receberam somente corticosteroides e 76/147 (52%) receberam uma combinação de corticosteroides com outro(s) agente(s) imunossupressor(es). A Remissão Completa (RC) foi alcançada em 140 (79%) mulheres, sendo espontânea em 12 (7%) e após tratamento com Imunossupressores (IS) em 128 (72%). O tempo mediano para RC entre aquelas que receberam IS foi 4,0 meses (intervalo 0,6‒131) após o diagnóstico (n = 29), 1,0 mês (intervalo 0,0‒13,4) após o início do tratamento (n = 42) e 6,0 meses (intervalo 1,0‒6,0) durante o acompanhamento (n = 4). Cinco (3%) mortes foram relatadas, sendo que 3 (2%) foram relacionadas a sangramento. Duas (1%) mulheres atingiram RC antes do óbito. Sete neonatos tiveram confirmação da presença de inibidor circulante, 4 sangraram e 2 morreram. A qualidade metodológica foi alta em 4/13 (31%) coortes e em 19/45 (42%) dos relatos de caso. A mortalidade em HAA associada à gravidez e ao puerpério não pode ser negligenciada. Quando necessário, associam-se diversas terapias para o controle hemostático. Corticosteroides são o tratamento mais utilizado para erradicação. Existe risco de transmissão de anticorpos para neonatos com potencial sangramento.

RESUMO: O contexto pandêmico, transformou a realidade social e as relações interpessoais, principalmente por meio das medidas de isolamento e distanciamento social, necessárias para a contenção do vírus. Com o trabalho remoto e a intensificação do convívio familiar, acentuaram-se as desigualdades de gênero relacionadas à divisão sexual do trabalho, que sobrecarrega as mulheres diante da desigual responsabilização pelos cuidados com a vida privada. O presente artigo, de natureza qualitativa exploratória, objetiva, a partir do uso de questionários, investigar de que forma a pandemia impactou a carreira das cientistas mães docentes da Universidade Federal do Pampa, analisando como essas pesquisadoras conciliam o ensino remoto e as demais demandas da carreira científica com a maternidade. Percebemos, por meio da pesquisa, que a pandemia impactou não somente a carreira, mas também a saúde mental e física das participantes, na medida que as sobrecarregou para além das demandas profissionais, como também com as demandas do âmbito privado, como o cuidado doméstico e das(os) filhas(os), assumidas majoritariamente por elas.

Introduction and aim of study: The World Health Organization defines infertility as the disease of reproductive system defined by the failure to achieve a pregnancy after 12 months or more of regular unprotected sexual intercourse. It is estimated that 30% of infertility is due to the male factor, and 25% to the coexistence of the male and female factors. The purpose of this review study was to provide an overview of lifestyle risk factors for male infertility and their impact on the organism. Materials and methods: The authors conducted an extensive review of articles available in PubMed, Google Scholar, UpToDate, Science Direct, and Cochrane databases. The keywords infertility, lifestyle, testosterone, men were the basis of the review. Results: Leading an unhealthy lifestyle can significantly impact male fertility. The function of the reproductive system can be affected by inadequate body weight, as well as leading a sedentary lifestyle, using stimulants or anabolic steroids. They not only affect the endocrine system by disrupting steroidogenesis and spermatogenesis but may also directly damage sperm. This leads to impaired semen quality and increases the risk of recurrent pregnancy loss and poor pregnancy outcomes. Conclusion: Lifestyle significantly affects male fertility. A balanced diet, adequate physical activity and avoidance of stimulants can all have a beneficial effect.

Introduction and aim of the study: Thyroid cancer is considered the most common endocrine malignant worldwide in recent years. Also, obesity has become a true pandemic. The correlation between the increase in cases of not only obesity but also thyroid cancer could not be explained solely by earlier and more meticulous cancer diagnoses. This study aims to review the literature on the relationship between obesity and the risk of thyroid cancer. Materials and Methods: The authors conducted a comprehensive review of the literature available in PubMed and Medline databases focusing on the terms "thyroid cancer" and "obesity". Results: Obesity is associated with a state of chronic inflammation and nonspecific activation of the immune system, leading to the production of cytokines and adipokines. These elements, through complex mechanisms, directly and indirectly promote carcinogenesis. Despite the association of excessive body weight with malignant tumor development, oncological treatment cannot rely solely on lifestyle changes and should be conducted precisely as it is for individuals with normal body weight. Another popular research topic in recent years has been circadian rhythm disorders. These disorders are confirmed to be a pro-carcinogenic factor but are also considered as an element that could accelerate diagnosis. Conclusions: Understanding the relationship between obesity and thyroid cancer, primarily molecular mechanisms is essential for developing effective preventive and therapeutic strategies to reduce the risk of thyroid cancer in obese patients.

Objective: Receptor-interacting protein kinase 1 (RIPK1) orchestrates the decision between cell survival and cell death in response to tumor necrosis factor (TNF) and other cytokines. Whereas the scaffolding function of RIPK1 is crucial to prevent TNF-induced apoptosis and necroptosis, its kinase activity is required for necroptosis and partially for apoptosis. Although TNF is a proinflammatory cytokine associated with β-cell loss in diabetes, the mechanism by which TNF induces β-cell demise remains unclear. Methods: Here, we dissected the contribution of RIPK1 scaffold versus kinase functions to β-cell death regulation using mice lacking RIPK1 specifically in β-cells (Ripk1β-KO mice) or expressing a kinase-dead version of RIPK1 (Ripk1D138N mice), respectively. These mice were challenged with streptozotocin, a model of autoimmune diabetes. Moreover, Ripk1β-KO mice were further challenged with a high-fat diet to induce hyperglycemia. For mechanistic studies, pancreatic islets were subjected to various killing and sensitising agents. Results: Inhibition of RIPK1 kinase activity (Ripk1D138N mice) did not affect the onset and progression of hyperglycemia in a type 1 diabetes model. Moreover, the absence of RIPK1 expression in β-cells did not affect normoglycemia under basal conditions or hyperglycemia under diabetic challenges. Ex vivo, primary pancreatic islets are not sensitised to TNF-induced apoptosis and necroptosis in the absence of RIPK1. Intriguingly, we found that pancreatic islets display high levels of the antiapoptotic cellular FLICE-inhibitory protein (cFLIP) and low levels of apoptosis (Caspase-8) and necroptosis (RIPK3) components. Cycloheximide treatment, which led to a reduction in cFLIP levels, rendered primary islets sensitive to TNF-induced cell death which was fully blocked by caspase inhibition. Conclusions: Unlike in many other cell types (e.g., epithelial, and immune), RIPK1 is not required for cell death regulation in β-cells under physiological conditions or diabetic challenges. Moreover, in vivo and in vitro evidence suggest that pancreatic β-cells do not undergo necroptosis but mainly caspase-dependent death in response to TNF. Last, our results show that β-cells have a distinct mode of regulation of TNF-cytotoxicity that is independent of RIPK1 and that may be highly dependent on cFLIP.

B-cell repertoires are characterized by a diverse set of receptors of distinct specificities generated through two processes of somatic diversification: V(D)J recombination and somatic hypermutations. B-cell clonal families stem from the same V(D)J recombination event, but differ in their hypermutations. Clonal families identification is key to understanding B-cell repertoire function, evolution, and dynamics. We present HILARy (high-precision inference of lineages in antibody repertoires), an efficient, fast, and precise method to identify clonal families from single- or paired-chain repertoire sequencing datasets. HILARy combines probabilistic models that capture the receptor generation and selection statistics with adapted clustering methods to achieve consistently high inference accuracy. It automatically leverages the phylogenetic signal of shared mutations in difficult repertoire subsets. Exploiting the high sensitivity of the method, we find the statistics of evolutionary properties such as the site frequency spectrum and dN/dS ratio do not depend on the junction length. We also identify a broad range of selection pressures spanning two orders of magnitude.

The Central Iapetus Magmatic Province (CIMP) is a large igneous province (LIP) emplaced in the Baltican and Laurentian paleocontinents that marks the onset of the Caledonian Wilson Cycle. Paleozoic magmatism of the CIMP is preserved in both northeastern America and northern Europe. This study investigates rocks belonging to the hyper-extended margin of Baltica currently found in the Seve Nappe Complex of the Scandinavian Caledonides. Specifically, U-Pb zircon geochronology and whole-rock geochemistry are applied to a migmatitic variety of the Vierručohkka amphibolite of the Mårma Terrane, to the Aurek gabbro, and amphibolite of the Aurek Assemblage exposed in the Seve Nappe Complex in the Kebnekaise region, northern Swedish Caledonides. U-Pb zircon geochronology yields crystallization ages of 626 ± 7 Ma for the protolith of the Vierručohkka amphibolite, and 614 ± 2 Ma and 609 ± 1 Ma for the emplacement of the Aurek gabbro and amphibolite protolith, respectively. A younger age of 599 ± 3 Ma is recorded in the Vierručohkka amphibolite and is interpreted as the age of partial melting and migmatization. The geochemical signatures of the rocks demonstrate crustal assimilation during the emplacement of their protoliths and modification due to prograde metamorphic processes during Caledonian subduction. The Vierručohkka amphibolite and the Aurek Assemblage samples display upper and lower crustal assimilation, respectively. Trace elements (Dy, Sm, Lu, and Y) record the growth of metamorphic garnet, while elevated TiO2 contents record the crystallization of metamorphic rutile. Nevertheless, high field strength elements (HSFE) and ∆Nb suggest a depleted mantle source for the magmas of the protoliths of the investigated rocks. Altogether, geochemical data indicate that the igneous activity recorded in the Vierručohkka amphibolite and the Aurek Assemblage between c. 626–609 Ma is related to continental rifting processes associated with the opening of the Iapetus Ocean.

One of the biggest threats to many lakes is their accelerated eutrophication resulting from anthropogenic pressure, agricultural intensification, and climate change. A very important element of surface water protection in environmentally conserved areas is the proper monitoring of water quality and detection of potential threats by examining the physicochemical properties of water and performing statistical analyses that enable possible exposure of unfavourable trends. The article presents the analyses of the results of measurements made in three lakes located in the Sierakowski Landscape Park. As part of the measurements, water quality indicators i.e., phosphorus, nitrogen, BOD5 and COD, were determined monthly for a year at the inflows and outflows of the studied lakes. The test results of selected water quality indicators were analysed using machine learning algorithms i.e., PCA and k-means. The conducted tests enabled statistical estimation of changes in water quality indicators in the reservoirs and evaluation of their correlation.