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The population of patients declared as brain dead and qualified for organ donation is relatively low in Poland. The main causes of brain death include cerebral vascular diseases and brain trauma (54 and 34%, respectively, according to Poltransplant registry data). The number of organ procurements in Poland is constantly recorded on average at 14 donations per 1 million citizens (14/mln) in 2017 and 12 donations per one million in 2018. It is difficult to precisely define the number of patients who meet the criteria for brain death certification. The authors have retrospectively analyzed the medical data of 229 patients from 2017 and 2018 records with the aim of identifying potential organ donors among patients of the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) in the University Hospital in Western Poland. Brain death was suspected in 53 patients (23.14%). Brain imaging to confirm no cerebral flow (which is consistent with brain death) was performed in 17 patients (7.45%) and this, as a result, led to organ donation in 9 cases (3.93%). The factors identified as having a positive influence on organ donation included: daily thorough physical examination, (Glasgow Coma Scale) GCS assessment, depth and duration of sedation, ICU length of stay and early performance of a CT-angiogram.

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether routine blood tests and clinical characteristics can predict in-hospital mortality in COVID-19. Clinical data of 285 patients aged 59.7 ± 10.3 yrs. (males n = 189, females n = 96) were retrospectively collected from December 2020 to June 2021. Routine blood tests were recorded within the 1st hour of admission to hospital. The inflammatory variables, such as C-reactive protein (CRP), procalcitonin (PCT), neutrophils–lymphocyte ratio (NLR) and the systemic inflammatory index (SII), exceeded the reference values in all patients and were significantly higher in deceased patients (n = 108) compared to survivors (n = 177). The log-rank test for comparing two survival curves showed that patients aged ≥60.5 years, with PCT ≥ 0.188 ng/mL or NLR ≥ 11.57 103/µL were at a greater risk of death. NLR demonstrated a high impact on the COVID-19 mortality (HR 1.317; 95%CI 1.004–1.728; p < 0.05), whereas CRP and SII showed no effect (HR 1.000; 95%CI 1.000–1.004; p = 0.085 and HR 1.078; 95%CI 0.865–1.344; p = 0.503, respectively). In the first Polish study including COVID-19 patients, we demonstrated that age in relation to simple parameters derived from complete blood cell count has prognostic implications in the course of COVID-19 and can identify the patients at a higher risk of in-hospital mortality.

Although the popularity of recreational pole dancing continues to gain momentum, its prevailing association with the erotic sphere and resulting stereotypes shape it as a borderline activity. Notably, the way pole dancing is approached and enacted elucidates how bodies, especially female embodiment, are socially constructed and controlled. Thus, to look at that issue from recreational female polers’ perspectives, this article sheds light on how their understandings of the body evolve with their engagement in the leisure activity at hand. That process is analyzed in the context of how women deal with tensions that arise while they navigate between the internalized societal expectations concerning desired femininity and personal agency. Drawing on ethnographic and interview data from pole dance studios in Poland, I discuss how polers’ perspectives on their bodies change from personal and interactional ‘limitations’ to embracing their bodies as interactional partners with whom to achieve their goals. In the process of learning by doing, women get to know their bodies and develop with them a relationship based on trust. Subsequently, growing to understand the bodies as their substantial selves that functionality allows them to achieve the ‘impossible’ as one empowers women. At the same time, I highlight how the process of espousing alternative perceptions of one’s body unfolds under the umbrella of an internalized frame of meanings concerning female embodiment that lures women to fit societal expectations. The interplay between the two sheds light on how female polers navigate toward reclaiming their self-confidence from the clutches of the critical social gaze while negotiating the notion of their bodies. Compelling in that regard is how relying on erotic associations with recreational pole dancing in terms of inciting empowerment through a sexual agency, as some studios do, plays out and factors into female pole dancers’ experiences concerning their leisure activity.

L’objectif du présent article est de démontrer que malgré le pessimisme apparent de la narration, témoignant d’une société en crise, les récits de Michel Houellebecq fournissent également des indications précieuses quant à la manière dont ces crises peuvent être surmontées, ce qui les situe parmi les ouvrages littéraires dits « réparateurs ». L’analyse des origines et des enjeux de la crise sociétale ainsi que de la manière dont celle-ci résonne dans l’univers houellebecquien constitue la première partie de l’étude et le point de départ de réflexions sur le rôle de la poétique du désordre dans la réconciliation avec soi-même et avec le monde. Les dispositifs assurant une meilleure gestion des phases critiques – l’empathie, l’ironie, l’humour – sont bien présents chez l’écrivain. L’examen d’extraits de deux de ses romans, La Possibilité d’une île (2005) et Sérotonine (2019), permettra de mieux comprendre comment y sont exploitées les possibilités qu’offrent ces outils.