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The paper analyzes the campaign strategies of the "Prawo i Sprawiedliwość" (PiS) political party during the Polish elections from 2009 to 2020. It examines how the gradual modernization of communication strategies and the adoption of a less aggressive narrative contributed to the party's revival after a decline in support caused by the political crisis of 2007 and the death of leader Lech Kaczyński in 2010. The research aims to identify the changes in campaigning that contributed to regaining electoral success since the 2015 national elections. The analysis is based on audio-visual materials produced by PiS for the elections during both the "crisis" period (2009-2013) and the "revival" period (2014-2020), allowing for a comparative analysis of the main changes between these two periods. Through content analysis of these materials, the study investigates the topics, genres, formats, national and European dimensions, personalization strategies, and use of negative advertising. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Artykuł porusza problematykę decyzji wyborczych młodych osób po wyborach parlamentarnych w 2023 roku. Zawiera on próbę wyjaśnienia, jakie były motywacje wyborcze badanej grupy osób. Jest również próbą pogłębienia wątków dotyczących wyborów politycznych i partycypacji młodych wyborców obywateli. Przeprowadzone zostały samodzielne badania jakościowe, techniką wywiadu pogłębionego, które uszczegóławiają problem. Analizy pokazały, że sporo młodych osób głosowało przeciwko rządowi Prawa i Sprawiedliwości, jeżeli chodzi o porównanie z poprzednimi wyborami. Widać także sporą niechęć do sprawowania władzy przez tę partię. Badani przeciwni PiS uzasadniali swoją partycypację wyborczą celem zmiany władzy, gdyż nie byli z niej zadowoleni. Uważali, że to ugrupowanie nie dba o tę grupę wiekową, nie spełnia również ich oczekiwań.

The paper analyzes the campaign strategies of the PiS political party during the Polish elections from 2009 to 2020. It examines how the gradual modernization of communication strategies and the adoption of a less aggressive narrative contributed to the party’s revival after a decline in support caused by the political crisis of 2007 and the death of leader Lech Kaczynski in 2010. The research aims to identify the changes in campaigning that contributed to regaining electoral success since the 2015 national elections. The analysis is based on audio-visual materials produced by PiS for the elections during both the “crisis” period (2009-2013) and the “revival” period (2014-2020), allowing for a comparative analysis of the main changes between these two periods. Through content analysis of these materials, the study investigates the topics, genres, formats, national and European dimensions, personalization strategies, and use of negative advertising.

The article argues that the Digital Services Act, as part of the EU's broader attempt to regulate intermediary services providers in a constantly growing and challenging technological, social and political environment, does not provide a final and comprehensive solution to the issue. The Digital Services Act appears inconsistent with the previous case law of European supranational judiciary forums regarding the prohibition of general monitoring by intermediary services providers. In fact, it provides the Member States with vaguely worded regulatory exceptions in the event of a ban on general monitoring. However, the Digital Services Act can be seen as a legitimate and necessary attempt to enforce the regulation at the European level through Member States while at the same time giving a unique regulatory position in specific cases to the European Commission or pan-European legal bodies in general. Finally, the Digital Services Act also turns initial enforced self-regulatory attempts to regulate social harms, possibly caused by intermediary services providers, into co-regulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article begins with a brief introduction to European populism, defining it and explaining its main characteristics, in order to provide a general context for the analysis. The paper is structured in four parts, while explaining how populism can be perceived as a hybrid threat to the European Union and analyzing the impact that this phenomenon has on the balance of power between the member states of the Union, , as well as on the global balance of power. In the first part of the paper, I analyzed the features of Hungarian and Polish populism, analyzing the discourses of PiS and Fidesz representatives. In this sense, I undertook a comparative analysis of the discursive structures of the two parties, highlighting the similarities and differences identified in the rhetoric of Viktor Orbán and Jarosław Kaczyński. In the second part of the article, I framed populism among hybrid threats, examining how this ideology can be perceived as such a threat. In the third part of the paper, I analyzed how populism affects the balance of power, approaching this theme from three perspectives, namely from the perspective of the balance of power between the member states, from the inter-institutional perspective, as well as from the perspective of the international balance of power. In the fourth part of the paper, I analyzed the actions that the European Union can take to reduce the effects generated by populism. In this sense, I brought up three means of counteracting this phenomenon, namely the use of the sanctions provided for in art. 7 of the Treaty on the European Union, the suspension from the Schengen area and the implementation of financial pressures, reaching the conclusion that financial sanctions would be the main way to force populist parties to give up this ideology. Following this research, the main conclusion I reached is that the hybrid threat character of populism and its impact on the balance of power are the collective result of populist parties in the Union. More precisely, although the two analyzed parties are the most representative for this phenomenon, the ability to influence the balance of power is possible due to the extent of the phenomenon in the European Union.

Background: Antiretroviral therapy has increasingly improved management of HIV infection, ensuring long-term efficacy and tolerability. Each class of antiretrovirals has, however, different characteristics and different tolerability profiles. The literature data show that protease inhibitors (PIs) are associated with a higher incidence of dyslipidemia. The aim of our study was to evaluate whether patients treated with PIs have both greater dyslipidemia and increased intima media thickness (IMT) and atheromatous plaques compared to patients treated without PIs. Materials and Methods: A total of 110 HIV-experienced patients screened with Doppler ultrasonography of the supra-aortic trunks in December 2019 were enrolled in a retrospective cross-sectional observational study. Patients were divided into two groups: 59 in the PI-based group, treated with PIs, and 51 in the PI-sparing group. In the two groups, we evaluated lipids, cardiovascular risk factors (smoking, BMI, age, hypertension), increased pathological IMT (a value > 1 mm), and possible atheromatous plaque. Results: Serum LDL (p 0.04) and percentage of patients with hypercholesterolemia (p 0.03) were higher in the PI-based than in the PI-sparing group. Doppler data showed a trend in increase of IMT > 1 in the PI-based group, which appeared statistically significant for the section of the left common carotid artery (p 0.03). However, in multivariate logistic regression models, none of the evaluated variables were significantly associated with IMT > 1. Conclusions: Our real-life data show that patients treated with PIs have a trend of developing both greater dyslipidemia and increased pathological IMT and atheromatous plaques These findings may be useful to optimize antiretrovirals for patients with cardiovascular risk factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Improving farmers' fertilization behavior through technical training is conducive to reducing agricultural non-point source pollution and maintaining soil health. The existing studies mainly discuss the impact of technical training on the adoption of soil testing formula fertilization (STFF) from the perspective of judging the training effect, but there are few further answers to how to improve the effect of technical training. Based on the theory of planned behavior and training transfer, this study adopted a logit model and OLS model to explore the role of training in the adoption of STFF, as well as the moderation effect of personalized information support. An empirical test was carried out using the survey data of farmers in Zhejiang Province, China. The results showed that participating in technical training is beneficial for farmers in adopting STFF, and receiving personalized information support can strengthen the promotion effect of technical training on the adoption of STFF. Further analysis reveals that there are certain differences in the above relationships among farmers with different operating scales. The findings could facilitate a deeper understanding of the improvement of technical training performance and accumulation of rural human capital and could also provide a useful reference for the policy formulation to optimize farmers' fertilization behavior and promote sustainable agricultural development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article addresses the issue of the departure of the popular class from Polish social democracy and the simultaneous takeover by the right-wing populist. Analyzing the electoral results of the SLD and the PiS after 2005, we can see this phenomenon both in the context of electoral geography and in-depth opinion polls. The article also analyzes the apparent dichotomy between contemporary center-left voters and the ruling party in Poland in the dimension of attitudes to socio-economic and cultural issues, which may indicate a permanent loss of trust for the Polish center-left among representatives of the peasant and working class. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) is a human viral infectious disease caused by the positive-sense single-stranded (ss) RNA Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) (Retroviridae family, Ortervirales order). HIV-1 can be distinguished into various worldwide spread groups and subtypes. HIV-2 also causes human immunodeficiency, which develops slowly and tends to be less aggressive. HIV-2 only partially homologates to HIV-1 despite the similar derivation. Antiretroviral therapy (ART) is the treatment approved to control HIV infection, based on multiple antiretroviral drugs that belong to different classes: (i) NNRTIs, (ii) NRTIs, (iii) PIs, (iv) INSTIs, and (v) entry inhibitors. These drugs, acting on different stages of the HIV life cycle, decrease the patient's total burden of HIV, maintain the function of the immune system, and prevent opportunistic infections. The appearance of several strains resistant to these drugs, however, represents a problem today that needs to be addressed as best as we can. New outbreaks of strains show a widespread geographic distribution and a highly variable mortality rate, even affecting treated patients significantly. Therefore, novel treatment approaches should be explored. The present review discusses updated information on HIV-1– and HIV-2–resistant strains, including details on different mutations responsible for drug resistance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objetivo: O objetivo do estudo foi apresentar o impacto da decisão proferida pelo Supremo Tribunal Federal que exclui o ICMS da base de cálculo do PIS e da COFINS e demonstrar o montante dessas contribuições a serem restituídas por uma empresa do setor alimentício, enquadrada no regime do Lucro Real. Metodologia: Utilizou-se uma pesquisa descritiva, aplicada a um estudo de caso com abordagem quantitativa dos dados. A composição dos valores e identificação do indébito foram feitos a partir da análise minuciosa dos documentos fiscais e contábeis da empresa, dos anos de 2012 até 2017. Resultados: Verificou-se que a decisão do STF permite interpretações distintas quanto a sistemática de cálculo para ressarcimento de eventuais valores, portanto como ainda não há segurança jurídica quanto ao critério a ser utilizado, optou-se por demonstrar os valores pelos dois métodos, ou seja, excluindo o ICMS destacado e o ICMS recolhido. O resultado da pesquisa evidenciou que ambas as formas de cálculo se mostraram benéficas para a empresa, mesmo com a enorme discrepância identificada se confrontados os valores de indébito encontrados em cada critério de cálculo. Contribuições do Estudo: O estudo traz uma contribuição significativa pois trata-se da decisão proferida pelo STF que exclui o ICMS da base de cálculo do PIS e COFINS, assunto esse que arrastava-se pelo STF há muitos anos, e que ainda se mostra confusa e permite interpretações distintas quanto ao método de cálculo do indébito. As decisões desarmonizadas e inseguras, os grandes valores que o governo necessita restituir às empresas e a amplitude que essa decisão tomou em âmbito nacional tornam o assunto relevante pois como mostrado no presente estudo, apesar dos resultados discrepantes entre as formas de apuração do valor a restituir/compensar, a empresa obtém expressiva vantagem tributária.

National-conservative Law and Justice Party (PiS) is seen as quite open to the innovative use of social media. Moreover, the government led by PiS is aiming at regulating social media in a dual way – on the one hand to prevent blocking by social media platforms, on the other hand to allow intervention and blocking by authorities. Regarding our findings, not surprisingly, the preferred source of information for both PiS and Confederation (Konfederacja) were digital sources. TV was the least often linked media outlet for PiS and radio for Confederation, respectively. All the linked media were national or with mixed origin, there were no links to European/supranational media. The overwhelming majority of links were websites and social media accounts of Confederation and PiS, their individual politicians or YouTube materials produced by these two groupings. Left and liberal media were systematically ignored when around 10% were common to both profiles, including FaceBook (FB). These were mostly mainstream media of diverse type (news websites, YouTube, radio, TV) and left, centre and centre-right ideological leanings. The political orientation of the shared sources reflected the inclination of populist parties and their coalitions to promote right wing discourses. PiS as a large party oriented towards the centre represents centre-right and Confederation represents radical right. The references to the media classified as centre-right constituted 96% of PiS sample and 66% of Confederation sample. The network analysis showed that both parties were embedded in two almost separate bubbles which are linked together by a very limited set of sources. They stayed in reciprocal relations mostly with their own separated structures, organizations, politicians or FB discussion groups.

Background: Antiretroviral therapy has increasingly improved management of HIV infection, ensuring long-term efficacy and tolerability. Each class of antiretrovirals has, however, different characteristics and different tolerability profiles. The literature data show that protease inhibitors (PIs) are associated with a higher incidence of dyslipidemia. The aim of our study was to evaluate whether patients treated with PIs have both greater dyslipidemia and increased intima media thickness (IMT) and atheromatous plaques compared to patients treated without PIs. Materials and Methods: A total of 110 HIV-experienced patients screened with Doppler ultrasonography of the supra-aortic trunks in December 2019 were enrolled in a retrospective cross-sectional observational study. Patients were divided into two groups: 59 in the PI-based group, treated with PIs, and 51 in the PI-sparing group. In the two groups, we evaluated lipids, cardiovascular risk factors (smoking, BMI, age, hypertension), increased pathological IMT (a value > 1 mm), and possible atheromatous plaque. Results: Serum LDL (p 0.04) and percentage of patients with hypercholesterolemia (p 0.03) were higher in the PI-based than in the PI-sparing group. Doppler data showed a trend in increase of IMT > 1 in the PI-based group, which appeared statistically significant for the section of the left common carotid artery (p 0.03). However, in multivariate logistic regression models, none of the evaluated variables were significantly associated with IMT > 1. Conclusions: Our real-life data show that patients treated with PIs have a trend of developing both greater dyslipidemia and increased pathological IMT and atheromatous plaques These findings may be useful to optimize antiretrovirals for patients with cardiovascular risk factors.

Gloria Pérez-Rubio,1 Enrique Ambrocio-Ortiz,1 Luis A López-Flores,1 Ana I Juárez-Martín,2 Luis Octavio Jiménez-Valverde,1 Susana Zoreque-Cabrera,1 Gustavo Galicia-Negrete,1 María Elena Ramírez-Díaz,3 Filiberto Cruz-Vicente,4 Manuel de Jesús Castillejos-López,5 Citlaltepetl Salinas-Lara,6 Rafael de Jesús Hernández-Zenteno,7 Alejandra Ramírez-Venegas,7 Ramcés Falfán-Valencia1 1HLA Laboratory, Instituto Nacional de Enfermedades Respiratorias Ismael Cosío Villegas, Mexico City, Mexico; 2Centro de Estudios Antropológicos - Facultad de Ciencias Políticas y Sociales, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City, Mexico; 3Coordinación de Vigilancia Epidemiológica, Jurisdicción 06 Sierra, Tlacolula de Matamoros Oaxaca, Servicios de Salud de Oaxaca, Oaxaca, Mexico; 4Hospital Civil Aurelio Valdivieso, Servicios de Salud de Oaxaca, Oaxaca, Mexico; 5Epidemiological Surveillance Unit, Instituto Nacional de Enfermedades Respiratorias Ismael Cosío Villegas, Mexico City, Mexico; 6Department of Neuropathology, Instituto Nacional de Neurología y Neurocirugía Manuel Velasco Suárez, Mexico City, Mexico; 7Tobacco Smoking and COPD Research Department, Instituto Nacional de Enfermedades Respiratorias Ismael Cosio Villegas, Mexico City, MexicoCorrespondence: Ramcés Falfán-Valencia Email rfalfanv@iner.gob.mxPurpose: The protease inhibitor S (PiS) and Z (PiZ) variants have been stated as the only genetic cause of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in Caucasians. However, its frequency in admixed populations is low. We aimed to identify genetic susceptibility between PiS (rs17580) and PiZ (rs28929474) polymorphisms with COPD related to tobacco smoking and biomass-burning smoke as well as to determine its frequencies in Mestizo and Amerindian populations from Mexico.Patients and Methods: One thousand and eight hundred seventy-eight subjects were included in two comparisons of cases and controls, (1) smokers with and without COPD (COPD-S, n=399; SWOC, n=1106); (2) Biomass-burning smoke-exposed subjects with and without COPD (COPD-BS, n=98; BBES, n=275). In addition, 2354 Mexican subjects identified as Mestizos (n=1952) and Amerindian (n=402) were included. The population structure was evaluated using 59 informative ancestry markers.Results: The AT genotype of rs17580 is associated with COPD in both comparisons (COPD-S vs SWOC p< 0.001, OR=2.16; COPD-BS vs BBES p< 0.0001, OR=11.50). The population of the Mexico-North has a greater Caucasian contribution (54.7%) compared to the center (46.9%) and southeast (42.7%).Conclusion: The rs17580, AT genotype, is associated with COPD in Mexican-Mestizo smokers and exposed to biomass-burning smoke. The rs17580 AT is more frequent in the Mexican-Mestizo population of the North of the country, which has a high Caucasian component.Keywords: PiS, PiZ, COPD, SERPINA1, AAT, A1AT, biomass-burning smoke, tobacco smoking

Innovation system studies have increased significantly over the past decades and various approaches have been presented in the literature; consequently, innovation policies have undergone substantial changes in the context of each period. Most of these approaches have focused on the development of technological innovation for purely economic purposes. Resolving macro-level societal problems based on the innovation system, called “Problem-oriented Innovation System (PIS)”, has recently been introduced in the related literature and has opened a new path for economic and social development of countries. Implementation of this framework by policymakers will serve as the basis for developing problem-oriented innovation policy for the problems or challenges facing society. To this end, this paper, while presenting the historical evolution of innovation policies, introduces analytical framework of “Problem-oriented Innovation System” as a comprehensive approach to analyzing technical and social innovation processes for resolving large scale problems with the aim of providing a basis for problem-oriented innovation policy. Finally, we analyze two case studies (the problem resolution systems of US earthquake and the digital divide in South Korea) based on the “Event History Analysis” strategy.

The article analyzes the features of the presidential election in Poland held in 2020. Its distinctive features were the holding of voting amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the postponement of the first round of voting and the replacement of the candidate from the main opposition force – Koalicja Obywatelska. The article describes in detail the campaign of the main candidates: A. Duda and R. Trzaskowski, with a great emphasis on the latter. Special attention is paid to the analysis of the reasons for the victory of the incumbent head of state and the failure of the representative from the opposition forces. The author notes that the success of A. Duda, who, despite his non-partisanship, acts as a conductor of the interests of the ruling Law and Justice party, is justified by the fact that the latter managed to fulfill part of its initial election promises during its term in power. Thanks to this, a stable group of electoral support was formed, which ensured the victory of A. Dude.

This article deals with Poland’s Law and Justice (PiS), considered a conservative party in the scholarly literature. Drawing largely on party manifestos, the article demonstrates the character, the specificities and the evolution of the party’s identity and ideology. A theoretical basis for the undertaking is provided by Klaus von Beyme’s concept of party families, Arend Lijphart’s seven ideological dimensions and classic texts on conservatism. The analysis finds that the most important components in PiS’s current identity are Catholicism itself and the great emphasis the party places on the role of the Catholic Church. Also important for the party’s identity are visions of a nation conceived on ethnic principle, a strong and active state able to form society with a national spirit, anti-communism and a negation of developments in Poland since 1989. A substantial role is played by the quasi-religiously conceived legacy of the party’s co-founder, Lech Kaczyński, who tragically perished in an aircraft crash. With its Catholic-nationalist profile, PiS is close to the Christian current within the conservative New Right, and to Polish National Democracy in the interwar period.

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Introduction: A pharmacy information system (PIS) is a crucial tool for preventing errors and enhancing patient safety. This study aims to assess the influence of a PIS on workflow and medication errors (MEs) within the pharmacy department of a medical city in Saudi Arabia. The analysis encompasses an evaluation of the current workflow within pharmacy modules (in-patient, out-patient, and clinical pharmacy modules) and an exploration of associated challenges and inefficiencies., Method: The study employed both qualitative and quantitative methodologies, incorporating structured interview techniques and the review of system records, such as logs, incident reports, and ME databases., Results: Respondents recognized the benefits of the PIS, including the management of high-quality real-time data (26%), reduction of MEs (25%), acceleration of healthcare practices (23%), and absence of space-time constraints (14%). The study highlighted the role of PIS in addressing medication stock control and shortage issues, thereby improving overall medication availability. Furthermore, PIS significantly enhanced safety (93.3%), efficiency (80%), reliability, accuracy, ease of use (56.7%, 56.7%), and cost-effectiveness (53.7%). Following the implementation of the PIS, there was an increase in ME reporting, indicating improved error detection and management., Conclusion: The research revealed an increase in ME reporting rates in hospitals after PIS installation, attributed to improved medication management processes resulting in higher detection rates. As healthcare facilities increasingly embrace electronic medical records, the understanding of patient care quality will be significantly impacted. Consequently, further research is warranted to explore the role of PIS in reporting, detecting, analyzing, and mitigating MEs, as well as their influence on the work environment to promote a secure and efficient patient journey., Competing Interests: Human subjects: Consent was obtained or waived by all participants in this study. King Fahad Medical City - Riyadh Second Cluster issued approval 24-141. Animal subjects: All authors have confirmed that this study did not involve animal subjects or tissue. Conflicts of interest: In compliance with the ICMJE uniform disclosure form, all authors declare the following: Payment/services info: All authors have declared that no financial support was received from any organization for the submitted work. Financial relationships: All authors have declared that they have no financial relationships at present or within the previous three years with any organizations that might have an interest in the submitted work. Other relationships: All authors have declared that there are no other relationships or activities that could appear to have influenced the submitted work., (Copyright © 2024, Alanazi et al.)

In 2005–2007, the Russian Federation was blocking navigation through the Piławska Strait (the only exit from the Vistula Lagoon to the Baltic Sea). The answer was to build a shipping canal through the Vistula Spit. The aim of the article was to compare the positions of the PO and the PiS in the implementation of these infrastructure plans. The author used a comparative method and the method of institutional and legal analysis. The conducted research allowed to show that the PO in 2005–2007 did not present a unified position on the construction of the canal, some of its politicians spoke positively and some negatively. Meanwhile, PiS politicians in all public statements expressed approval for these aspirations.

This paper presents two novel competitive-cooperative learning models (CCLM) for achieving goals by human contenders. These models have two phases, viz., Competition phase and Cooperation phase. CCLM based on Hanman Transform (HT) is called HT-CCLM and that using a new concept termed Pervasive Information set is called PIS-CCLM. In the competition phase of HT-CCLM, each contender emulates the effort of best achiever by taking the difference of Hanman Transform values associated with the efforts of an individual and the best achiever whereas in the cooperation phase the differential of HT values of efforts of two random contenders is considered. In PIS-CCLM pervasive information value obtained from hesitancy values are used in the competition phase only. We have also carried out Wilcoxon test to establish the superiority of the proposed HT-CCLM and PIS-CCLM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Autophagy is a process in which a myriad membrane structures called autophagosomes are formed de novo in a single cell, which deliver the engulfed substrates into lysosomes for degradation. The size of the autophagosomes is relatively uniform in non-selective autophagy and variable in selective autophagy. It has been recently established that autophagosome formation occurs near the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). In this review, we have discussed recent advances in the relationship between autophagosome formation and endoplasmic reticulum. Autophagosome formation occurs near the ER subdomain enriched with phospholipid synthesizing enzymes like phosphatidylinositol synthase (PIS)/CDP-diacylglycerol-inositol 3-phosphatidyltransferase (CDIPT) and choline/ethanolamine phosphotransferase 1 (CEPT1). Autophagy-related protein 2 (Atg2), which is involved in autophagosome formation has a lipid transfer capacity and is proposed to directly transfer the lipid molecules from the ER to form autophagosomes. Vacuole membrane protein 1 (VMP1) and transmembrane protein 41b (TMEM41b) are ER membrane proteins that are associated with the formation of the subdomain. Recently, we have reported that an uncharacterized ER membrane protein possessing the DNAJ domain, called ERdj8/DNAJC16, is associated with the regulation of the size of autophagosomes. The localization of ERdj8/DNAJC16 partially overlaps with the PIS-enriched ER subdomain, thereby implying its association with autophagosome size determination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

National populism is a widespread phenomenon, present in almost every European country. Even though literature on populism is quite ample, it lacks terminological intersections and uses different approaches to delineate the term. The aim of this article is to adjust the term national populism to the specificities of the V4 countries, focusing on Hungary and Poland. We make threefold contribution to the current debate on populism. Firstly, a new dimension concerning populism is present, a requirement of the newly formed populist elite to decide, who is the "people". Secondly, we introduce coherent description and comparison of national populists' tendencies in Hungary and Poland, in summary called "Orbán's illiberal doctrine", which was adopted around Budapest-Warsaw axis. Thirdly, we view the V4 region to be a proxy-war in what Milanović calls "Clash of Capitalisms". The notion of Orbán's illiberal doctrine challenges erratic Czech and Slovak opportunism, so far prone to liberal capitalistic order. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Populist, especially far-right populist, parties have gained votes in recent elections across Europe recently. This observation is true for Poland as well. The far-right populist party Law and Justice (PiS, Prawo i Sprawiedliwość) won the parliamentary election in 2015. Next to the well-known nativist and populist messages, PiS promoted a social policy: the Family 500+ programme. Did this programme attract voters? The findings of this study lend reason to answer the question in the affirmative. The inclusion of social policies usually associated with left -wing parties might hence be a path to be explored by other far-right populist parties as well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract As a key component of urban rail transit systems, communications-based train control (CBTC) is an automated train control system using train-ground communications to ensure efficient operation of rail vehicles. In addition to CBTC systems, passenger information systems (PISs) are adopted in urban rail transit systems to improve quality of service (QoS) offered to customers. The interference between CBTC systems and PISs is an important factor impacting QoS of both CBTC systems and PISs. With recent advances in cognitive dynamic systems, in this paper, we take a cognitive control approach to interference mitigation considering the co-existence of CBTC systems and PISs. In our cognitive control approach, the notion of information gap is adopted to quantitatively describe effects of interference on CBTC. The wireless channel is modeled as a finite-state Markov chain with multiple state transition probability matrices, which are derived from real field measurements. Simulation results show that the proposed cognitive control approach can significantly improve performance of CBTC train-ground communications under interference from co-existing PISs.

The aim of this paper is to contribute to the deconstruction of the migration discourse of the Law and Justice Party (Prawo i Sprawiedliwość, PiS), looking for mythical structures in it and trying to decode them using discourse analysis. When it comes to migration politics, Poland is one of the most curious andambiguous contemporary cases. Previously predominantly a sending country, asits economy grows Poland is becoming a receiving country, faced with millions of incoming labour migrants. The Polish government lets them in, despite being anti-migrant in its rhetoric, especially when it comes to relocation of refugees within the European Union (EU). Some surveys reveal that countrywide anti-migrant sentiment is a rather new development: Polish attitudes towards immigrants have worsened since mid-2015, that is since the so-called European migration crisis was utilized by Law and Justice in their campaign at the 2015 Polish parliamentary election in order to gain fear-induced support. Therefore, Law and Justice’s migration discourse is fundamental to the study of contemporary Polish migration politics. I have analysed the news, interviews and othe rpublications from the official website of the Law and Justice party (pis.org.pl) over a period between June 2015 and July 2018. Based upon E. Cassirer’s, M. Eliade’s and H. Tudor’s understanding of political myth, I have identified a number of repetitive mythical structures and characteristics of political myths in the Law and Justice’s discourse on migration that can help to better understand Law and Justice’s political and ideological stances.

The aim of this paper is to contribute to the deconstruction of the migration discourse of the Law and Justice Party (Prawo i Sprawiedliwość, PiS), looking for mythical structures in it and trying to decode them using discourse analysis. When it comes to migration politics, Poland is one of the most curious and ambiguous contemporary cases. Previously predominantly a sending country, as its economy grows Poland is becoming a receiving country, faced with millions of incoming labour migrants. The Polish government lets them in, despite being anti-migrant in its rhetoric, especially when it comes to relocation of refugees within the European Union (EU). Some surveys reveal that countrywide anti-migrant sentiment is a rather new development: Polish attitudes towards immigrants have worsened since mid-2015, that is since the so-called European migration crisis was utilized by Law and Justice in their campaign at the 2015 Polish parliamentary election in order to gain fear-induced support.2 Therefore, Law and Justice's migration discourse is fundamental to the study of contemporary Polish migration politics.I have analysed the news, interviews and other publications from the official website of the Law and Justice party (pis.org. pl) over a period between June 2015 and July 2018. Based upon E. Cassirer's, M. Eliade's and H. Tudor's understanding of political myth, I have identified a number of repetitive mythical structures and characteristics of political myths in the Law and Justice's discourse on migration that can help to better understand Law and Justice's political and ideological stances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Helicoverpa armigera is anxious insect pest of agricultural crops. Array of defensive molecules in host plants and extensive use of chemical insecticides are unable to cease the attack incidences. Gut bacterial communities are found to contribute in various physiological activities in most of the arthropods. In the current study the bacterial communities were isolated from gut of H. armigera feeding on three host plants (Pigeonpea, Chickpea and Cotton) by culture dependent and culture independent methods. Predominant bacterial communities were identified by terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism (TRFLP). Three dominant phylotypes namely proteobacteria, actinobacteria and firmicutes were identified by TRFLP and found to conserve on different host plant selected. Five Bacillus species namely Bacillus sp. JR14, Bacillus sp. YP1, Bacillus safensis CG1, Bacillus subtillis KAVK2 and Bacillus megaterium 47N were purified by culture dependent method and identified by 16S rRNA sequencing. Among all identified Bacillus , Bacillus sp. YP1 strain was found to be potent protease producer as assisted by dot-blot assay and in vitro solution assays. The in vitro interactions of these proteases with host plant PIs were studied by reverse zymography and gel X-ray contact print (GXCP) analysis. Reduction in activity of PIs and degradation pattern of PI bands on gels in presence of trypsin and protease extract of Bacillus sp. YP1 indicates inactivation of PIs. Thus, conserved nature and in vitro response to PI proteins advocates role of gut bacterial flora in H. armigera digestive physiology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article draws the main lines of development of the territoriality of the Polish state, taking into account the divergent dynamics of its regional evolution. Building on a historical account, it describes how the decentralization process unfolded, leading to the reform in 1998/1999, which administratively decentralized the state without, however, changing its unitary nature. By analysing the complexity and diversity of the EU's cohesion policy, the paper also addresses questions that are central to theoretical arguments about EU influence on the divergence of regions. It concludes that even if the EU cohesion policy can be seen as a success in Poland, the amount of funding was not sufficient to reduce the differences between the Polish voivodships, which have been growing in recent decades. Paradoxically, the successful use of EU funding did not prevent the massive electoral wins of an EU-sceptic party in the poorer eastern regions, which were supported by a special EU fund. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a key component of urban rail transit systems, communications-based train control (CBTC) is an automated train control system using train-ground communications to ensure efficient operation of rail vehicles. In addition to CBTC systems, passenger information systems (PISs) are adopted in urban rail transit systems to improve quality of service (QoS) offered to customers. The interference between CBTC systems and PISs is an important factor impacting QoS of both CBTC systems and PISs. With recent advances in cognitive dynamic systems, in this paper, we take a cognitive control approach to interference mitigation considering the co-existence of CBTC systems and PISs. In our cognitive control approach, the notion of information gap is adopted to quantitatively describe effects of interference on CBTC. The wireless channel is modeled as a finite-state Markov chain with multiple state transition probability matrices, which are derived from real field measurements. Simulation results show that the proposed cognitive control approach can significantly improve performance of CBTC train-ground communications under interference from co-existing PISs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Author describes very important matter related to sovereignty of the State — it’s energy safety. In this paper he synthetically discusses programme of the Prawo i Sprawiedliwość — a Centre-Right party, devoting a lot of its attention to Poland’s energy safety — especially its dependency from Russian supplies and solutions which would allow to acquire more energy from renewal resources and fossil fuels.