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The Orava Basin is an intramontane depression filled with presumably fine-grained sediments deposited in river, floodplain, swamp and lake settings. The basin infilling constitutes a crucial record of the neoalpine evolution of the Inner/Outer Carpathian boundary area since the Neogene, when the Jurassic-Paleogene basement became consolidated, uplifted and eroded. The combination of sedimentological and structural studies with anisotropy of magnetic susceptibility (AMS) measurements provided an effective tool for recognition of terrestrial environments and deformations of the basin infilling. The lithofacies-oriented sampling and statistical approach to the large dataset of AMS specimens were utilized to define 12 AMS facies based on anisotropy degree (P) and shape (T). The AMS facies allowed a distinction of sedimentary facies ambiguous for classical methods, especially floodplain and lacustrine sediments, as well as revealing their various vulnerabilities to tectonic modification of AMS. A spatial analysis of facies showed that tuffites along with lacustrine and swamp deposits were generally restricted to marginal and southern parts of the basin. Significant deformations were noticed at basin margins and within two intrabasinal tectonic zones, which indicated the tectonic activity of the Pieniny Klippen Belt after the Middle Miocene. The large southern area of the basin recorded consistent N-NE trending compression during basin inversion. This regional tectonic rearrangement resulted in a partial removal of the southernmost basin deposits and shaped the basin’s present-day extent.

Abstract Polish Arabian horses are one of the oldest and the most important Arab populations in the world. The Polish Arabian Stud Book and the Genealogical Charts by Skorkowski are the main sources of information on the ancestors of Polish Arabs. Both publications were viewed as credible sources of information until the 1990s when the data regarding one of the dam lines was questioned. The aim of the current study was to check the accuracy of the pedigree data of Polish dam lines using mtDNA analysis. The analyses of a 458 bp mtDNA D-loop fragment from representatives of 15 Polish Arabian dam lines revealed 14 distinct haplotypes. The results were inconsistent with pedigree data in the case of two lines. A detailed analysis of the historical sources was performed to explain these discrepancies. Our study revealed that representatives of different lines shared the same haplotypes. We also noted a genetic identity between some lines founded by Polish mares of unknown origin and lines established by desert-bred mares.

Abstract Background An earlier study from our group of long time survivors of head and neck cancer who had received a low radiation dose to the hypothalamic-pituitary region, with no signs of recurrence or pituitary dysfunction, had their quality of life (QoL) compromised as compared with matched healthy controls. Hippocampal changes have been shown to accompany several psychiatric conditions and the aim of the present study was to test whether the patients’ lowered QoL was coupled to a reduction in hippocampal volume. Methods Patients (11 men and 4 women, age 31–65) treated for head and neck cancer 4–10 years earlier and with no sign of recurrence or pituitary dysfunction, and 15 matched controls were included. The estimated radiation doses to the basal brain including the hippocampus (1.5 – 9.3 Gy) had been calculated in the earlier study. The hippocampal volumetry was done on coronal sections from a 1.5 T MRI scanner. Measurements were done by two independent raters, blinded to patients and controls, using a custom method for computer assisted manual segmentation. The volumes were normalized for intracranial volume which was also measured manually. The paired t test and Wilcoxon’s signed rank test were used for the main statistical analysis. Results There was no significant difference with respect to left, right or total hippocampal volume between patients and controls. All mean differences were close to zero, and the two-tailed 95% confidence interval for the difference in total, normalized volume does not include a larger than 8% deficit in the patients. Conclusion The study gives solid evidence against the hypothesis that the patients’ lowered quality of life was due to a major reduction of hippocampal volume.

The aim of this study was to reconstruct the location mechanism of a Triassic sandstone wedge within folded Palaeozoic rocks. A vertically oriented Buntsandstein succession (Lower Triassic) from Józefka Quarry (Holy Cross Mountains, central Poland), steeply wedged within folded Devonian carbonates, is recognised as an effect of normal faulting within a releasing stepover. The sandstone succession, corresponding to the Zagnańsk Formation in the local lithostratigraphic scheme, is represented by two complexes, interpreted as deposits of a sand-dominated alluvial plain (older complex), and coarse-grained sands and gravels of a braided river system (younger complex). The sandstone complex was primarily formed as the lowermost part of the several kilometres thick Mesozoic cover of the Holy Cross Mountains Fold Belt (HCFB), later eroded as a result of the Late Cretaceous/Paleogene uplift of the area. Tectonic analysis of the present-day position of the deformed sandstone succession shows that it is fault-bounded by a system of strike-slip and normal faults, which we interpret as a releasing stepover. Accordingly, the formation of the stepover in the central part of the late Palaeozoic HCFB is evidence of a significant role of strike-slip faulting within this tectonic unit during Late Cretaceous/Paleogene times. The faulting was probably triggered by reactivation of the terminal Palaeozoic strike-slip fault pattern along the western border of the Teisseyre-Tornquist Zone. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]