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Introduction: The aim of the research was to determine the relationship between the fear of COVID-19 and inmates’ the sense of loneliness.Method: The research was carried out using the diagnostic survey method. Two standardized research tools, adapted to Polish conditions, were used: the COVID-19 fear scale of D.K. Ahorsu et al. (Adaptation - A. Lewicka-Zelent, W. Czerski) and the Sense of Loneliness Scale de Jong Gierveld. (adaptation - P. Grygiel, G. Humenny, S. Rębisz, P. Świtaj, J. Sikorska). The group of respondents consisted of 429 people staying in six penitentiary units - 6 prisons and 2 pre-trial detention centers, randomly selected by the Central Board of the Prison Service.Results: The results of own research show that inmates do not feel a strong fear of Covid-19, and their sense of loneliness is of moderate intensity. The correlation between them is weak and positive. This means that as the fear of the coronavirus intensifies, the sense of loneliness increases in people imprisoned in solitary confinement.Implications: The obtained research results indicate the need to continue the research undertaken in a situation where sanitary restrictions related to minimizing the risk of falling ill with COVID-19 are reintroduced. Inmates should take additional measures to prevent negative consequences resulting from the high level of fear of COVID-19 and inmates’ the sense of loneliness. It is not even about wide-ranging impacts, but rather targeted at individual people who experience increased fear of the coronavirus and loneliness, despite being with other inmates in prison. It means the necessity to make a detailed diagnosis in this regard among persons deprived of liberty.

INTRODUCTION As defined in the Global Initiative for Asthma (GINA) annual report, asthma is a heterogeneous disease, usually characterized by chronic airway inflammation and a history of respiratory symptoms such [...], PURPOSE The advent of new medical devices allows patients with asthma to self- monitor at home, providing a more complete picture of their disease than occasional in- person clinic visits. This raises a pertinent question: which devices and parameters perform best in exacerbation detection? METHODS A total of 149 patients with asthma (90 children, 59 adults) participated in a 6-month observational study. Participants (or parents) regularly (daily for the first 2 weeks and weekly for the next 5.5 months, with increased frequency during exacerbations) performed self-examinations using 3 devices: an artificial intelligence (AI)-aided home stethoscope (providing wheezes, rhonchi, and coarse and fine crackles intensity; respiratory and heart rate; and inspiration-to-expiration ratio), a peripheral capillary oxygen saturation (Sp[O.sub.2]) meter, and a peak expiratory flow (PEF) meter and filled out a health state survey. The resulting 6,029 examinations were evaluated by physicians for the presence of exacerbations. For each registered parameter, a machine learning model was trained, and the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) was calculated to assess its utility in exacerbation detection. RESULTS The best single-parameter discriminators of exacerbations were wheezes intensity for young children (AUC 84% [95% CI, 82%-85%]), rhonchi intensity for older children (AUC 81% [95% CI, 79%-84%]), and survey answers for adults (AUC 92% [95% CI, 89%- 95%]). The greatest efficacy (in terms of AUC) was observed for a combination of several parameters. CONCLUSIONS The AI-aided home stethoscope provides reliable information on asthma exacerbations. The parameters provided are effective for children, especially those younger than 5 years of age. The introduction of this tool to the health care system might enhance asthma exacerbation detection substantially and make remote monitoring of patients easier. Key words: asthma monitoring; asthma exacerbation; childhood asthma; AI-aided medical device; home health care

Objectives Coronavirus leads to multiple tragic consequences not only in the dimension of people’s physical functioning, but also in the psychological dimension. Due to the increased risk of morbidity among the older people, the researchers put the emphasis on the elderly. Nonetheless, it is unacceptable to disregard it in the group of young people who become ill with it and observe its consequences with respect to their close relatives. Accordingly, it is so important to undertake studies pertaining to mental health of children and that of youth during the pandemic. Prior to initiating the research, the adequate selection of research tools of high psychometric properties should be made. Material and methods Our objective was to adapt the Fear of COVID-19 Scale to Polish conditions. The study involved 380 randomly selected students aged 14-18 who were placed under the several months’ national quarantine, i.e. they were taught online without the direct contact with peers. Results The obtained data point to a low intensity of the fear of coronavirus, but the moderate intensity of: satisfaction with life, depression symptoms, state anxiety. Moreover, the confirmation has been provided of high psychometric properties of the Fear of COVID-19 Scale in the Polish version. Conclusions The adapted scale can be successfully used in the comparative studies of the youth in Poland and in other countries (thanks to different linguistic versions of the scale) for the preventive and therapeutic measures.

Undoubtedly, a pandemic is a crisis, which means that the lives of those who experience it will never be the same as before. It is certain that many people will suffer negative consequences, although observation alone does not provide sufficient evidence to confirm their occurrence. Therefore, it was decided to conduct research aimed at understanding the differences in the psychosocial effects of the pandemic between Poles in early, middle and late adulthood. Almost 300 people (n = 298) participated in the study conducted with the use of several research tools: The Fear of COVID-19 Scale in the Polish adaptation of Lewicka-Zelent and Czerski, the DJGLS Scale (in the Polish adaptation of P. Grygel, G. Humenny, S. Rbisz, P. witaj and J. Sikorska-Grygiel), the General Mood Scale and the Wojciszke and Barya Emotions Questionnaire, as well as the questionnaire by A. Lewicka-Zelent. The conducted analyzes proved that there are statistically significant differences between the compared groups of adults, especially in the severity of fear of COVID-19, experienced mood and emotions.

Objectives Since the end of 2019 the COVID-19 pandemic has been determining the ways in which nations, institutions, and individuals function. As of now, despite a growing body of research, little is known about the effects of the pandemic in the area of psychosocial functioning of an individual. An analysis of the results of the studies conducted so far implies that the feeling of loneliness, caused or exacerbated by pandemic regimes, may increase fear of COVID-19. To provide effective psychological support to persons suffering from fear of the coronavirus relationships between the feeling of loneliness and fear of the COVID-19 must be understood. Both clinical experience and research results show that generalized mood may be a mediator in the postulated relationships. The present work studies the relationship between loneliness and fear of COVID-19, and the generalized mood as a mediator in this relationship in adults. Material and methods The studies were performed on a sample of 298 adults from Poland, aged 20 to 90. The mediation analysis with bias-corrected bootstrapping method confirmed that the relation between loneliness and fear of COVID-19 is mediated by generalized mood. Results The results show an indirect effect of loneliness via generalized mood on fear of COVID-19. Conclusions The feeling of loneliness and depressed generalized mood are risk factors for fear of COVID-19. Health care and welfare workers should be aware of health threats to socially isolated adults and those with a depressed mood. It is important to develop, as soon as possible, a simple, universal counseling package aimed at improving the clients’ generalized mood, a package that would be conducive to the development of social relations and would include education in adapting to the COVID-19 situation.

Introduction. In Poland, persons found to have committed a crime may serve their sentence in the electronic supervision system (ESS). Therefore, publications in this field appear on the publishing market, most often are in the mainstream of legal considerations. However, there is a lack of research reports involving people who can share their experiences of serving a sentence in this way. The aim of the research is to indicate selected conditions of readiness to change in prisoners who have been subject to ESS in the past. Materials and methods. The study was conducted in 2019 in 8 penitentiary units among 229 inmates. The diagnostic survey method and two research tools were used: the Readiness to Change Questionnaire and the Resilience Measurement Scale. In order to answer the formulated research problems, the following were used: descriptive statistics, r-Pearson correlation, Student's t-test and regression. Results. People participating in the study obtained a result indicating their high readiness to change and moderate resilience. Persons who have never served their sentence in ESS rated their ingenuity higher than inmates who have had personal experience with it. In the group of prisoners who were in ESS in the past, it was found that the longer they were subject to ESS, the lower their readiness to change was. Moreover, the more inmates who have not experienced the effects of ESS tolerate their failures, the more readily they are to change. The older they are, the less they are ready to change. Implications. In practice, it is worth conducting more studies with the participation of people who were subject to electronic supervision in order to identify predictors of their readiness to change. Ultimately, it is about indicating as many factors as possible conditioning the process of social readaptation of inmates, which should be taken into account at the level of ESS adjudication, striving to increase the effectiveness of serving a sentence in it.

BCK-sequences and n-commutative BCK-algebras were introduced by T. Traczyk, together with two related problems. The first one, whether BCK-sequences are always prolongable. The second one, if the class of all n-commutative BCK-algebras is characterised by one identity. W. A. Dudek proved that the answer to the former question is positive in some special cases, e.g. when BCK-algebra is linearly ordered. T. Traczyk showed that the answer to the latter is affirmative for n = 1, 2. Nonetheless, by providing counterexamples, we proved that the answers to both those open problems are negative.

Możliwość wykonywania pracy przez osoby skazane jest regulowana przez prawo danego kraju. W polskim prawie karnym wykonawczym praca jest jednym ze środków oddziaływań na skazanych, których zadaniem jest realizacja indywidualno-prewencyjnych celów wykonywania kary pozbawienia wolności. W polskim systemie penitencjarnym, w miarę możliwości istniejących na rynku pracy, zatrudnia się osoby skazane zakładając, że pełni ona wiele ważnych funkcji. W badaniu ankietowym wzięło udział 452 skazanych z siedmiu wylosowanych zakładów karnych z całej Polski. Celem badań było poznanie opinii osób pozbawionych wolności na temat aktualnie wykonywanej przez nich pracy. Posłużono się autorskim kwestionariuszem ankiety. Uzyskane wyniki świadczą o tym, że skazani dostrzegają korzyści wynikające z podejmowanej przez nich pracy, m.in. zmiany w swoim zachowaniu, lepsze samopoczucie oraz poprawę relacji z innymi. Praca stanowi ważny czynnik urozmaicenia ich życia w izolacji. Czynnikiem, który w największym stopniu przyczynia się do niezadowolenia więźniów z pracy, są zbyt duże potrącenia z pensji.

Introduction: The time of pandemic poses a considerable challenge for the people of the whole world. They are afflicted with physical and mental ailments affecting life satisfaction, which iscontingent upon multiple factors. Research Aim: The objective of authors’ own research was to adapt the Fear of COVID-19 Scale (FCV-19S) and, subsequently, to identify the selected determinants of life satisfaction – the state anxiety and the fear of COVID-19 – of the young Poles in the time of pandemic. Method: During the lockdown in Poland (May and June), 236 individuals aged 19–35 were subjected to research. To this end, an online survey consisting of the three research tools of high psychometric properties was applied: the Fear of COVID-19 Scale (FCV-19S), the Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS) and the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI). Results: The reliability and validity of the FCV-19S has been analysed in addition to the analysis of the correlations, variances and regression of the selected variables. Conclusions: The obtained data prove that during the pandemic the young Poles feel greater life satisfaction both the higher the intensity of the fear of COVID-19 is and the lower the state anxiety is. It is highly likely that they appreciate different values from the ones preferred prior to the pandemic. With account taken of the period of the conducted studies, it may be assumed that the relationship with close relatives, with whom the young Poles were spending their time, or from whom they were forcibly isolated, was of no significance.

All-trans-retinoic acid (ATRA)-based differentiation therapy of acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL) represents one of the most clinically effective examples of precision medicine and the first example of targeted oncoprotein degradation. The success of ATRA in APL, however, remains to be translated to non-APL acute myeloid leukemia (AML). We previously showed that aberrant histone modifications, including histone H3 lysine 4 (H3K4) and lysine 27 (H3K27) methylation, were associated with this lack of response and that epigenetic therapy with small molecule inhibitors of the H3K4 demethylase LSD1/KDM1A could reprogram AML cells to respond to ATRA. Serving as the enzymatic component of Polycomb Repressive Complex 2, EZH2/KMT6A methyltransferase plays a critical role in normal hematopoiesis by affecting the balance between self-renewal and differentiation. The canonical function of EZH2 is methylation of H3K27, although important non-canonical roles have recently been described. EZH2 mutation or deregulated expression has been conclusively demonstrated in the pathogenesis of AML and response to treatment, thus making it an attractive therapeutic target. In this study, we therefore investigated whether inhibition of EZH2 might also improve the response of non-APL AML cells to ATRA-based therapy. We focused on GSK-343, a pyridone-containing S-adenosyl-L-methionine cofactor-competitive EZH2 inhibitor that is representative of its class, and HKMTI-1-005, a substrate-competitive dual inhibitor targeting EZH2 and the closely related G9A/GLP H3K9 methyltransferases. We found that treatment with HKMTI-1-005 phenocopied EZH2 knockdown and was more effective in inducing differentiation than GSK-343, despite the efficacy of GSK-343 in terms of abolishing H3K27 trimethylation. Furthermore, transcriptomic analysis revealed that in contrast to treatment with GSK-343, HKMTI-1-005 upregulated the expression of differentiation pathway genes with and without ATRA, while downregulating genes associated with a hematopoietic stem cell phenotype. These results pointed to a non-canonical role for EZH2, which was supported by the finding that EZH2 associates with the master regulator of myeloid differentiation, RARα, in an ATRA-dependent manner that was enhanced by HKMTI-1-005, possibly playing a role in co-regulator complex exchange during transcriptional activation. In summary, our results strongly suggest that addition of HKMTI-1-005 to ATRA is a new therapeutic approach against AML that warrants further investigation.

The transformations of the modern world impose the changes on an individual. The readiness to implement them is, in turn, the prerequisite for his further social and professional development. The changing process and its course of events is conditional upon various factors. Prison Service officers are susceptible to stress and professional burnout due to the nature and specificity of their work, which consequently discourages them from introducing changes and in this way their development is thwarted. The objective of the authors’ own research consisted in establishing the level at which penitentiary workers are ready to change. The studies were conducted on a group of 70 officers of the Prison Service, half of whom were prison security officers and penitentiary educators. As part of the research, the Change Readiness Questionnaire by R. Kriegel and D. Brandt, in the Polish adaptation by E. Brzezińska and A. Paszkowska-Rogacz, was used. It can be inferred from the gathered data that prison security officers have more strength in comparison with penitentiary educators. The studies have also confirmed that the individuals with lower age and work experience are to a larger extent ready for changes and display greater resourcefulness and passion for work. The findings divulge the necessity to carry out diverse supportive activities, particularly in the groups of older officers.

We present a numerical demonstration of magnonic crystals hosting unidirectional, topologically protected edge states. The magnonic crystal is formed of dipolarly coupled Permalloy triangles. We show that due to the geometry of the block, the size of the structure can be scaled up. In addition, edge states can be found over a wide frequency range. Experimental detection of edge excitations in the considered system can be done with state-of-the-art techniques. Thus, we demonstrate a proof-of-concept magnonic Chern topological insulator nanostructure with simple geometry feasible for experimental realization. Furthermore, by tuning the strength of the perpendicular magnetic field, we induce a topological phase transition, which results in the change of direction of the topological edge state. Then, we demonstrate the magnonic switch based on this effect.

Nontrivial magnetization textures, such as skyrmions, have become a driving force in the physics of magnetism. Furthermore, the utilization of magnetization textures is fueling the development of magnon-based technologies that could provide beyond-CMOS solutions. Here, using a self-developed spin wave (SW) excitation scheme, we selectively excite specific modes and investigate the scattering of SWs on nanodot hosting a Néel-type skyrmion and placed above a multimode waveguide. In particular, at low frequencies, we observe significant reflections from the imprint induced by the skyrmion upon the waveguide. As the frequency increases, the transmission increases as well; however, it is accompanied by scattering to other types of modes. Here, we observe a direct contribution of the skyrmion to the scattering process and various types of conversions of the incident SW modes into other modes quantized by width for both reflected and transmitted SWs. The utilization of imprinted magnetization textures in nonplanar systems to control SW flow can open new possibilities for developing SW-based circuits for ultralow-power signal processing.

Violence is present in various environments, in various social groups – wherever there is a disproportion between people in terms of physical or mental strength, social or economic status. A prison is a specific place due to it’s a total character and an isolating nature, as well as the presence of people who have committed crimes. Therefore, the aim of the article was to analyze the phenomenon of violence occurring in conditions of prison isolation. A comparative analysis was carried out based on statistical data obtained from the Central Board of the Prison Service for the years 2004-2019 in terms of the incidence of violence in the prisoner-officer and prisoner-prisoner relationship.

Conflicts are an integral part of people’s lives, regardless of their age. This aspect of life evokes many negative connotations. Nevertheless, the advantages of confl icts are now often exposed, providing that they are solved in a constructive way. The adolescent period is a stage of life that undoubtedly favours the frequency and intensity of diffi cult interpersonal situations. Therefore, the researchers decided to analyse which confl ict resolution styles are favoured by youth. The research was conducted in a group of one hundred and twentytwo secondary school students, half of whom were minors. A diagnostic opinion poll was applied. To be precise, it was the Confl ict Mode Instrument of Thomas and Kilmann. From the data obtained it stems that the minors, in comparison to the youth who are not under the supervision of a probation offi cer, are less likely to give up their own needs and interests on behalf of their partner in confl ict. However, equally often, people from the comparison groups solve confl icts by competing, looking for a compromise, using escaping mechanisms as well as cooperating with the confl ict partner. This means that it is worth applying negotiation and mediation as a preventative measure to prevent the escalation of the symptoms of social maladjustment.

In the subject literature it is emphasised that completion of the penalty of deprivation of liberty is not an effective way to prevent former convicts from committing subsequent offences. Thus, an endeavour is being made to find the alternatives to isolation penalty, at which point electronic supervision on the convicts is indicated. Although the provisions of law pertaining to such solution are quite clear, the data pertaining to its effects are not so extensive. In connection therewith, the research was undertaken to reveal the opinions of men serving the penalty of deprivation of liberty on the issue of effectiveness of supervision imposed on them in the past. As part of the research, both diagnostic survey method and author’s own questionnaire were used. It involved 229 men who had been previously under the electronic supervision and are in the conditions of penitentiary isolation at the time of research. The obtained results of the study confirm the advantage of positive opinions of the convicts about the supervision carried out. This subjective assessment, however, does not fully coincide with the objective one, carried out in the perspective of returning to prison and the relatively low nuisance of electronic supervision which is treated as a punishment. They encourage to reflect on the detailed diagnosis of the accused persons being conducted prior to the imposition of electronic supervision pursuant to court decision.

Constructive confl ict-solving methods have become increasingly common in Poland. Mediation as one of such methods is no longer applied solely to cases concerning minors, as it used to be in its beginnings in the Polish nation. Due to its multiple positive aspects, it is introduced in various areas of people’s life in Poland: politics, religion, education, etc. Researchers seek also an answer to the question as to whether it is reasonable to apply mediation in matters involving people deprived of liberty. It seems that in the case of certain off ences it is substantially less applicable than in others. For instance, considerable controversy surrounds participation of perpetrators of domestic violence in mediation, which is why the objective of the article consists of exploring both the possibilities and barriers of their participation in mediation meetings, both in the civil and penal cases. Accordingly, the term “domestic violence” is defi ned and the specifi c character of confl icts accompanying violence is discussed. Nevertheless, the emphasis is put on the analysis of mediation in civil matters – family and penal matters with participation of persons deprived of liberty in accordance with Article 207 of the Polish Penal Code.