Relationships among indices of antioxidative activity in animals treated with selected prooxidants and antioxidants

The aim of this study is to determine whether there are typical interactions and relationships among activities of indicative enzymes of free-radical scavenger system under the influence of environmental stressors. Animals representing various taxonomic groups: laboratory mice, rats, frogs, slugs of genus Agrolimax and Arion, earthworms Dendrobaena and Lumbricus, as well as Madagascar cockroach Gromphadorhina were treated with agents known for their prooxidative or antioxidative activity, such as: cadmium, paraquat, carbon tetrachloride, selenite and vitamin E. Diversified time schedules and ways of treatment with these agents were used in order to produce alterations of enzymatic activities and to assess whether there are essential relationships and signs of compensation among indices of antioxidative processes. The activity of superoxide dismutase, glutathione peroxidases, glutathione reductase, glutathione S-transferase, catalase as well as iron-ascorbate-stimulated lipid peroxidation and the content of thiobarbituric acid reactive substances were measured. When various doses of paraquat and cadmium were applied to mice, frog or invertebrate species the examined enzymes responded in a biphasic manner, characterised by an increase after lower and a decrease after higher doses. In some cases inverted biphasic pattern was also observed. The complex, “mosaic” alterations of enzyme activity within various organs, characterised by opposite changes of examined parameters were observed and explained as resulting from a diverse distribution of applied compounds within organism as well as from specific susceptibility of particular organs and enzymes. Additionally, the “mosaic” response pattern may reflect another aspect of biphasic dose-response relationships in the examined organs. Since a compensation of altered activity of peroxidase related pathway of free radical scavenger system by opposite alteration of superoxide dismutase and catalase activity was observed in several cases, the hypothesis on the mutual compensatory relations within antioxidative system was drawn and summarised as follows. An inhibition of Se-dependent glutathione peroxidase related pathway of free radical scavenger system in the organs of prooxidant-treated animals may provoke a stimulation of catalase and superoxide dismutase activity, which compensates for this inhibition. This mechanism possibly acts also in the opposite direction, compensating decreased activity of catalase with glutathione peroxidase or glutathione S-transferase activity. Additionally, some evidence was obtained for the compensation of decreased glutathione peroxidases activity by increasing reaction rate of these enzymes due to enhanced flux and availability of reduced glutathione, on condition that activity of glutathione reductase will rise sufficiently and the pool of reduced nicotinamide dinucleotide phosphate (NADPH) is maintained. The general frame of mutual compensatory mechanism within the antioxidative system postulated here seems to be common and universal, at least in the examined vertebrate species, insects and earthworms. Other observations and conclusions were also drawn on the basis of presented results

Dopuszczalność mediacji w ogólnym postępowaniu administracyjnym

Mediation is one alternative method of resolving legal disputes (Alternative Dispute Resolution – ADR). It was introduced to the general administrative proceedings by the Act of 7th April 2017 amending the Act of the Code of Administrative Proceedings… Its use is not general. Mediation is possible when the nature of the case permits. This is a positive premise of the admissibility of mediation. There are also grounds for not allowing mediation, such as the state of higher necessity or the obligation to protect legally protected secrecy

Śmierć wstydu

Wstyd i poczucie winy wraz z dumą tworzą system kontroli – „system emocji szacunku/ poważania” (deference-emotion system) – służący ochronie relacji społecznych. Przyczyny wstydu są w znacznym stopniu wyuczone, właściwe dla danej kultury i mogą być traktowane jako zjawisko memetyczne. Przyczyny wstydu często dają się zredukować do odchyleń od kulturowo przyjętej normy lub utraty intymności. Stąd utrata wstydu – społeczna śmierć wstydu – mogą pociągać za sobą niepożądane skutki w funkcjonowaniu jednostek i społeczeństwa. Neurobiologiczne podstawy wstydu opierają się na teorii umysłu jako funkcji psychicznej właściwej dla człowieka i być może nielicznych gatunków zwierząt. Poszerza ją intencjonalność rozumiana jako zdolność do wielopoziomowego, rekurentnego (łańcuchowego) modelowania stanu umysłu kolejnych osób. Podłożem tych funkcji są obszary wielkiego kręgu kognitywnego mózgowia obejmujące korę przedczołową, obręcz, niektóre obszary kory ciemieniowej, potylicznej i skroniowej oraz wyspę i ciało migdałowate. Wstyd i pokrewne mu poczucie winy objawiają się odmienną aktywnością tych struktur. We współczesnym społeczeństwie przyczyn śmierci wstydu upatrywać można w czterech hipotetycznych obszarach relacji społecznych, prowizorycznie określając je jako: 1) łatwość i taniość bzdury; 2) demistyfikacja wzorców elitarnych; 3) dewaluacja edukacji i kultury; 4) błąd adresowania przekazu i długie dojrzewanie krytycznej mądrości. Przykładami mogą być powszechnie obserwowane i dyskutowane zjawiska, takie jak: znacznie większa propagacja informacji fałszywej i szkodliwej, lecz za to oddziałującej na emocje; ujawnienie w komunikacji społecznej prawdy o wzorcach kultury elit w powiązaniu z rezygnacją z intymności; obniżenie standardów wymagań w edukacji w związku z jej umasowieniem; prezentację w dziełach sztuki, m.in. filmowej, form, treści i problemów, do których cześć odbiorców nie dojrzała, co skutkuje zmianami wrażliwości i postaw etycznych.Shame and guilt together with pride create a control system – a deference-emotion system – serving to protect social relations. The reasons for shame are to a large extent learned, specific to a given culture and can be regarded as a memetic phenomenon. The causes of shame can often be reduced to deviations from the culturally accepted norm or loss of intimacy. Thus, the loss of shame – the social death of shame – can have undesirable consequences for the functioning of individuals and society. The neurobiological background of shame is based on the theory of mind as a psychic function proper to man and perhaps a few species of animals. It is expanded by intentionality, understood as the ability to multi-level, recurrent (chain) modelling of the state of mind of subsequent individuals. The basis of these functions are the areas of the large cognitive circuit of the brain including the prefrontal cortex, the cingulum, some areas of the parietal, occipital and temporal cortex and the insula and amygdala. The shame and related guilt reveal themselves in the different activities of these structures. The reasons for the death of shame in modern society can be seen in four hypothetical areas of social relations, provisionally described as: 1) ease and cheapness of nonsense; 2) demystification of elite behavioural patterns; 3) devaluation of education and culture; 4) erroneus addressing the message and long maturation of critical wisdom. Examples are commonly observed and discussed phenomena, such as: much greater propagation of false and harmful information but affecting emotion; revealing in social communication the truth about the cultural patterns of the elite in connection with the resignation from intimacy; lowering the standards of requirements in education due to its easy and mass availability; presentation in works of art, mainly in cinema pictures, forms, contents and problems to which some of the recipients have not been matured, which results in changes in sensitivity and ethical attitudes

Ewolucja regulacji prawnej pojęcia strony postępowania administracyjnego

"Struktura podmiotowa postępowania administracyjnego (w szczególności postępowania ogólnego) oparta jest na dwóch podmiotach obligatoryjnych – organie administracji publicznej (we wcześniejszych normach mowa była o władzach i urzędach administracji państwowej i samorządu terytorialnego) i stronie postępowania. W określonych warunkach procesowych struktura ta podlega lub może podlegać uzupełnieniu o inne podmioty procesowe, nazywane także fakultatywnymi1 (w takim tylko znaczeniu, że ich udział nie jest niezbędny w każdym postępowaniu). W grupie podmiotów koniecznych centralne miejsce (kluczową pozycję) zajmuje strona postępowania, której normatywne ujęcie uznawane jest za jedną z fundamentalnych konstrukcji regulacji procesowej." [...] (fragm.

Istota rozprawy administracyjnej w ogólnym postępowaniu administracyjnym

W ogólnym postępowaniu administracyjnym szczególną rolę odgrywają te czynności procesowe, których celem jest ustalenie stanu faktycznego sprawy. Osiągnięcie bowiem takiego rezultatu, w sposób określony przepisami prawa, stanowi jeden z podstawowych warunków zastosowania normy administracyjnego prawa materialnego (rzadziej wyłącznie procesowego) w odniesieniu do indywidualnie oznaczonego podmiotu. Obowiązek podjęcia w toku postępowania administracyjnego wszelkich niezbędnych działań do dokładnego wyjaśnienia stanu faktycznego sprawy spoczywa na organie administracji publicznej. Jest on rezultatem sformułowanej w art. 7 k. p. a. ogólnej zasady prawdy obiektywnej, stanowiącej jedną z fundamentalnych zasad postępowania admini- stracyjnego1. Użyta we wskazanym przepisie formuła akcentuje aspekt „wyjaśnienia stanu faktycznego” (...

Wyłączenie członka organu kolegialnego w ogólnym postępowaniu administracyjnym

The article deals with the issue of excluding of a member of a collegial body from general administrative proceedings. This regulation aims at the implementation of the principle of impartiality of proceedings, which is based on Article 8 § 1 of the Code of Administrative Procedure. The author discusses the elements of the exclusion institution, in particular the notion of a member of a collegial body, the reasons for the exclusion, the form of the exclusion and the authority deciding on the exclusion, the exclusion initiative, and the effects of the exclusion. The article also sets out the effects of violating the exclusion regulation

Memy w pamięci: jak wyśledzić memy w mózgu

Despite 40 years of discussion the concept of memes still raises numerous controversies. Main problems are: the characteristics of memes as biological and cultural phenomenons; demarcation of events that are memes and aren’t memes; neurophysiologic background of meme existence and informational capacity of memes, and as a consequence of those problems - inconsistent terminology. Prerequisite condition of memes’ existence is a fixation of them in the memory. Memory, as a neurophysiologic event, is based on: mechanisms of stimuli encoding, stimuli summation, structural and functional modifications of neurons, and further modifications of the connection force within the neuronal networks. There are (among several existing) three basic paradigms of these processes: the Pavlov-Skinner’s model of stimuli reinforcement, Hebbian model of synapse weight and Squire’s standard model of memory consolidation. These mechanisms allow explaining the neuronal background of both, declarative and procedural memory, which are distinguished by E. Tulving. Researches on cognitive processes with functional brain imaging techniques suggest the possibility to identify neuronal representations of memes, being specific pattern detectors or gnostic units postulated by D. Hebb and J. Konorski. Possibly, neuroanatomic representations of them are cortical minicolumns. Information transfer within the cultural and cognitive processes involve permanent signal encoding and transcoding. The mechanism of neural stimuli encoding (topographic, frequency and chemical codes of the brain) are sufficiently recognized for the purposes of memetic explanations. The results of neuroimaging of topographic localization of words (ideas) within the human brain cortex suggest, that basic rules of neurobiology may be involved in the memetic processes. These are namely: the rule of topographic representation and the rule of contrast increase/ amplification. Revised characteristic of memetic events should involve the description of encoding processes and motivation and emotional mechanisms of memory as the crucial conditions of meme acquisition, propagation and evolution, within the meme life-cycle

Inteligencja, jej memy oraz fizyka i mechanika

A simple physical formula, F = T ∇ Sτ, stands out among a number of definitions of intelligence. Roughly translated, this means that intelligence is a thermodynamic force which maximizes the freedom of choice in the space of the real world. The formula raises criticism and further analysis shows that it depicts evolution rather than intelligence. Intelligence realized in the brains and the systems of artificial intelligence are based on information processing, virtual models and a correction of errors between predictions and material reality. In fact, such intelligence widens the space of freedom. The evolutionary mechanism by which biological intelligence has emerged is based on the positive reciprocal feedback between the increasing complexity of the nervous system and effective adaptation to the environment which is categorised as inclusive fitness. This principle seems to be limited by the law of energy allocation (trade-off principle). Evolution of intelligence is promoted by accumulation and free and easy exchange of information, which, in turn, is a result of social life typical for intelligent biological systems. In these systems intelligence is regarded as an integration of information, which is inevitably attributed to other psychical functions, such as long term memory, motivation, problem solving and consciousness. The crucial question is whether consciousness is necessary for the emergence of intelligence or not. Coexistence of biological and artificial intelligence may be described by two opposing models: the ecological principle of G. Gause, which states “one niche – one species” or an analogy of the theory of the endosymbiotic emergence of eukaryotes, proposed by L. Margulis. The extrapolated advancement of self-improving artificial intelligent systems confers practical significance to this question

Towards understanding Cameraria ohridella (Lepidoptera: Gracillariidae) development: effects of microhabitat variability in naturally growing horse-chestnut tree canopy

Dwelling intensity of horse-chestnut miner (Cameraria ohridella) larvae in various leaves insolation and temperature was measured to determine whether this pest’s development follows a predictable pattern or depends more on local microenvironment conditions. Mines growing on leaves of mature host plants (Aesculus hippocastanum L.) in their natural conditions were photographed for two consecutive generations of the pest and in two separated vegetation periods. Apart from meteorological data obtained from the nearest station, the temperature of intact and mined parts of sun-exposed and shaded leaf blades was measured at various daytimes throughout the experiment. Obtained sets of digital data were analysed and combined to model mine area growth as a function of degree-days sum by adopting of Verhulst logistic equation. We showed the predictive potential of our model based on experimental data, and it may be useful in the scheduling of pest control measures in natural conditions. Our analyses also revealed that despite significant differences in microenvironment conditions depending on mines’ insolation, the horse-chestnut miner larvae could partially compensate for them and complete their development at similar endpoints expressed as the cumulative sum of degree-days. We conclude that computer-aided analysis of photographic documentation of leaf-miner larval growth followed by mathematical modelling offers a noninvasive, reliable, and inexpensive alternative for monitoring local leaf-miners populations

High Fat, High Sugar Diet and DJOS Bariatric Surgery Influence Plasma Levels of Fetuin-B, Growth Differentiation Factor-15, and Pentraxin 3 in Diet- Induced Obese Sprague-Dawley Rats

The liver plays a central role in glucose and fatty acid metabolism and acts as an endocrine organ that secretes hepatokines with diverse systemic effects. The study aimed to examine the influence of duodenojejunal omega switch (DJOS) bariatric surgery in combination with different diets on glucose administration parameters and hepatokines levels. After 8 weeks on high fat, high sugar diet (HFS) or control diets (CD), Sprague–Dawley rats underwent DJOS or SHAM (control) surgery. For the next 8 weeks after the surgery, half of DJOS and SHAM-operated animals were kept on the same diet as before, and half had a diet change. The oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) was performed three times: 8 weeks before and 4 and 8 weeks after surgery. Fetuin-B, growth differentiation factor-15 (GDF-15), pentraxin 3 (PTX3) plasma levels were analyzed. DJOS surgery had a beneficial effect on oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) results and the area under the curve (AUCOGTT). The OGTT results depended on the time elapsed after the surgery, the type of diet used, the surgery performed, and the interaction between these factors. DJOS bariatric surgery reduced fetuin-B and GDF15 plasma levels. Interaction between the type of surgery performed and diet used influenced the fetuin-B and PTX-3 plasma levels. A dietary regime is essential to achieve therapeutic and clinical goals after bariatric surgery